Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

Presenters Seaneen and Mark trade their own war stories about work. Joining them is CEO of the Business Disability Forum, Diane Lightfoot, who helps big companies employ (and keep) disabled staff. Disability Passports, advance statements and reasonable adjustments - learn the jargon and how to use it at work. Our new catchily named feature Maladaptive Coping Strategy of the Month has an airing. Pl...

Aruba had never had a Paralympic team until Shardea Arias de la Cruz, a student in her 20s, decided to make it happen. From finding her first athlete at the supermarket, to his sudden disappearance at the Rio Games, it has been a story of jeopardy, hustling and absolute belief. The charismatic Elliott Loonstra is the island's hope for Tokyo 2020. After working at a scuba dive shop at the weekends...

Libby Clegg MBE and Samantha Kinghorn, two of Britain’s top female Paralympians, describe their journeys to Tokyo 2020. Libby Clegg won gold at Rio 2016 then dealt with mental health difficulties directly afterwards. She’s defending her Athletics Women's 200m T11 title. Samantha Kinghorn became disabled aged 14 and started wheelchair racing to look cool in front of her friends. She lost out at the...

Boccia is not just a sport, but a family affair for the McCowan family. Brothers, Scott and Jamie, who both have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, play Boccia for ParaGB while their parents, Gary and Linda, are their ramp assistants. It's created quite the competition between the brothers - especially during lockdown when they turned their living room into a Boccia court so they could continue training...

Caz Walton was just 17 when she competed at the 1964 Paralympic Games in Tokyo and won gold for Great Britain. From the wheelchair slalom to organiser of athletes, Paralympic legend Caz Walkon has had quite the sports career. After a memorable opening ceremony in Japan with Crown Prince Akihito, Caz went on to win several gold medals, notably in the wheelchair dash and wheelchair slalom - two spor...

The world's eyes are on Tokyo with the Paralympic Games taking place - but what's it like to live in Japan if you're disabled? Mizuki Hsu grew up in Kyoto as a wheelchair-user. Now a mother-of-two and working for Google she says job hunting in Japan can be fraught if you disclose you're disabled - which you have to for its quota system. Josh Grisdale was born and raised in Canada, but became a Jap...

With just days to go before the Tokyo Paralympics, an international campaign called WeThe15 has been launched to improve the lives of the 1.2bn disabled people around the world. Meet South African Eddie Ndopu. He is an internationally acclaimed writer, or “mover and shaker”, who also works for the United Nations. Eddie, disabled himself, gives us the lowdown of WeThe15 on this podcast. You’ll love...

Indy car driver Sam Schmidt was paralysed from the shoulders down when he reversed into a wall at 200 miles an hour. This summer, and more than 20 years after his accident, Sam made his second racing debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He drives using a special straw that he “sips and puffs” to accelerate and brake, and cameras that use his head movements to steer. BBC Disability Corresponden...

Love Island is in full swing and this year it featured its first ever physically disabled contestant. Hugo Hammond, who has just been dumped, is a 24-year-old PE teacher who was born with a club foot. The show’s producers have previously said the villa can’t be adapted for disabled contestants due the cost of insurance and "budget constraints" - and with Hugo’s disability they didn’t have to chang...

The end of lockdown is nigh for many of us! Legal restrictions on mask wearing and social distancing in England are going, the other nations are taking it more slowly. Disability charities like Sense and Scope, are warning disabled people could be "left behind". On this week's podcast we hear from two disabled people about their apprehension and anticipation for the end of lockdown. From going out...

Warning: This podcast discusses sexual harassment and assault, so there is occasionally some graphic content. When Dr Amy Kavanagh started using a white cane, she realised she was being sexually harassed far more frequently than when she wasn’t “visibly” disabled. By 2018, the visually impaired activist decided she’d had enough and started the #JustAskDontGrab campaign on social media. It encourag...

Kate Monaghan has a painful energy-zapping condition, her wife Holly is on immuno-suppressants and they have two small children. Adjusting to the world as lockdown relaxes has been eventful. Their five-year-old had been at school until positive cases of Covid had been identified in her year. Now she's back to isolating at home... and it's somehow not as simple as before. For Holly, the idea of sta...

