Review of Habinteg’s 2023 Accessible Homes Week campaign activities | Tenant news

A social media campaign, a parliamentary event for MPs, an online webinar, and our research featured on BBC Radio 4 meant this year’s Accessible Homes Week campaign made an even bigger impact than the last.

Money Box

Our campaign, which celebrates what an accessible home can do for a person's wellbeing, independence and overall quality of life, officially started on 4 September.

However, it was launched on Saturday 2 September with a live feature on Radio 4’s finance programme, Money Box. They reported on our latest research,  Living not existing: The economic and social value of wheelchair user homes , which found that building more wheelchair user homes could save the public purse millions over a 10 year period

Habinteg’s Director of Social Impact & External Affairs, Christina McGill, was interviewed by presenter Paul Lewis while reporter Dan Whitworth travelled to Kenilworth to speak with research interviewee and wheelchair user, Georgia Tallis about her housing experiences and current home.

The research findings were also published by Housing and Disability sector press.

Online activity

But the campaign made even more waves online. Comments, replies, likes and reshares on social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook) outstripped followers’ engagement with last year’s posts.

On Twitter alone our posts were seen 24,500 times compared to 10,000 times during the campaign week last year.

Our most popular post across the week were the stories about wheelchair user homes from wheelchair users, as well as the short videos we shared that showcased Habinteg’s accessible homes and the financial benefits that wheelchair user homes bring to disabled people and their households across a 10 year period.

Parliamentary event

We also took our research - commissioned from the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science - to Portcullis House, the home of MPs in Westminster.

Habinteg’s CEO, Directors and Communications team were there to talk to Parliamentarians about the the research, which also revealed that the cost of building a wheelchair user home (instead of an accessible & adaptable home).

This year, Insight Group member and disability blogger and activist Kerry joined the event to Habinteg to share her lived experiences of living in a home that meets her needs as a wheelchair user, as well as her experience of living in an inaccessible home, with MPs.

“I do believe it’s important to share our lived experiences, because not everyone is going to understand the difficulties some of us face or have faced. It’s easy for people to just read the numbers in a booklet, but very different hearing it for yourself from someone that’s lived in a world that isn’t accessible,” said Kerry.

“It was great to see so much support for, as well as a real interest in, the work that Habinteg does. And, when the event was over, I was treated to a VIP tour of Westminster.” 

Kerry spoke with several MPs, including Paul Howell MP, Paul Girvan MP, Andy McDonald MP, and Lord Jamie Borwick, hereditary peer and member of the House of Lords. She also spoke with Liz Twist MP, who kindly sponsored the event on behalf of Habinteg.

Petition launched

Meanwhile, at the end of the week, Habinteg launched a petition calling on the UK Government to act to ensure that housing for wheelchair users is integrated into local housing plans.

Our aim is for this petition to reach 100,000 signatures, so that it will be considered for debate in Parliament. For that to happen, we need you to sign it, share it across your social media networks, and tell friends and family about it.

As our Insight Group member and wheelchair user Kim Smith says: “You never know if you might need an accessible home in the future, I didn't know I would, but the future's coming, and we all need this petition to be signed... we all need it for the future. It might not be for you, it might be for your children, grand-children or great grand-children.”