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Attention all rail passengers to/from Parkway

Great Western Railway services between South Wales and London, and South Wales and Bristol will continue to be affected due to a Network Rail bridge replacement project at Gipsy Patch Lane, near Bristol Parkway station, until at least Monday 23rd November.

  1. London – South Wales services will continue to operate by train, but going via Gloucester and not calling at Bristol Parkway. Journeys will therefore be longer and you should check timings before travel.
  2. Local services will end at Bristol Parkway or Bristol Temple Meads; and buses will replace trains between Bristol and Newport. These buses are fully accessible and Great Western Railway will also have accessible taxis on standby.
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Disability Rights and Robotics; Co-producing futures – Tours of the Assisted Living Studio, Bristol Robotics Lab, Thursday 10th December 2.00-8.00

Disability Rights and Robotics; Co-producing futures – Tours of the Assisted Living Studio, Bristol Robotics Lab

This is a UWE Bristol Social Science in the City event celebrating Disability History Month

In this time of rapid social change to our social and work lives, relationships and leisure, there are new technologies that might support disability rights like ‘driverless cars’, smart phones, social media and new robotic technologies. Members of the team of 25 co-researchers from the University of the West of England, Fairfield Farm College and Wiltshire Centre of Independent Living used a knowledge café methodology to ask

How can robotic technologies support disability rights?

Sign up for an online 15 minute tour of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory Assisted Living Studio with Professor Praminda Caleb-Solly running between 2-4pm email here for your place on the tour (limited numbers) – sophie.savage@uwe.ac.uk

The robotic tour will take place on Microsoft teams which includes the option of live captioning, and your tour guide will be using limited BSL. The tour will be scripted and this script will be available to those registered. A recording of the robotic tour is also available for those who wish to engage in their own time.

To join the mini knowledge café 6pm -8pm please sign up for a ticket and we will email you the link closer to the date. Any problems please – sophie.savage@uwe.ac.uk

Café Programme:

Experience – From your experience, how do you think robotic technology might enable your rights in everyday life?

Deepening the Inquiry – Sharing our project and its key messages– ‘Disability Rights and Robotics: co-producing futures’

Knowledge for Action – Generating your priority questions for further co-production research

See our report and cartoon for more details on our project (these links will only work for those internal to UWE).

Disability Rights and Robotics cartoon copyright Sam Church and Tillie Curran

Register your ticket:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/disability-rights-and-robotics-co-producing-futures-tickets-127977932441

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Ignite Bristol has a vision to make Bristol the best city for disability inclusive sport and physical activity, Please help by completing the survey, and ensure the voices and opinions of disabled people are heard and listened to.

Ignite Bristol Survey

It’s time to have your say!

Ignite Bristol has a vision to make Bristol the best city for disability inclusive sport and physical activity, and aims to do this by bringing together people from the disability, sport, health and education sectors to better support more disabled people to be active.

One objective of Ignite Bristol is to ensure the voices and opinions of disabled people are heard and listened to. Please take this opportunity to fill in the below survey to have your say!

Disabled people survey.

Once you’ve completed the survey, please also share with anyone else you know so we can get as many voices heard as possible.

The deadline for completion is  November 29th

If you need any assistance filling in the survey, have any questions, or further feedback please email lizzie.edgecombe@accesssport.co.uk or call 0117 941 5829. If you would prefer a postal copy then these can be provided.

Many Thanks

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The Beautiful Octopus Club Festival is back this November – a month-long celebration featuring music, art, performance and dancing in your living room!

Beautiful Octopus Club Festival

The Beautiful Octopus Club Festival is back for a very special month long festival this November! Celebrate the power and talents of people with learning disabilities through lockdown and beyond. #BOCFEST2020  www.beautifuloctopusclub.com

Join Heart n Soul online for #BOCFEST2020 this November – a month-long celebration featuring music, art, performance and dancing in your living room! 

www.beautifuloctopusclub.com

From Baking with Beyoncé to a deep space meditation session, the Beautiful Octopus Club Festival is back for a very special month of online parties, workshops and gatherings. Join us! www.beautifuloctopusclub.com #BOCFEST2020

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The Community Activist Fund will be giving away 10 grants of £1,000 to women community activists who want to make a positive change in their communities.

Our friends at the @ActivateFund are a feminist organisation, launched to fund women activists whose ideas, campaigns and activism will have a positive impact on the communities they live in.The Community Activist Fund is for women who are running transformative projects and campaigns in their communities. They will be giving away 10 grants of £1,000 to women community activists who want to make a positive change in their communities.

