Columnist Shani Dhanda: Why I embraced my disabled identity

Growing up, I was surround by disability, by virtue of living with osteogenesis imperfecta and being around other disabled people in hospital or at sc…

Columnist Frances Ryan: Is there a more reliable New Year’s tradition than a train price hike?

Is there a more reliable New Year’s tradition than a train price hike? On cue, January saw rail fares rise by 3.1% adding hundreds of pounds to many c…

Robyn Steward

Robyn was born at 28 weeks and has ten disabilities, including Asperger’s syndrome. At secondary school she felt overwhelmed and was bullied frequently…

Jill Barkley

At 19 years old, Jill suddenly lost her sight from diabetic retinopathy. While adjusting to the huge change, Jill’s mum encouraged her to give hospital radio a go – and Jill found her new passion.

Ruby Jones

At 15 years old Ruby started experiencing pains which doctors dismissed as ‘growing pains’. However by the end of her GCSEs she was she was virtually bed-bound. Eventually Ruby was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome as well as Ehlers Danlos syndrome, which affects joints and connective tissue, and can mean chronic pain, fatigue, and frequent dislocations. Ruby’s blog, rubyj0nes.com, has been running for four years, taking people on her journey with her from holidays to hospitalisations and everything in-between.

Heather Lacey

Heather began advocating for disability rights through her blog, nosuperhero.co.uk, to provide an honest and open look at disability through her own lived experience. Her writing aims to raise awareness of disability and the ways it interacts with other aspects of a person’s life, in amongst her other passions of gin, guinea pigs, books and recipes.

Elin Williams

Elin started her blog in 2015 to share her love of writing and her all her passions, including music, beauty, fashion and lifestyle, and educate others on how she enjoys them as a visually impaired person. Her blog shares her perspectives and raises awareness of wider accessibility and disability issues. It also works to motivate and help others with visual impairments. She explains: “Sight loss deprives me from being able to see the world like everyone else but it doesn’t deprive me of my skills, my passions or my abilities.”

Holly Tuke

In 2015, Holly started her blog, lifeofablindgirl.com. As the name suggests, it covers Holly’s day-to-day life as well as a variety of topics relating to sight loss and disability, like education, assistive technology, beauty and lifestyle. Needless to say, the blog is fully accessible for assistive technology users.

Chloe Tear

For the last five years, while working through her GCSEs, A-Levels and university degree, Chloe Tear has been writing her blog, Life as a Cerebral Palsy Student. The blog has attracted over 70,000 views and led Chloe to work with over 45 organisations including Scope, the Royal Institute of Blind People, Huffington Post, the BBC, Cosmopolitan and The Mighty.

Mary Doyle

Mary Doyle has been named as one of Britain's most influential disabled people in 2018. Mary has over 25 years’ experience working as a programmer and service delivery manager for global, billion-dollar software and telecoms companies and now provides personal and executive coaching to business professionals.