Disabled people’s voices are vital in making Brighton & Hove more accessible. We've established 2 engagement groups that are at the heart of developing and implementing our Accessible City Strategy. These are the:

  • Disability Panel
  • Wider Reference Group

Both engagement groups:

  • contribute their expertise and experience to make the Accessible City Strategy as inclusive as possible
  • centre the voices of people with lived experience of disability
  • speak to the disability activist slogan ‘nothing about us, without us’

Disability Panel

The Disability Panel provides strategic, expert, and impartial advice and consultancy to Brighton & Hove City Council. The Disability Panel advises on developing, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing the Accessible City Strategy and resulting action plans.

The Disability Panel is made up of disabled individuals, who were recruited following a public-facing recruitment campaign, and representatives from local disabled people’s organisations such as:

  • Amaze
  • Brighton & Hove Speak Out
  • East Sussex Vision Support
  • Grace Eyre Foundation
  • Mind in Brighton & Hove
  • the MS Society

As we recognise that not all people with access requirements identify as disabled, including many Deaf people, a representative from our Deaf Services Liaison Forum (DSLF) has a place on the Disability Panel and contributes input from the perspective of Deaf community members.

Wider Reference Group

The Wider Reference Group provides a safe and inclusive space for local groups and organisations to give their views and take part in discussions on how Brighton & Hove and Brighton & Hove City Council services can become more accessible.

The Wider Reference Group is a membership body, open to representatives from disabled people’s organisations that support and empower disabled residents of Brighton & Hove – ideally with lived experience of disability themselves.

Current members of the group include:

  • Assert Brighton & Hove
  • Brighton Access for Disabled Groups (BADGE)
  • Beach Access Team Brighton & Hove
  • Campaign4Change
  • Downs View Life Skills College
  • East Sussex Sight Loss Council
  • the Hangleton and Knoll Project
  • Hill Park School
  • Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC)
  • Stay Up Late
  • St John’s College

The Wider Reference Group provides critical input and feedback to the Disability Panel and shares experiences of barriers and ideas for solutions.

Further information or join an engagement group

For any enquiries about the engagement groups or if you're a disabled people’s organisation interested in joining the Wider Reference Group, or being involved in another way, send an email to EDI.Officer-Disability@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

We particularly invite:

  • people from Black and Racially Minoritised communities
  • people from LGBTQIA+ and QTIPOC communities
  • young adults
  • young carers
  • working-class people
  • diverse people of faith such as people who are Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and more

We're under-represented in these communities of identity and would like to increase the representation of voice and access to opportunity in these advisory and consultancy groups.