What is BuDS?
Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) is a leading disability charity operating across England. It is an independent pan-disability organisation which is not tied to Government, NHS or council contracts. Our visionary aim is to abolish disability by building a world which is Fair4All, free of the barriers which disable people. We are led by disabled people and committed to the social model of disability.
BuDS Is A User-Led Disability Charity
Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) is a user-led disability charity. This means that at least 75% of our trustees are themselves disabled people, and use their lived experience as disabled people to inform and shape BuDS’ policy and projects. Being a user-led organisation also means that the BuDS Trustees play a stronger and more pivotal role in the affairs of the charity than is often the case in other charities.
These two factors mean that being a BuDS Trustee offers greater opportunities to make a difference and a personal contribution than being a trustee of a non-user-led charity.
BuDS Is An Evolving Charity
BuDS is evolving from a county charity to a national charity. This process began in 2020, when our work hugely expanded and became national in response to the Covid pandemic. Following approval from members in 2023, we aim in 2025-26 to change our name to ‘BuDS Disability Service’ and to formally re-brand ourselves as a national charity, alongside moving to Charitable Incorporated Organisation status.
BuDS Is A Social Model Charity
The social model of disability says that ‘disability’ is caused by barriers in society and other people’s attitudes, rather than by bodily or mental impairments or conditions. People with bodily or mental impairments who encounter these barriers are ‘disabled people’ – disabled by the barrier, not their bodies or minds.
BuDS’ mission is to remove the barriers which disable people, so that everyone has equality of opportunity and access. If there are no barriers, there will be no disabled people (although, of course, the bodily and mental impairments that people may have will not have disappeared). Removing barriers is what BuDS’ projects are intended to do in all areas of life. We work for an inclusive world where disabled and non-disabled people have equal status and equal value opportunities to live their lives.
Although the social model of disability is decades old, and the ‘official’ position of the UK Government, many organisations and people still use the ‘medical model’ of disability. The medical model says that people are disabled by their bodily or mental impairments, and that the solution is to ‘fix’ the individual’s impairments through medical treatment and aids. People with impairments are often seen as inferior or broken under the medical model. If the individual cannot be ‘fixed’, the medical model tends to lead to segregation of disabled people from non-disabled people.
