A Festive Reflection: Twelve Things We Are Proud of in 2025

It is almost a tradition that at this time of year third sector organisations post a reflective blog on their past year. This normally highlights the significant challenges faced during the year, the challenging environment that they are working in and the impact on their members.

Although we fully appreciate that disabled people are still negatively impacted on a daily basis across their lives, this year we thought we would challenge the usual third sector annual blog and reflect on what we have positively achieved during the past 12 months.

In an attempt to make this reflection (almost) festive, we have looked to a well-known Christmas carol for inspiration – so here goes:

On the 1st Day of Christmas…

We celebrated moving into our new office during month 1 of 2025. This resource supports the DES staff and the delivery of training and development workshops. Moving forward it will also provide a meeting space for Access Panels and other similar organisations as we move forward.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas…

We celebrated being invited to present to the Scottish Parliament on 2 separate occasions and representing the views of our members about the Assisted Dying (Scotland) Bill and the Scottish Covid-19 enquiry.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas…

We celebrated the fact that we delivered 3 Inclusive Communication workshops for national organisations, supporting their journey to become more inclusive.

On the 4th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated the fact that we now have 4 members of staff dedicated to supporting and developing the Scottish Access Panel network – all to help and support a more inclusive and accessible Scotland!

On the 5th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated our 5 trustees. All disabled people with lived experience, they help to guide DES as it moves forward. If after reading this blog, you would like to join us on this journey as a trustee, then please contact Lyn Pornaro (e: lyn@disabilityequality.scot) – we are always interested in hearing from people who would like to become involved.

On the 6th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated our 6 research projects to collect and represent the views and lived experiences of disabled people. These encompassed: the cost-of-living for disabled people in Scotland; the forthcoming 2026 Scottish parliamentary elections; chronic pain; disabled students and education; the thoughts of the DES membership on a Patron or Ambassador; and social security. All our research – and our members views – are used to inform people in power about the views and needs of disabled people.

On the 7th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated the creation of our current surveys looking into how disabled people travel and how they find different types of transport. These 7 surveys were made together with Transport Scotland and will help to design a new accessible travel framework.

On the 8th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated recruiting 8 new staff members during 2025. All these roles are focussed on promoting and supporting the views of disabled people from across the country and helping DES achieve its objectives. A warm welcome to them all!

On the 9th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated the pilot of our subsidised Easy Read training workshop, specifically for smaller Scottish charities, community groups and other third sector partners. We welcomed 9 participants, who supported the sector to become more inclusive and accessible.

On the 10th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated the delivery of a total of 10 Easy Read training workshops throughout 2025. These workshops were delivered to individuals, companies and other disabled people’s organisations. We also offered some mentoring opportunities, supporting people to produce Easy Read resources within their own organisations.

On the 11th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated the attendance by representatives from 11 separate Access Panels to our annual general meeting and celebration event in Aberdeen, in October. With a new venue for the event, for some of these Access Panels this was the first time that they could attend the event in person.

On the 12th Day of Christmas…

We celebrated our work around inclusive communication for all. After checking, we now use 12 words as the average length of our Easy Read sentences – helping to make our Easy Read documents easier for more people to access. This builds on our work creating new UK Easy Read Standards, with over 40 other organisations across the United Kingdom. We started this group to develop standards to make sure that Easy Read users can get the same high level of Easy Read whenever they use it. We have also continued this work with many other countries with the establishment of an International Easy Read Community of Practice.

Reflecting on these 12 celebrations – and other successes – we are rightly proud of what we have managed to achieve over the last year. This has not been accomplished in isolation and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our members, staff, board, partners and stakeholders for their support over the last 12 months.

We absolutely recognise that there is still much to do and we will be looking to represent the views and interests of disabled people again in 2026!

However, until then, we wish you a happy, healthy festive season and a Happy New Year!