The launch of Scope’s new brand identity and reflection on our partnership

Tracy Griffin, External Director of Marketing, Fundraising and Communications at Scope reflects on the meaning of disability equality, the story behind their new brand and our partnership going forward.

What is disability equality and what does it mean to society?

There are 14 million disabled people in England and Wales. That’s one in five of us. Disabled people have ambitions, prospects and potential, and therefore have the right to be equal members of society. However, this isn’t the reality.

Our research shows 49 per cent of disabled people in the UK still feel excluded from society. As a disabled person getting care is a struggle, the cost of living is higher, and you are twice as likely to be unemployed. All of which create additional financial and family pressures.  

Life shouldn’t be this much harder if you are disabled and there is a lot we can all do to create equality and fairness. At Scope, we campaign to challenge injustice, change attitudes and ensure disabled people have a stronger voice to influence change at home, at work and in their communities. Disabled people should be able to fulfil their aspirations and disability equality will allow them to do this.

Why has disability campaigning not been as prominent as other social campaigns like Pride or Black Lives Matter in recent years?

The fight for disability equality has been in the background for far too long. Society is changing all the time, and it is important to wait for the right moment to have your voice heard when campaigning for change.

Together with disabled people, we are ready to shout louder about the inequalities that disabled people face and the restrictions they are up against to live the life they choose. With our new brand and strategy, Everyday Equality, we have better tools to raise awareness and encourage more people to come together to end disability inequality.

Our film highlights the significant social changes which have been achieved over the past decades, and the incredible positive outcomes they have had for the people who were unfairly treated. We want everyone to now think about disability equality in the same way and help to make it become a reality.

We’re asking you to become a Disability Gamechanger and join us in our fight against disability inequality. You can get involved by sharing our content on your social channels with #DisabilityGamechanger, finding out more on our website, signing up to our campaign list, by donating or volunteering your time.

Why did Scope decide to relaunch your brand identity?

To change society and achieve equality for disabled people, we need to reach even more people.

Over the years we have changed as an organisation to reflect the challenges faced by disabled people. We have done this by growing our campaign work and developing services in response to what disabled people and their families tell us will support them.

To raise awareness as best we can amongst disabled people, supporters, and the general public at large, we need a more flexible and transparent brand that embodies Scope’s ambition to inspire a movement to end disability inequality.

How do events like the Southampton shirt swap help you to get your message out?

We are very proud of our new brand and want to expose it to as many people as possible, so that everyone knows who we are and what we want to achieve.

Fantastic opportunities like Virgin Media’s shirt swap allow us to reach new audiences who might not know about Scope. It also gives us a platform to raise awareness of the barriers faced by disabled people and encourage more people to get involved for our fight for disability equality.

How does our partnership positively impact the fight for disability equality?

Our research found that many disabled people consider being able to work one of the greatest enablers to living the life they choose, so our partnership to ensure that one million disabled people can get into and stay in work by 2020 will be ground-breaking in achieving equality.  

Just one of the ways the partnership does that is through funding our Support to Work service. A disability employment service which aims to provide disabled people with advice, skills and confidence to help get into work or to progress in their career.

Virgin Media’s people are also completely invaluable to the work we do. By partnering with an organisation with so many people, we can share our knowledge on what it means to be disabled in the UK today and what can be done to end the inequalities. The fundraising, volunteering and awareness raising work you do allows us to get closer and closer to disability equality every day.

What is the focus of partnership going forward?

Following the successful launch of Work With Me in 2017, we will be focusing on a call to action for businesses to come together to create more inclusive workplaces for disabled people.

We are looking forward to providing more businesses with the information, advice and tools to build more inclusive workplaces. It is essential that employers understand the benefits of having an inclusive workplace, and having a reputable brand like Virgin Media as a prime example will provide us with vast opportunities to reach even more organisations with our vision and mission to end disability inequality.