Campaigner Flick Williams gives evidence in Parliament

Flick Williams said “change is needed” to ensure disabled people who feel they have been discriminated against “have easier access to legal help” to “enforce our rights”.

Ms Williams, a visually impaired wheelchair user, has previously won legal battles over alleged discrimination against City of York Council, First York and Marks and Spencer.

The campaigner said she was “honoured” to be invited to give evidence to the Parliamentary Justice Committee, which is undertaking an inquiry into barriers to accessing justice for several groups.

Ms Williams said currently “too much of the burden of enforcing disability rights falls to us as disabled people”, and she was “confident that the changes that are needed are understood” by the committee.

“Change is needed so that we have easier access to legal help and representation to assist us to enforce our rights,” she added.

Ms Williams said the “core issue” is that there are “very few solicitors who will take disability discrimination cases because the compensation awards are so low it simply doesn’t pay to take them”.

She said it means people have been left with few options but to take discrimination cases on themselves. “This can be very daunting and many disabled people simply don’t have the confidence, the energy or capacity to do this.”

Ms Williams added: “I’ve always had a burning sense of injustice which has spurred me on to pursue blatant discrimination to the bitter end.

“I have now taken more cases than I can count, but always choose which cases to take on the basis of their wider impact for other disabled people.”

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Ms Williams said she was “most proud” of the case she won against City of York Council over its licensing of pavement cafes, which followed the campaigner becoming trapped on a footpath while out shopping in York city centre in May 2022.

On leaving a shop, Ms Williams found café furniture had been put out while she was inside, blocking the dropped kerbs on either side – effectively creating an island on which she was trapped.

At the time, a council spokesperson apologised, saying “we got it wrong” and “will continue to listen and learn from the lived experiences of disabled people”.

Ms Williams said the case “certainly had the greatest impact forcing the council to change its policy thereby enabling all disabled people to get around the city with fewer obstacles on pavements”.

The Parliamentary committee was told about many barriers faced by disabled people trying to access justice including inaccessible court buildings and a failure to make reasonable adjustments for court hearings.

“It’s bitterly ironic that disabled people going to court for failures by service providers to make reasonable adjustments as they are required to do by law, then face more reasonable adjustments failures by the court system itself,” Ms Williams said.

The Justice Committee is compiling a report with recommendations for the government.