Jarvis and I have been working together for around 7yrs now and we have noticed a lot of changes to the way society treats disabled people.
Post Brexit Britain is a meaner, more cruel, less caring place and disabled people are feeling that more than most.
There is now hardly a day goes by when Jarvis and I don't face some abuse when out and about, from the total stranger who doesn't believe my blindness so holds his hand up and asks how many fingers, to the taxi driver who refuses to take Jarvis and the member of the public who does not think Jarvis should be allowed on a cafe and right through the to the total stranger who spits at me and calls me a fucking benefit crook. We have suffered all of this and way more since June last year. Yes it occasionally happened before but now it feels like a continuous onslaught of abuse.
There are 2.1 million people on the UK visual impairment register and yet there are still only less than 4800 guide dog owners in the UK.
What this says to me is that too many visually impaired people no longer feel safe being out and about and therefore don't need a dog as they have simply given up on society. We should feel scandalised by this.
If you've been following this blog you must realise by now that I am a very confident person but if it can get me to the point of wanting to shut my self off and believe me when I say that recently I have felt that way far more often, then what must it be like for the blind people who never had that natural confidence in the first place.
As Christians we need to pray for these people, we need to do much more than that, we need to speak up for them, we need to challenge a society that can treat people in this way, we need to practise radical hospitality, to be a prophetic people.
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