These are words used by wheelchair users to describe their experiences of being grabbed or moved without consent. #HandsOffOurHandles For more: Hands Off Our Handles on Instagram. Please share!

Call for volunteers

People want the cosy fairytale ending. The salty comfort food of it all. @pollyrowena.bsky.social 👏💛

I wrote this and barely a day later a man grabbed my arm and squeezed painfully to, "Get my attention." #JustAskDontGrab

It's wonderful to see this. Especially when so many people flock to Strictly as if it's a religion—it truly is such a powerful platform. I still hope we’ll see a wheelchair-using dancer soon!

Add your Government in.

Any other ending is hardly worth it really. 🙃 #Disability #DisabilityRepresentation

The whole truth of it. #Disability #DisabilityRepresentation

To borrow and modify a quote. #Disability #Disabilityrepresentation

As Donald Trump visits, I wanted to again point out that there are a million reasons to hate that man—you don’t have to reach over them and pick ableism. #Disability #DisabilityRepresentation

I remember watching this for the first time and thinking it was sweet. Now, I look at it and think, "This is an abomination." It really has become my personal measure of how far I've come in understanding disability and all the shit that comes with it.

I wanted to introduce The Diary! I share interviews and snippets with disabled people about their favourite disabled characters—why they matter personally and why representation matters. Now on Instagram too! @disrepresentationdiary on there! #Disability #DisabilityRepresentation

If you're in Manchester, the amazing @rachelcdailey.bsky.social will be interviewed by the cobbled-soap legend Cherylee Houston about all things disability and our history. Tickets are available below!

Emmerdale actor and activist James Moore spoke to me about the character Walter White Jr. from Breaking Bad, how annoying he is—something I’m told can’t be emphasised enough—and why he was inspired to try acting at a time when he felt his own disability would make it impossible.

I asked @tinywriterlaura.bsky.social for her personal thoughts on Disability Pride Month: “[For me] It means recognising that suffering and joy can both exist in a life."

After today and, let's be real, the last few months, years, I don't blame anyone for having had enough, being fed up, and getting fucked off. I myself need to wallow for a bit, but don't let the bastards grind you down. 💛 #TakingthePIP

No disability is an excuse for being a sexual predator. It's also odd that he claimed he needed to be "protected" from working with women—essentially saying, "I'm too disabled; it's your fault." It’s a strange and twisted twist on the Tiny Tim narrative.

The three of us together for the very first time: two disabled authors—one recently positively reviewed by the New York Times—and me! Happy Disability Pride Month! @rachelcdailey.bsky.social @tinywriterlaura.bsky.social #TakingThePIP

Disabled people aren’t scammers, but the Salt Path situation rather seems to prove that when it suits them, the non-disabled will eat up a “toxic health narrative” like a spun sugar fairytale.

Contributed a few bits to this, including an article on Geordi La Forge and disability representation. 🖖💛

I've heard "genuinely disabled" so much in US and UK media, and even though I can't walk at all, I've been told, "I don't look disabled," with a reassuring nod. But—how dare anyone say that. You don't look like you'd be so gullible as to believe Ass-inine ableist soundbites.

I’ve been really unwell recently, and the end result is that I need glasses. The optometrist said, “These can get expensive.” They absolutely can, but I had to laugh in a self-funded wheelchair.

I spoke to my local newspaper about the lift at the cinema, which has been out of order for months, obsessed with the fact that they were like, “You can still use the ground floor.” Yes, I know how ground floors work, babe. Don’t do this in Disability Pride Month. 🍿🎬 ♿

I wrote this recently after being unable to write due to an illness, and I wanted to share it because it unknowingly makes a point about the two-tier system. As a disabled adult and as a disabled child, I benefited so much—it would be barbaric to rip that from future generations.  #TakingThePIP

As someone who was asked to sign the original #TakingThePIP open letter, these “concessions” are a kick in the teeth—it’s so selfish and snide, so very them, to think we would backstab our own community, future generations, like this.  #TakingThePIP #WelfareNotWarfare #StopTheCuts

Let's be so clear: You come for one of us, you come for all of us. #TakingThePIP

I think we can do a lot of talking and writing all the way around the subject, but plainly—isn’t this what racism, sexism, ableism, and all the other bigotry strip us of?

