October 2021 has been another productive month but also one of the most fun months I’ve had in a while with two consecutive weekends seeing friends.
Disability Horizons
It has been another busy month at Disability Horizons HQ. I began by organising more interviews with well known disabled people.
I’ve also spent more time editing products for our shop, which included a new range of vitamins and supplements.
I then created a new page for Spokz People, a mental health and wellbeing organisation that we’re partnering with. It’s new online wellbeing community and programme will be launched 11th November 2021.
Additionally, I published three interviews, two articles about disability hate crime and two news stories:
- Holly Yendell: Fashion designer of accessible clothing brand L.able
- George Webster: First CBeebies presenter with Down’s Syndrome
- Liam O’Dell: deaf vlogger and freelance journalist
- More than 50% of disability hate crime victims have experienced direct verbal abuse
- Living with the impact of disability hate crime
- Paralympian Stef Reid MBE signs up for Dancing On Ice 2022
- The Valuable 500 becomes first disability organisation to reach number one in the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list 2021
All my Disability Horizons content is now available to view in one place on the Emma Purcell Author’s page. This link can also be accessed on the “Disability Horizons” button on the menu page on the left of this site.
My featured content, product articles and sponsored posts for Disability Horizons can be viewed in my Journo Portfolio.
To read my latest news stories, interviews and featured articles on a regular basis, as well as browse other content from the rest of the amazing DH team, subscribe to the Disability Horizons newsletter.
Beernuts Productions podcast
Back in January 2021, I interviewed Australian blind filmmaker gough for Disability Horizons. Following the interview, he asked if I would be interested in featuring on his podcast, Beernuts Productions.
I accepted his offer and a couple of weeks ago, we recorded the podcast via Zoom. He asked me questions about my disability, what it was like studying my degree in journalism and becoming a freelance journalist and blogger.
The episode should be available to download and stream in the next few weeks from all reputable podcast services.
Friends reunited
After two years of very little to no contact due to Covid, I finally got to meet up with some of my favourite people to celebrate my friend Steph’s birthday.
We had a party at her house with a couple of other former Treloar friends – Lottie and Ryan – and her husband Paul, Mum, brothers and grandparents. I also got to stay over at their house too, which was nice.
It was great fun at the party with lots of food, drink, singing, dancing and laughing – something I’ve not enjoyed in a very long time.
Although the party was fun, it was hard to make conversation when it gets dark and there is loud music on and because Lottie has both poor vision, hearing and speech, so having proper conversations at parties can be difficult.
Therefore, the following weekend I went to visit Lottie so we could have a proper catch up. We went for lunch first at a local restaurant, which was nice, then went back to her house for a natter and rant about life.
Books
As I mentioned last month, I began reading a book series called Lovely Lane by Nadine Dorries, which is about a group of young girls training to be nurses in the mid 1950’s. I’ve just finished the third book and enjoying each book.
It reminds me of a series of Casualty or Holby City where they focus on different patients but there are also dramas among the staff such as crime, abuse, grief, affairs, pregnancies and business secrets.
In addition to this, for this months DH book club, we were asked to read an autobiography called The Girl In One Room by Jessica Taylor-Bearman, who lives with ME. I admit I didn’t know much about ME before reading this book.
The health battles this young woman had to overcome were extraordinary. I’m curious to know what the others in the book club think of this one.
TV
This month I watched both series of the Apple Original comedy series Ted Lasso, which is about an American football coach that comes to England to coach a fictional Premiere League football (soccer) team.
I only heard about the show when it won several Emmy Awards a few months ago. The first series was very amusing, but I found the second series to appear quite darker than I expected. It finished on a bit of a cliffhanger so I’m curious to know if there will be a third series.
I also watched a limited series on Netflix called Clickbait, in which a man gets killed and accused of having affairs, only to discover he was being catfished online.
It is basically a murder mystery but also a mystery into who was pretending to be him online. The finale wasn’t what I expected but still a great dramatic ending.
I’ve now just started to watch another Netflix series called The Haunting of Hill House. I had it saved in my list for ages but never got round to watching it until now. Plus, I wanted a spooky series to get me in the Halloween mood.
I very rarely watch scary shows or films because I need audio description to follow the story, but it tends to ruin the tension and atmosphere.
But with this programme, they’ve added the AD in such a clever way that you feel the tension and suspense and it still makes you jump when loud noises or creatures appear – not great when you have cerebral palsy though!
Audio Description petition
Talking of audio description, if you follow me on social media, you may have seen the news that TV channels including BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 lost their accessibility services (subtitles, sign language and audio description) due to a fire alarm setting off spriklers and damaging the transmissions.
It has been more than three weeks and Channel 4 still do not have audio description on its services and said it could be mid-November before it is resolved. I understand accidents happen and they need time to fix it but over a month is a joke.
If this was affecting entire programmes, there would be a national outcry but apparently two million blind people aren’t as important as the rest of society.
Also, it is ironic this is happening to the channel that is so-called “disability channel of the year”. So, Channel 4, if you’re reading this, please sort it ASAP, otherwise you’ll lose loyal viewers.
In the meantime, my campaign for audio description has continued throughout October 2021 and the petition has now reached a total 3399 signatures, which is incredible!
But I’m eager to reach thousands. The more signatures we get, the more likely changes could be made within the TV & films industries. Please, please, PLEASE continue to sign & share my petition!
Guest Bloggers Wanted
I’m still eager to collaborate with even more bloggers in 2021. So, if you’re a lifestyle, disability and/or music blogger, send me your blog stories. Plus let me know if you’d like me to feature on your blog as a guest blogger.
I’m flexible with any type of blog posts; life story, disability awareness, music event, musician promotion – basically anything to do with life, disability or music!
In addition, I have a guest blog series called “RFD Question Time with…” where I interview disabled people and/or bloggers. If you’d like to be interviewed in this series, please also contact me.
Blog post roundup
In case you missed any of my blog posts this month, here is a roundup of them:
5 favourite blog posts
Here are my 5 favourite blog posts I’ve read this month:
- Parcel delivery drivers don’t consider disability at SAT ON MY BUTT
- The Ultimate Gift Guide For The Friend Who’s Always Cold at Life of Pippa
- The Do All Blind People Think The Same? Tag at Luke Sam Sowden
- The Million Dollar Question at Diary of a Disabled Person
- 90 years of Guide Dogs at The Secret Blind
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