Talk:Simon James Stevens

Controversy

Please take a look at http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/09/activist-dropped-by-disability-charity-over-offensive-tweets/ I believe this report indicate that the article should contain information about the controversy/criticism. Unfortunately I am not familiar with British disability politics so I don't feel competent to summarise the issue properly. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:31, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Is it appropriate for this person to have an encyclopedia entry? There is no evidence presented here that this is the case. Many considerably well known disability activists do not have entries, and this person who has basically no claim to fame other than being a 'walking controversy' because of his continual personal attacks on others has his own page? It looks like unwarranted personal glorification. Wheeled Ciara (talk) 16:54, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

How is this notable? Huffington Post bloggers all get wiki entries? 2.26.26.201 (talk) 21:14, 28 October 2013 (UTC)Father Shandor, Wiki Gnome.

I am equally not as familiar with UK disability politics. The same website that posted news also downgraded the subject on their influential list around the same time. I'm looking for more info about what happened from further resources to see if it can be included as part of a living person's wiki page. Roxanne-snowden (talk) 15:12, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Looking at this person for the first time in 2020, whatever the "walking controversy" seems to be an overall minor relevancy to his other accomplishments. I don't see where activism was a significant role (it may depend on personal definitions of a "activist"). His history shows him to be a disability advocate and early adopter of internet/social media for inclusiveness and social activity. His involvement with Second Life, television and his entrepreneurial projects have gained him sociological, media and social relevance. If Stevens is only being regarded by some as a 'blogger' or 'activist', that may be due to over-attention on his public opinions at the expense of his more interesting accomplishments for a person with substantial impairments. Roxanne-snowden (talk) 15:44, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Hi, I wonder if this page should instead point to a disambiguation page? Simon Steven (NHS England) is high profile political figure in England, but I think some people are at risk of ending up on this page instead and not realising at first it is a different person.Iamsorandom (talk) 16:24, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Removed Personal Attacks During Rewrite Edit

Hi. I discovered this person/entry in reference to another entry. I became interested and decided to turn the collection of facts into a bio summary and create an awards/recognition section while updating the citations. During the process, I became aware of the preexisting edits that I initially moved into a section called "Criticisms":

"However, within the disability community itself, Stevens is something of an outsider whose views do not reflect those of the majority. Indeed, to many he is nothing but a troublesome irrelevance.

Furthermore, in Twitter debates, Simon adopts an argumentative style where he pretends he is drunk and fires illogical misspelled red-herrings at his opponents."

The first paragraph had two citations. One citation was for a defunct website that was listed as an unreliable reference by Wikipedia - I couldn't post my edits with that link left untouched. The link was to the now defunct website atosvictimsgroup.co.uk. (I'm not from the UK but ATOS seems like a company with some management responsibility involving social services to disabled citizens in England.) The page lost page can be found via the Waybackmachine at (Remove)web.archive.org/web/20130929200542/http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2013/09/13/are-you-happy-having-your-disability-mr-spazticus-enjoys-having-cerebral-palsy/.

"Mr. Spazticus" appears to be a derogatory reference to the Living Person Simon Stevens. The criticism by that author is over Stevens writing about his experiences with Cerebral Palsy. The writer of the cited resource comments "I’m sorry but anyone who say’s that they enjoy having a Disability is in my opinion someone who should seek help ASAP or am I being too harsh, can you really enjoy having a disability?" They go on to criticize Huffington Post for letting Steven's write as a blogger there, saying "I find it strange such a large media organisation would promote the ramblings of this obviously deluded man?" In conclusion, it references Twitter, saying "His attacks on people on Twitter etc over the past few weeks on people who called into question his ramblings have led to him being denied the opportunity to go to the Political Conferences which the “Leonard Cheshire” Charity had sponsored..."

The link goes to (Remove)web.archive.org/web/20130920065939/http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2013/09/10/mr-spazticus-simon-stevens-dropped-by-charity-over-offensive-tweets/ which then claims a link to a supporting news article by Disability News Service but just links to another site page (Remove)web.archive.org/web/20130912045229/http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2013/08/31/campaign-against-atos-and-you-must-be-an-extremist-according-to-mr-spazticus/ that includes a blog compliant against Stevens by the author, with the statement "I’m sure your aware I’ve mentioned “Simon Stevens” on this site before, he didn’t like what I said, he didn’t like the criticism which my opinions brought to his door, maybe he should be careful in what he writes if he doesn’t like people attacking his argument."

The Waybackmachine version of the website is missing the original textures, and it is difficult to read, but I struggled to find supporting resources. After running some keywords into a search engine, I was able to find a supporting document via Disability News Service that Stevens was cancelled from a charity appearance due to his tweets. (Remove)disabilitynewsservice.com/activist-dropped-by-disability-charity-over-offensive-tweets/ I'm currently looking for more explanation/support (as DNS also demoted Stevens from the influential list to the fringes) to review if relevant to be added to his Wikipedia page.

There was also a reference link to a personal blog page (Remove)tompride.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/oops-simon-stevens-in-his-defence-of-atos-forgets-to-mention-hes-employed-by-them/ with the claim that Stevens was "employed" by the company ATOS "It’s probably not all that surprising he’s defending ATOS, considering he’s employed by them:".

The evidence for employment was a post made by Stevens (Remove)disabilitynewsservice.com/why-i-chose-to-work-with-atos but it was written "And so, after making contact with the company, a few weeks ago I met with the Atos managers who are working on PIP. They have since shown interest in working with me, most importantly on a paid basis, on various aspects of their work, including their training and communication with claimants." Stevens does not say he is or will be an employee of ATOS, only that he was offered and discussed providing them with his business services. The presumption of the blogger is that a business relationship (i.e. "employment") is supported due to Stevens writing a different blog post (Remove)huffingtonpost.co.uk/simon-stevens/atos-disability-welfare-urban-myths_b_3724174.html where he challenges some media stories he regards as myths (that happen to include reference to ATOS).

I couldn't find a credible reference to substantiate an employment relationship. (When I say employment, I mean the standard meaning of employer and employee or contract work, not the definition that Stevens' uses, where unpaid and/or ambiguous involvement occurs. It is possible that the initial pitch meeting to provide his services is being used as a claim of 'employment' by both Stevens and his detractors. It cannot be substantiated that Stevens came to Atos defense due an employment relationship.

When I began to rewrite the bio, I wasn't prepared to find criticism substantiated by bloggers that were especially upset over the perceived relationship between Stevens and ATOS. As a non-Brit, I don't have the same references as those involve due. I did look at the claims and the available citations and did not see how this could be used as justification as an inclusion in a living person's biography "as-is" and had serious concerns that leaving it was improper. As some of the website content was starting to disappear, I've included the info in this entry for future review.Roxanne-snowden (talk) 15:08, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

  Note: I added "(Remove)" in front of the links to prevent the textual links from becoming active. I provide the URLS for reference but don't want to seem like I am encourage people to visit them.Roxanne-snowden (talk) 19:32, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Simon has sadly died, on the 10th May 2023. RIP my brother. 149.102.18.191 (talk) 20:13, 22 August 2023 (UTC)