From new research, we know that there are over 500,000 people in Britain with a disfigurement to their face from birth, accidents, skin or eye conditions, cancer surgery or paralysis.
For the last 16 years, Changing Faces has helped thousands of people with disfigurements manage the attitudes and reactions of others to their appearance – and their own…
Many of them have expressed the view that there are deeply-embedded public attitudes and behaviours that disadvantage them – but we have never had objective evidence to prove it...
We have now conducted a 1,000-person public attitude survey which shows that this is indeed true:
9 out of 10 people are in denial about their prejudices against people with disfigurements.
The survey revealed that although all respondents claimed to have no prejudice against those with facial disfigurements, in reality 90% of those surveyed held implicit prejudices. People have difficulty associating positive words but easily associate negative words with images of people with facial disfigurements, implicitly believing them, therefore, to be less attractive, sociable, happy and successful than people without disfigurements.
In response to these stark survey results, Changing Faces is launching the Face Equality campaign which it expects will be a 3-5 year campaign.
The campaign aims to raise awareness of the 'facial prejudice' and resulting 'facial discrimination' that people with disfigurements face every day and to both inform and transform the public's treatment of those with an unusual appearance.
Key elements of the Face Equality campaign include: - a new nationwide advertising campaign
- a 'lend your face' to the campaign - creating a collage of 100,000 faces!
- an online 'day in the life' film appearing on YouTube
- ‘calls to action’ for improvements to be made in health care, education, recruitment practice, the media and public policy.
Liz Sayce, RADAR's Chief Executive, said:
'RADAR supports the Face Equality campaign because we want a just and equal society whose strength is human difference. That means rooting out discrimination in all its forms - from insidious prejudice to outright bullying. We wish the campaign every success'