News
Event - Disability History Month Celebration - JOY! Thurs 4th December 2025, 12-4pm
The Disabled People's Archive (DPA) and North West Film Archive (NWFA) are hosting a free, disabled-led event to celebrate UK Disability History Month and the launch of DPA's new project. The event will be in the performance space at Manchester Central Library on Thursday... read more »
Central Library Showcase Exhibition, October 2024 - January 2025
The Disabled People’s Archive held an exhibition at Manchester Central Library in the display cases on the ground floor near the café. This was to celebrate UK Disability History Month and to showcase all the hard work we have done in the past few... read more »
Celebrating UPIAS's 50th Anniversary
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS), we have made a number of formerly out-of-print articles written by UPIAS members digitally available. Each document has its own post in the News section of this website, but... read more »
A Tribute to Maggie Davis
At GMCDP and the Disabled People's Archive we were greatly saddened to hear of the recent death of Maggie Davis (also known as Maggie Hines) in March 2024. Maggie, along with her partner Ken Davis, was a member of UPIAS and a co-founder of... read more »
A Tribute to Joe Whittaker
Joe Whittaker, a longstanding member of GMCDP and activist for equality and inclusion for disabled people, particularly in the field of education, died in March 2023. For more about Joe, see this post on GMCDP's website and this article by Richard Rieser in... read more »
Block Telethon: A Summary by Kirstie Stage
The Block Telethon protests of 1990 and 1992 marked two pivotal points in British disability activism. Led by disabled people, including groups such as Rights Not Charity, Block Telethon was a campaign against the charity fundraiser Telethon. The television programme, which was initially launched... read more »
Article: Ken Lumb - Telethon, Connecting the Means to the Ends (1992)
About the Series: The Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) was formed in September 1972, after Paul Hunt wrote letters to different newspapers and magazines asking disabled people to help set up a new organisation. Hunt first suggested that this should be a ‘consumer... read more »
Article: 'Rights or Charity, The Future of Welfare' by Ken Davis (1993)
About This Series: The Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) was formed in September 1972, after Paul Hunt wrote letters to different newspapers and magazines asking disabled people to help set up a new organisation. Hunt first suggested that this should be a ‘consumer... read more »
Article: ‘The Politics of Independent Living – Keeping the Movement Radical’ by Ken Davis (1984)
About the series: The Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) formed in September 1972, after Paul Hunt wrote letters to different newspapers and magazines asking disabled people to help set up a new organisation. Hunt first suggested that this should be a ‘consumer group’... read more »
Article: 'Disability - A Capitalist By-product' by Two UPIAS Members (1981)
About the Series: The Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) was formed in September 1972, after Paul Hunt wrote letters to different newspapers and magazines asking disabled people to help set up a new organisation. Hunt first suggested that this should be a ‘consumer... read more »