Advocacy and Accessing Life
The majority of my public facing work is education, advisory, advocacy, signposting and accessibility based.
Working with disabled people all around the world invites me to keep my practice highly flexible and adaptive to the unique circumstances of each individual. This is maybe the most joyful and fulfilling aspect of the work for me, and I am grateful for every person who invites me to explore their unique rich disabled experience with them.
My practice is firmly rooted in the values of Disability Justice, I advocate for / problem solve with people using anticapitalist abolitionist values. We are equals, you have some information, I have some information, together we can combine our knowledge to create vital change. I always try to facilitate safer spaces for people to explore their access needs and self perception in ways that are not based on traditional measures of value, and invite them to consider how they can understand their experience of disability in ways that are liberated from ableist norms, whilst still making space for everyone to be able to be honest about the harmful stories they have internalised, the way it all feels on good days and bad, and the barriers that they continue to face in their lives.
Some examples of this include:
Working closely with disabled people who are applying for benefits, grants, care assessments, better healthcare access, housing, education, workplace adjustments, and helping with any associated admin. This work is not rooted in admin, but in first working together to understand how we can co create consent and safety as we navigate the administrative task whilst also holding the various pressures and traumas around things such as; how a person’s family feel their disability should be managed and understood, which includes research into cultural norms and practices that help us understand how to move forward with the work safely.
Radical occupational therapy sessions that are trauma-informed, and centre exciting and unconventional approaches to understanding how to access safety, functionality, pleasure, comfort and ease. I am not interested in working in the traditional way that OTs work with disabled people, I want my work to include the whole human, un-sanitised and completely accepted. That means including making accessible lifestyles, interests and behaviours that we have been taught are wrong, shameful, forbidden or only usually allowed if a person is non-disabled.
Working with people who receive either professional or familial care to make sure it is meeting their needs and that challenges with dynamics, standards and boundaries are navigated in ways that are safe for the care recipient. Caregiver abuse and discriminiation is a huge issue facing disabled people around the world, and it’s rare to meet disabled people who haven’t experienced it. I use an expansive and constantly updating understanding of abuse and discrimination. Harm reduction tools can be transformative in these circumstances where simply changing circumstances is rarely an option.
Substantial research into adaptive devices, aids, tools, mobility aids/devices/vehicles, and eating practices of disabled people. A big part of my work used to be around distributing information on accessible practices, though happily this information is more widely available now, which has made space for me to focus on the other parts of my practice.
I take examples in popular culture and news media to publicly apply critical analysis and commentary through an anticapitalist abolitionist disability justice lens, I hope to expand this work to a different space in future as it is really enjoyable and interactive.
Facilitating broader understanding of disabled perspectives and experiences, as well as researching and disseminating information with a particular focus on COVID-19 and other public health and safety precautions for disabled people. I make sure that people who engage with my work are hearing about lots of types of disabled experiences.
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