If possible, please contact your MP and ask them to vote against the cuts—we need to be represented here, too. I can’t imagine anything more personal or important.  #TakingThePIP #WelfareNotWarfare #StopTheCuts

I'm curious about other disabled people's experience of these spaces—accessibility and attitudes. It's something Bibi and I have discussed a lot. There is something unique about these spaces where they can be wonderful, but the negatives can become so pronounced—up close and personal.

My first pair of glasses ever after an eye-related illness—can you tell that my childhood heroes were Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, and Superman?

I love Happy Feet. For that, "Oh, woah, it's about disability as an experience," moment.

I am so proud to have my work on disability representation referenced in this incredible, human, little book. 💚💛🤍

No one owes you a piece of their soul, even if many of us are conditioned to give it——in the vein hope it will finally teach you a bit of empathy or decency.

Stop the cuts! These cuts push people further into poverty, isolation, and crisis. It’s cruelty - plain and simple! #DisabilityRebellion #WelfareNotWarfare #TakingThePIP #WelfareBill #StopTheCuts

With How to Train Your Dragon’s release, what are your thoughts on its disability representation? Someone I interviewed said it’s their favourite, adding, “I won’t lie, I’m nervous [about the live-action sequel] as it is not a disabled actor playing the character.”

I said if there were a disabled Sex and the City this would have to be the storyline of the first episode—any other similar "plot" ideas?

I feel that, for me, it's the expectation of an ending—like they want the TV ending, the fairytale ending, or whatever. Otherwise, what's the point? The truth is, in the real world, it's all fragile, vulnerable, and a bit naff.

I think about this a lot. I had major surgery at 17, and my aunt said, "I didn't think it was that bad." Like we really do sanitise and numb people to reality.

I wanted to wish everyone attending "No Kings" good luck. Online protest is a valid, important, and accessible means of expression as well. I don't think disability gives us superpowers, but it gives us a little something. Don't let the bastard(s) grind you down. 💛✊ #Disability

This, for me, is what is happening with the “Trump is disabled” narrative—he’s scum, but the first thing people reach for is ableism, it’s so telling it turns my stomach. We’re telling you that it’s damaging, but we don’t “get it.” I have been hearing those words on the playground since I was six.

I'm so grateful for this review/recommendation from one of my favourite accounts—it made my week. Since it's Michael J. Fox's birthday, I'll just say, "You're the Doc, Doc." 💛💛💛

This is a disabled woman who works herself to the bone for others—I've personally benefited from her kindness. I understand that people are struggling, but empathy needs to be mutual. Imagine receiving this kind of treatment when you're already at your own low point.

I am hearing more slurs in everyday conversation now—on the street, at the pub—the same way I used to hear them in the playground. I still flinch when I think of them being uttered behind the scenes of a popular and influential TV show. Whether driven by ignorance or some normalised casualness.

“Rebellions are built on hope…this is our chance to make a real difference.” - Star Wars #DisabilityRebellion #TaxTheRich #WelfareNotWarfare #TakingThePIP #CAC #StopTheCuts

As someone who was raised to be alone in my disability—push it down—the fact that we share this unseen experience—culture, language, hell, we wince at the same spots and grooves—and have favourite disabled characters and ones we hate. It’s still a lovely little shock: “Oh, you get it.”

I wish non-disabled people could have the emotional experience of disability—being called a sp*z and hearing members of my family make snide or thoughtless comments about my disability. I never wanted to be an activist or bothered about politics, but that is what this makes us.

Much of what the media, TV, and film tend to spin is the superhuman, the scrounger, or the non-disabled fairy-tale ending—a cure. But for most of us, it’s really about making things manageable enough to live ordinary lives.

I signed this letter. In the five years since I discovered the word "ableism," I have protested everything from assisted suicide to cuts—a flex of the finger is a political protest in a disabled body. If you can contact your MP or just share this on social media, please do. #TakingThePIP

I'm so proud and honoured to have been asked to sign this— we're fighting for our lives here. #TakingThePIP

I’ve seen this a lot over the past few days: the expectations. Imagine lugging around your own disability—the effort, the thought processes, the brain ache. Then, questioning why another disabled person, on their own, isn’t able to be all things to all people.