As Covid restrictions ease in the UK, our presenters share their mental health travel stories. Why is Seaneen banned from using one of the budget airlines? Why does Mark stay in hotels instead of with family? And identical twins Claire and Laura explain why seeing the world helps them stay well. We come up with ideas that the travel industry could implement to make life easier for people with ment...

Warning: This podcast discusses domestic abuse and sexual violence with occasional graphic content. Ebere* was 31 when she finally fled Nigeria for the UK to study, with hopes she had left domestic abuse behind. But a new relationship soon turned controlling, then violent and brought back memories of the sexual and physical abuse she had experienced as a child. As a black, disabled, queer woman, E...

Warning: This podcast discusses domestic abuse with occasional graphic content. Emma Dalmayne was just 17-years-old when she fled her abusive partner with her baby. Emma, who is autistic, has experienced violence at the hands of two ex-partners and has lived in a women's refuge. Saliha Rashid faced honour-based violence from her family. As a blind woman she thought they were being protective, unti...

Seaneen has a bipolar diagnosis, so when she experienced sudden and severe anxiety after having baby Jack in January, the perinatal mental health team came straight away. A medication increase caused further difficulties and an infection landed her in A&E. Recovering now, she feels "robbed" of Jack’s first golden month and worries what impact it has had on him. Plus, we discuss how to talk to...

Our lockdown couple Kate and Holly adopted a toddler with restricted growth during the pandemic. She calms down around dogs, but does she really need therapeutic assistance from an animal? And we drop back in on Kate's story about living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome whilst mostly shielding. She has been offered an operation to help her endometriosis and wonders if she should have paid more attentio...

Model Lucy Dawson was just 21 when she was wrongly sectioned for three months. Doctors believed she was experiencing a mental health breakdown, but she later learned she had encephalitis – a rare but serious condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the brain in a situation called “friendly fire”. While in hospital, an accident on the psychiatric ward led Lucy to become permanently d...

The day has finally arrived! After many months of lockdown we’re all finally allowed to meet friends and family – outside and in groups of six or as two households. For Kate, the relaxation means she can see her family, but will her mobility issues get in the way and prove problematic? And for transplant recipient wife Holly, who has been strictly shielding for most of the year, after so long apar...

The UK has just marked one year since it officially went into its first Covid-19 lockdown. It’s the anniversary no one wanted. On this episode we discuss the highs and lows of those 365 days for disabled people across the country. Nikki Fox, the BBC’s disability correspondent, has spent the past year finding out how disabled people are managing in the pandemic and practicing her ukulele. She’s joi...

Kate Monahan has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and her wife Holly is a transplant recipient. Filling out the Census form should take 10 minutes they say but it prompted a big debate for this couple. Kate also provides some hot advice for teenage girls who have the same condition as her or who live with pain. If you have any questions you'd like to put to Kate or Holly please email the producer amy.elizab...

Kate Monaghan has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, her wife Holly is on immunosuppressants, their newly adopted daughter Gracie has dwarfism and four-year-old Scout is returning to school. Want to know what it's really like navigating the pandemic as a disabled family? Kate and Holly deliver the brutal honesty of parenting in a pandemic… Produced by Amy Elizabeth. Subscribe to Ouch's podcast on BBC Sounds...

Recently journalist Lucy Webster wanted to join a matchmaking website but, before the company took her subscription fee, they warned she might find it difficult. Lucy was upset by the response and shared their email on social media. On this week's podcast we hear stories from disabled people who have used online dating agencies, as well as speaking to a representative from the industry. What shoul...

Kate Monahan shares personal moments in this virtual audio diary documenting a family of four in lockdown as a Mum with chronic pain and mobility issues. Four-year-old Scout returns to school after lockdown and mums Kate and Holly experience a range of emotions - especially when the school ring with some bad news which takes Holly off to the hospital - a place she's been avoiding for a year. Not j...

Mark's sister Alison died of covid-19 on 14 January 2021. She was 39. On this episode of Mentally Interesting, He and Seaneen explore grief and how it affects your mental health. Seaneen gently guides Mark through the story, while he paints a detailed and moving picture of the loss and devastation of losing his beloved sister. Specialist psychotherapist Julia Samuel brings a professional perspecti...