What do you think about positive discrimination?

"Make disability news" goes the headline in the sits. vac. entry for an editor for Disability Now, billed as the UK’s leading disability monthly.

It sounds a great job for anyone with a passionate interest in people, society, the news and issues that shape the lives of disabled people, carers, campaigners...

But read the small print, and you realise that it isn't a job for anyone who fits the criteria - no matter how well qualified you may be, there's no point applying unless you are also disabled.

"Time to get equal" says Scope - but when did positive discrimination ever improve the situation for any minority? You've only to look at the media coverage of female Labour MPs who were elected on the basis of their gender in Labour's '97 election landslide to see that nobody benefits from such attempts at social engineering, however well-intentioned. Those who are arbitrarily excluded feel rightly resentful; those given preference must surely ask themselves whether they would have achieved their position on their own merits. And they must continually sell themselves to sceptical colleagues - a tiring distraction from the task in hand.

So what is Disability Now thinking of? It cannot surely be that only disabled people have an insight into issues of disability and equality. What about the parent who has negotiated the maze of social services, education and healthcare on behalf of their disabled child? Or anyone who has cared for a family member with a long-term illness or disability? Are their experiences less appropriate? How about people with professional or commercial experience? Therapists, teachers, specifiers... still not relevant?

Perhaps this is why the DN post has remained unfilled for so long: the people with the necessary skills and talents would really prefer to be selected on ability, not disability.