When Awareness Has a Price Tag:
If you’re an advocate who doesn’t want content reshared and tagged, please let me know — or block me. We won’t be able to collaborate due to platform sharing limits, and I respect clarity over conflict. I can also stop my own posts from being shared if that’s your preference, but that part is often overlooked.
Disability isn’t a business. It’s our life.
#Apologies #MoneyOverMessage #Advocacy #Awareness #Ableism
I want to start by apologising for sharing educational disability awareness content from another page, clearly tagging the creator and ensuring people knew the work was theirs. My intention was visibility, education, and directing people to their page — not control, profit, or misrepresentation.
That said, a note to fellow advocates: please be mindful when raising awareness advocate to advocate. Sometimes, the message matters less to people than the money attached to it.
Due to Facebook’s sharing limits, I’m not always able to share posts in the usual way. When that happens, sharing directly with clear credit and tagging is my way of still sending people to the original creator while continuing to raise awareness and push for positive change.
I shared a post about #ableism for that reason. It was made clear that the creator was unhappy and asked me to delete it — not because the content was harmful or inaccurate, but because it wasn’t shared on their terms.
There was no interest in enquiry, clarification, or understanding why that method was used. No acknowledgement that tagging was done intentionally to encourage people to visit their page and access their resources.
Some people don’t care about the message at all — they only want to help disabled people when there’s financial gain involved.
Any small payments I receive go directly towards the costs and expenses of advocacy: access needs, time, and unpaid labour. That isn’t profit — it’s survival.
I will block and remove advocates who gatekeep awareness, prioritise income over education, or centre ego over impact. If a message only matters when you post it and monetise it — even when others share responsibly and with full credit — then we are not aligned.
If I share your work and money matters more to you than impact, maybe pause before asking for deletion and consider the people who might find your page, feel seen, and finally relate.
Positive change isn’t actioned through capitalism.
It’s actioned through integrity, access, and choosing the message over ego.
Sarah Wingfield
Independent Disability Advocate
#disabilityinclusion #strongertogether #disability #disabilityawareness #disabilitysupport #disabilityrights
Alt text:
Facebook post by Sarah Wingfield stating that people are welcome to directly share her content as long as she is tagged, emphasising that the message matters more than monetisation. She encourages genuine advocacy, collaboration, and raising awareness, noting that visibility and sustainability can coexist when intent is genuine. The post ends with a message of love and integrity, her name and title as an Independent Disability Advocate, and hashtags including #MessageOverMoney, #Advocacy, #Awareness, and #DisabilityRights.
Alt text:
Three side-by-side Facebook screenshots showing a public comment exchange between Sarah Wingfield and the page “Retrophiliac.” The creator asks Sarah to use the share button instead of saving and reposting images, citing monetisation concerns. Sarah explains that Facebook has sharing limits, that she tags and credits creators to raise disability awareness, and that issues could have been discussed privately. Other commenters mention lost monetisation revenue. The exchange ends with the creator asking for the post to be deleted and Sarah stating she will delete it and disengage due to misalignment in advocacy values.
