PGP / SPD My story:

Things Disabled People Would Love to Hear For many disabled people, inclusion is not measured by grand gestures, expensive policies, or awareness campaigns. It is measured by the small moments. The everyday interactions. The conversations that either remind us we belong, or remind us that the world was never designed with us in mind. As a disabled advocate, ambulatory wheelchair user, and someone who has spent years navigating inaccessible systems, I can tell you that the words people remember most are often the simplest. Not because they are extraordinary. Because they are rare. "What are your accommodation needs?" This question immediately shifts the focus from assumptions to understanding. Too often, disabled people are expected to fit into environments that were never designed for them. We are expected to adapt, struggle quietly, or repeatedly explain ourselves. When someone asks what adjustments would help, they are sending a powerful message: "Your participation ma...

Durham Dis-able: When Disability Advocacy Excludes Disabled Voices Yet you (DurhamEnable) didn’t support me or the significant work I’ve put into advocacy around medical cannabis. Excluding disabled advocates due to prescribed medical cannabis is never a positive step — it moves advocacy in the wrong direction. Bambi and I worked exceptionally hard together, which makes it incredibly disappointing to see my voice silenced rather than supported. For context, I also contribute safeguarding work relating to children alongside Durham County Council — unpaid — because protecting vulnerable people matters deeply to me. I’m apparently trusted to support safeguarding work, yet excluded from your advocacy spaces because of prescribed medical cannabis. That contradiction speaks volumes. It’s disrespectful to the work disabled advocates are doing, and it sends the wrong message about inclusion. Sarah Wingfield Independent Disability Advocate KawaiiDollDecora.uk If you can't be helpful - DON...

AI, Access, and the Weight of Other People’s Judgement: It’s easy to criticise AI music when you’ve never had your access to creativity limited by disability. That sentence alone carries more truth than most of the debates I see online. For many disabled artists, AI isn’t a shortcut. It isn’t laziness. It isn’t a lack of skill or passion. It’s an access tool. Full stop. When people argue about “artistic purity” or “real musicianship,” they often forget — or choose to ignore — the very real, very physical barriers that disabled artists face before we even get near the creative part. Accessing looper packs. Affording beats. Navigating software designed without disabled bodies or neurodivergent minds in mind. Enduring pain, fatigue, brain fog, seizing up, limited mobility, or being bedbound — and still wanting to create something meaningful. These aren’t abstract concepts to me. They’re my life. I didn’t start making music for clout or controversy. I started because I was bedbound for ov...