"Enough Is Enough"
Behind the scenes of Disability Review Magazine, summer 2024
“You’re going to need to watch.”
My mother’s brow knits itself into a confused knot; thanks to the uncertainty that hangs in the air, I want to crack a joke, lighten the tension. Watch what exactly?
Train stations are like my personal kryptonite, a purgatory of sorts; little good happens here. It’s something that has long been documented in the disability space - such as when it comes to the lack of support for wheelchair users to transfer on and off trains, or the presumption of having to book support in advance. (Spoiler: that’s actually not the case. Or true.) Among disabled people in the UK, the stories are just a little bit too familiar and reoccurring to remain comfortably acceptable any more.
I was two days away from putting to bed the next issue of Disability Review Magazine - and travel had been on the agenda for a long time. Satire dies a death sometimes, and this felt a bit like a punishment for sin committed in a past life.
Having managed to (poorly) walk through metal detector scanners for passage to the Netherlands, my feet and one ankle dragging on the floor, I was going to be searched. And therein lies the problem - the hyper visibility and invisibility of what arrives from woman + disabled. You can be immediately visible and invisible the next second. The border agent was just a bit too comfortable in her role, as well as looming in my face, assuming I was a child, and not communicating at all to me. The cane I use causes concern, ostensibly. And apparently warrants condescension.
Lucy Webster articulated this brilliantly over at :
There’s an immediacy to when I speak, say, in a work context; thanks to contextual reasons, there is a respect that is commanded. Choosing to work in the disability space means I know my field, quite literally inside and out. I can stand in front of a crowd, a classroom, or even in a study auditorium, in person or online.
You’d be mistaken in other contexts. In the Doctor’s office, the reductive assumptions begin - later with ‘you’re just a bit anxious!’ or ‘Why didn’t you see us sooner?’ Why would I? There’s a space above my head where the words are spoken; the person usually with me as an advocate is the recipient of every little piece of information. You’d think they're the patient oddly, when asked questions as to how I am..!
The same is for travel. I have had abuse shouted at me when asking for assistance; a woman was being abused outside a train station - but no one did a thing as ‘not my problem’. Air travel is hit and miss - enough so two years ago I was told I’d been booked in as a ‘brain damaged’ person, and would need to use a wheelchair. That was after the aggressive response of ‘we only assist wheelchair users’ - despite the giant sign directly behind me stating otherwise. Never mind the strangers who wish to police the legitimacy of your mobility aid, or the invasive questions as to what happened to you?
We all have a right to travel, and we all have a right to dignity regardless. To be hierarchal makes no commercial sense, either. Wouldn’t you also have a form of emotional whiplash, to just manage this tightrope of disproportionate expectations?
For our June cover, Sophie Morgan was on board for the cover interview - and we spoke about a range of subjects. Dr Gregory Burke, the founder of AccessAble, the UK’s largest provider of accessibility information in the disability space, is also one of my favourite features; I had to edit this down, but there were a few jocular exchanges about the perils of spiders when traveling. Human Beauty was also a gorgeous spread; my Autistic 15 year old self danced a happy dance at that. And the topic of travel was dealt with colourfully - in all its nuance, all its texture.
Disability Review Magazine is out now.
In Case You Missed It
💐 I’m in this month’s print issue of Happiful magazine - and then, one month later, my work gets put online. You can read all about that here.
💐 I have also written for Purple Goat about marketing and travel when it comes to disability. Because I was p***** off.
💐 Want to get into publishing? I’ll be hosting a panel in September all about this, in connection with SIC. Sign up here to be the first to know as to when tickets go live.