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The Slot

Written and presented by Liz Crow
Television broadcast, 3 minutes, January 1996
With captions, BSL interpretation and transcript

Screenshot from broadcast shows Liz Crow in medium shot to camera, with the Palace of Westminster in the background. Captions read 'Last year, the Government passed its Disability Discrimination Act...' To the right of screen is a BSL interpreter.

About

Channel 4’s ‘The Slot’ was a three-minute soapbox for members of the public, scheduled immediately after the Channel 4 news. Disability Discrimination Act: the wrong law was broadcast shortly after the DDA was given Royal Assent.

Contrary to the celebrations held by Scope 20 years later to mark the passing of the Act, the DDA was passed in 1995 after a long and bitter campaign by disabled people.  Disabled people’s demand was for a comprehensive Civil Right Act which, despite significant public and parliamentary support, was repeatedly defeated in the House of Commons through filibustering by the Conversative government’s Minister for the Disabled Nicholas Scott.

 The DDA (superseded by the Equality Act 2010), which was passed in its stead, was deeply flawed legislation that largely failed to deliver the legal protections so badly needed by disabled people.

 

Transcript

Stills

  • Title sequence showing close up of machine parts, with the words 'The Slot'
  • Screenshot from broadcast shows Liz Crow in medium shot to camera, with the Palace of Westminster in the background. Captions read 'Last year, the Government passed its Disability Discrimination Act...' To the right of screen is a BSL interpreter.
  • Screenshot from broadcast shows Liz Crow in medium shot to camera, with the Palace of Westminster in the background. Captions read '...presented as the answer to inequalities experienced by 6 million disabled people' To the right of screen is a BSL interpreter.
  • Screenshot from broadcast shows Liz Crow in medium shot to camera, with the Palace of Westminster in the background. Captions read 'But for disabled people the Act is the wrong law'. To the right of screen is a BSL interpreter.
  • Screenshot from broadcast shows paving leading to a long flight of stone steps. Captions read 'The Disability Discrimination Act is the latest stage in a long painful saga'. To the right of screen is a BSL interpreter.

Credits

  • The Slot: Disability Discrimination Act: the wrong law

    Writer/presenter Liz Crow
    BSL interpreter Wendy Ebsworth
    Camera Rob Pickles
    VT Editor Jan Langford
    Producer Kate Thomson
    Editor Barbara Altounyan

To cite this page: Crow, Liz (1999) Disability Discrimination Act: the wrong law, The Slot, Channel 4 Television[online] [Available at: http://www.roaring-girl.com/work/the-slot/] [Accessed 30/04/2024]