Note: An Easy Read version of this blog is available at the bottom of the post.

For the last week or two my timeline’s been full of discussion about ‘All In A Row’, a play which opened this week at Southwark Playhouse.…

Yesterday Joe and I travelled to north London to give a talk on inclusive practice to music educators from across the UK. We had a great morning and the talk seemed to go well. Afterwards we had half an hour or so before the cab came so we went to try and grab something to eat.…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

As you may know, my tics rename Valentine’s Day pretty much every year, this year they’ve gone for:

“Happy Boot and Bear Day”
“Happy Thorn In Your Side Day”
and
“Happy Emotional Roller Coaster Afternoon”

They might make me sound quite cynical about a day that celebrates love, but I’m not.…

For wheelchair users one of the irritating and potentially distressing things that happens a lot is people touching your wheelchair without permission. I appreciate that this mostly occurs out of curiosity or a desire to be helpful, but it can still be upsetting.…

Fat Sister, King Russell and Bean popped in earlier. I had my Telecare pendant on because of a brief gap in my support. The pendant was round my neck and I’d totally forgotten it was there. Bean greeted me enthusiastically, jumping up into my arms and onto my lap.…

In the last week or so I’ve seen lots of memes, videos and photos online that relate to disability. All of these have shown ordinary moments in people’s lives – using a phone, having a dance, going to school or watching a football match.…

I’ve written a few posts about my on-going bladder issues and about how wearing pull up incontinence pads helps me manage this and feel more confident.

There’s one slight issue though. It’s not their bulkiness or the fact that some types aren’t as breathable as I’d like.…

A few weeks ago I wrote about my tricky appointment with the local continence nurse. I was there to get a prescription for pads to help me manage some of the issues I’ve been having with my bladder. Towards the end of that post, and despite the challenges, I wrote “In the end I got what I needed.”…

Back in October we were in Inverness working with young creatives on Hacks For The Future, it was brilliant but the days were pretty exhausting both physically and mentally and in the evenings my pain was often very intense. Whenever the pain is really bad I always have a strong urge to find creative ways to express and understand it.…

I started working with disabled children in 1999 so I’m celebrating twenty years this year. For some of this time I worked in Lambeth’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in the Autism and Complex Needs Intervention Support Team. This was a specialist team focused on supporting children with autism – a severe learning disability and challenging behaviour.…