SEVEN years after taking the top job at the Essex Coalition of Disabled People Mike Adams has been named as one of the most influential disabled people in the UK.
Taking second place in the activism and campaigning sector of 'The List', compiled by the Disability News Service, the 43-year-old chief executive has joined the likes of Stephen Fry, David Blunkett and Ellie Simmonds in the top 100.
Speaking to the Chronicle Mike said he was "delighted" at his inclusion and how it shows the Chelmsford-based organisation in a good light.
"It's a list about positive things. It's always going to be subjective; people want to see all the names on the list and their contributions and what people have done. It has provoked discussion and debate about something positive," the father-of-two said.
"I think it reflects on the organisation really well as it is the ecdp which has given me the platform to influence people."
Raised in Hadleigh, Mike, who was born with underdeveloped arms, believes there may have been "a degree of serendipity" that led him into the voluntary and campaigning sector in the first instance. Just as he finished up his role as President of the Students Union at the University of Coventry in 1991 there were moves to recruit the first specialised disabled officers to improve access within higher education, a role which Mike was one of the very first in the country to take on.
"The focus was on access and getting people around the campus, then I started to think, well, actually, what's incredibly important is access to teaching and learning, so I began to get involved more in that side of things," added Mike, who was awarded an OBE for his work in 2012.
His aim to improve standards even took him to the other side of the world on a "fact-finding mission" to Australia where access was more advanced, with many teaching materials delivered electronically and industry "sandwich placements" for disabled people better organised.
Positions heading up the national team of disability officers based at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford followed, allowing Mike to return home to Essex, and also a directorship at the Disabled Rights Commission until in 2007 he took the top job at the ecdp, a user-led organisation offering services to disabled people in Essex.
Under his leadership, membership at the organisation on Russell Way has grown from 80 to just under 2,000, funding has more than doubled and Mike estimates they help support a little more than 5,000 disabled people in the county with their range of services, including advice on personal budgets and specialised employment schemes, among others.
But despite leaps and bounds made in the attitudes of society toward disability in recent years, including a much greater awareness of 'hidden disabilities' such as mental health, Mike believes people still need to stop thinking about disabled people in patronising terms.
"I think what still needs to be done is that people need to view disabled people first and foremost as talented individuals and see them as a positive rather than a group of people who need to be looked after and that shift still needs to occur," he added.
"People can be deceived into thinking that disabled people would rather spend their life on welfare benefits which for 99 to 100 per cent of people isn't true.
"People need to understand that they have the same aspirations as everyone else and I think what this organisation does is to help people to understand those dreams and aspirations."
