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

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Finding an accessible home - what a nightmare!

We're currently lucky enough to be living in a very modern, spacious, single storey home, in fact it was built on Grand Designs so you can imagine what it is like - think lots of glass! Unfortunately it has also recently been sold so we have to move.

This is actually the first time in my 38 years that I've lived in a house without stairs, I'm not sure why it's taken so long for me to realise that it is a good idea. At least in our house in London we did fit some stairlifts, just as well as there were 4 flights of stairs...

Having to rush to find an accessible home is not a situation I would recommend. We've had to stretch our search to two counties to increase the likelihood of finding somewhere.

The problem is that single storey homes are near next to impossible to find. When I say single storey I'm thinking of the more modern concept of single floor living, more 'Grand Design-esque' than bungalow...

Bungalows you see seem to be a very different beast to what might be described in estate agent speak as a 'single storey home'. I've only seen one property described as bungalow that was spacious, modern, inviting and that was a new build. Most seem to be stuck in some bygone age, multicoloured carpets, borders halfway up the wallpaper, pink bathroom suites... arggghhhh.

Anyway better get back to house hunting...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Am I bigger yet?

Archie is now 4. I've told him he is a little bit bigger now he is 4 but I get the impression he had expected to shoot up on his birthday. Indeed on the day he asked "can you see me growing bigger"...

He is now increasingly aware that although he might be older than some other children, including his younger [but not little] brother, he isn't bigger than they are.

I find it's a balancing act - not wanting to make him have a hang up about his height whilst at the same time not wanting to pretend that he will end up as big as everyone else when he won't be.

The bottom line is that he could do just fine in life if it wasn't for the prejudice that exist in others....