A Bridge Between Two Worlds

Promoting Parenting that is Adaptive, Accessible and Inclusive

Parenting is an exciting yet daunting process for anyone. However, where there are additional support needs, it can create uncertainty, fear and misunderstanding amongst both parents and professionals.

Enabled2Parent aims to address this by:

• Building a bridge between parents and professionals, organisations, online forums, charities, professional bodies and specific services and businesses that are linked to pregnancy, birth and parenting. This is because at present, the voice and needs of disabled parents and those with additional support needs are not heard or recognised within the mainstream arena that encompasses parenthood.
• Working with both real and virtual forums and organisations to create more equitable experiences throughout the pregnancy continuum and beyond so disabled parents can access group antenatal classes that are tailored to their needs, online forums that represent their conditions, but also create a space for them to debate and explore their role as parents.
• Forging links with existing health, social care and community services to increase the accessibility of their services so parents in need of additional support can access appropriate Baby groups, swimming pools, play parks, soft play areas, cafes, Restaurants nurseries mother and toddler groups, holiday parks hotels,airports, motorway service stations, supermarkets and petrol stations.
• Developing a blueprint of principles that an organisation or service could sign up to that would make them accessible and user- friendly to a disabled parent and their family.
• Seeking to involve parents themselves in this process to ensure that the lived experiences of parenting with a range of disabilities and additional support needs are used to create accurate holistic information that augments the independence dignity and choice of disabled parents and in turn enables them to create and sustain more meaningful family life.