Not short of something to say: Disability sucks

Contact details

As well as being a freelance writer I am also a qualified counsellor and I work for a low cost counselling service in Exeter and for the NHS Gender Clinic also in Exeter.

Simultaneously, I work as a Disability Member of the First Tier Tribunal, Social Entitlement Chamber sitting on disability benefit tribunals on an ad hoc basis.

As a writer I specialise in writing about disability and health.

My articles have been published in the Guardian, Times, OUCH! [BBC disability website], Disability Now, Broadcast, Lifestyle [Motability magazine], The Practising Midwife, 'Junior, Pregnancy & Baby', Writers' News, Able, Getting There [Transport for London magazine], Junior, Community Care, DPPi [Disability, Pregnancy & Parenthood International]. I have also had articles commissioned by Daily Mail.

For more information about me and for examples of my writing please see below.

If you would like me to write an article for your publication, about any aspect of disability, please do get in touch:

emma@emmabowler.co.uk

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Disability sucks - but only sometimes!

I have the most adorable, chatty, smart, cute, witty 3 year old you could wish for. He has another defining characteristic - he's disabled, with the same disability as me.

Sometimes I've found myself looking at him recently as he grows into a 'proper' boy and feeling really sad because in spite of all his wonderful positive characteristics I know there will be times when he will hate being disabled. Maybe he'll even hate me for passing it on too?

But the really galling thing about this is that I still don't think it's a bad thing to be disabled overall it's just that other people make it FEEL like it's a bad thing [forgetting rubbish access for a moment here....].

If only we could get rid of that 'it must be dreadful to be disabled' attitude then disability would never suck. But will that, could that ever happen?

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On becoming a writer

After over 10 years as a BBC TV programme maker working on disability, documentary, entertainment and children's programmes I left to have 2 children.

Having decided that the full on lifestyle of programme making and being a parent wasn't for me I decided to utilise the skills, experience and knowledge gleaned from my BBC career to became a freelance writer.

Because of my personal experience of disability I chose to specialise by writing about all aspects of disability – from parenting to sport, clothes shopping to legislation, what’s in the news to specific aspects of particular impairments.

All too often the media portrayal of disabled people and disability issues doesn’t quite hit the mark, the tone is off, the language is wrong; the overall effect leaves the public none the wiser.

As a disabled writer my aim is to be positive, informative and accurate, that doesn’t have to mean dry and boring – a bit of humour can go a long way!