They are looking to fund women from under-represented groups/communities, including working class women, disabled women and women of colour – and are keen to support women who have personal experience of the issue or injustice they are working to address. The deadline for applications has been extended to Midnight Sunday 15th November 2020.

Want to know more? Head here http://timetoactivate.org/apply or check them out here – @ActivateFund

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Shop with #easyfundraising and Help Support Bristol Disability Equality Forum this Black Friday

Top Banner

Black Friday deals are starting and savings will be available from retailers very soon, its the perfect time to raise more for Bristol Disability Equality Forum when you shop online.

Please support Bristol Disability Equality Forum on #easyfundraising, you can raise FREE donations when you shop online with over 4,300 retailers.

With Black Friday deals starting soon, it’s the easiest time of the year to support us! It’s simple and only takes 2 minutes to sign up!

Plus, if you sign up today, our cause will get a £5 bonus donation!*

Sign up now: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/bdef
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How would you like to earn £500 for you and a friend (each!) and appear in an advert?

A casting director is desperately seeking a Disabled person, preferably someone who uses a mobility scooter, wheelchair or mobility frame, to take part in an advert for the 2021 census which will be filming in Bristol in the coming weeks.

The purpose of the census is to collect data on the population so that public needs can be adequately met. This includes provision of affordable housing, transport routes and access.

It is a paid opportunity, and should be fun!

They must be aged at least 17, they would be needed for 3-4 hours max on one of the days and the location will be a bus stop in or around Bristol. (Hollywood here we come!)


The fee is £500 and it is preferred that anyone wishing to apply do so with a friend, family member or carer who would also get £500.

The two people should be in a bubble so that they can safely and legally be sitting next to each other at the bus stop.


Anyone who would like to apply should send a picture with their names, ages and location, and ideally a short video introducing themselves and how they know each other to:

casting@sallymccleery.com

Good luck!


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New Lockdown, Says the Prime Minister

On Saturday 31st October the Prime Minister said he is going to ask members of parliament (MPs) to agree to another England-wide Lockdown, for one month from Thursday 5th November.

MPs will vote on the Prime Minister’s proposals on Wednesday (4th). If the majority do support the proposals, the Lockdown will begin at 00:01 GMT on Thursday 5th November and stay in place until Wednesday 2nd December.

Some scared and selfish people are already buying much more food than they need from the shops. Please remember that this buying in a panic was the cause of shortages that caused some of those most at risk to have to go without food. Once people stopped panic buying we got back to everyone being able to buy what they needed on a week by week basis.

So, please think of others and only buy what you need until the next time you will go shopping for essentials.

What are the proposals for a new lockdown in England?

These are the Prime Minister’s Lockdown proposals:

  1. People will be told to stay at home and only travel when it is essential. Essential travel includes travel to go to school or university, work that can’t be done from home, medical reasons, shopping for food and other essentials, or to care for others. People can go out for exercise and recreation but it is expected that you will have to do in places near your home.
  1. All pubs and restaurants will have to close (takeaways and deliveries can continue).
  1. All non-essential shops will have to close (supermarkets can sell non-essential goods).
  1. Households will not be allowed to mix with others indoors, or in private gardens.
  1. Individuals can meet one person from outside their household in an outside public space.
  1. Support bubbles for people who live alone and households made up of single parents and children can continue.
  1. Children will be able to move between homes if their parents are separated.
  1. Schools, colleges and universities will remain open.
  1. Workplaces will be asked to stay open if people cannot work from home – including construction and manufacturing.

10. Outdoor exercise and recreation will be allowed, but gyms will have to close.

  1. Clinically vulnerable advised not to go to work if they are unable to work from home.

However, government will not be promoting ‘shielding’ for people at very high risk of dying if they catch Coronavirus (also called COVID-19), during this Lockdown.

The Prime Minister hopes that after 2nd December, we will be able to relax the Lockdown rules. But, many think that the Lockdown may need to last longer than this.

The government also announced that it will pay 80% of the wages of anyone who can’t work because of the Lockdown rules (furlough) –the same scheme as we had during the last Lockdown. Workers on furlough will mostly be those who work for businesses that have been forced to close until the Lockdown ends, including workers in restaurants, cafes, shops selling things other than food or medicines, etc.

The government has said it will give us more information about its plans over the next few days, including what other support there will be for people who can’t work and businesses.