Today is International Wheelchair Day – to me this is like Valentine’s Day, but for wheelchair users and their chairs.
It’s almost ten years since my tics began having a significant impact on my mobility. I’d had an unusual walk for a long time but over the course of 2011 my mobility went from being unpredictable but functional to dangerous and extremely hard work.…
Yesterday morning, just before work, I was checking my Twitter timeline when a tweet caught my eye. It was from disability blogger and occupational therapist Georgia Vine asking for information about any model that’s useful for explaining the stages of accepting disability or impairment.…
Since 2016 I’ve experienced chronic pain in my lower back and hips. The quality and intensity of this pain changes, but I’m very rarely pain-free. Left unmanaged, this pain has a profound effect on my ability to think, concentrate, work and sleep.…
Content warning: This post contains descriptions of medical and social risks affecting disabled people that you might find distressing.
I got a call from my local Council’s ‘COVID-19 Support Team’ today. They were checking in with me because I’m one of the 2.2 million people who’ve been identified as ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ to COVID-19-19.…
Like many people, I’ve been having lots of video meetings for work recently. I experience chronic pain and fatigue which makes it hard to take part in these calls if there aren’t clear agreed expectations.
I was thinking about this earlier, so I turned the things that help me into a list of top tips.…
In a matter of weeks life across the world has changed dramatically, and like most people I’ve been trying to adapt to the uncertain times ahead. While many people are focused on navigating the challenges of home working, home schooling, increasing social restrictions and living with uncertainty, I, like many disabled people, have been focused simply on survival.…
I consider myself to be a pretty calm and rational person, but it’s the early hours of the morning and I’m struggling to clear my mind of worries. This is after a day of being hit by waves of anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic.…
I’ve always loved drawing – since childhood it’s been a key part of how I think and make sense of the world.
Having Tourettes hasn’t always made this easy. As a child my obsessive and impulsive tendencies meant that if I made even a tiny mistake I’d have to start again, or sometimes I’d impulsively destroy my work.…
Earlier this year we held the Festival of Rest & Resistance at Battersea Arts Centre in London. On the lead up to that event we commissioned an artist to design and make a brand new chill out space at BAC. That artist was Rhiannon Armstrong and it was a pleasure to see her work fill that space, creating new opportunities to rest and relax in a well established arts venue.…
A couple of years ago I got a great tip from another disabled artist: he told me that he often stays in Holiday Inns because they can often provide the accommodation for essential support workers free of charge.
This is amazing because before I knew this, every trip cost at least double what it would if I was non-disabled and didn’t require 24-hour support.…
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