February 2023 has neither been an overachieving nor an underachieving month. Just continuing the status quo of working to keep Disability Horizons afloat, finding ways to tackle loneliness and bearing with the reality of relying on others for support.
Disability Horizons
As I mentioned last month, I’m now in sole charge of content at Disability Horizons and it has been a lengthy-ish transition but I think we are almost back on track now and we have everything in order,
Here are the articles I published and edited this month:
- Driving Forwards: a memoir and reflection of life by TV presenter and disability advocate Sophie Morgan
- How you can enjoy magical adventures with an all-terrain power wheelchair
- Naidex 2023: how you can have fun and get motivated at Europe’s largest disability exhibition?
- Is it OK for disabled people to have suicidal thoughts?
- LanzAbility: making Lanzarote an accessible and inclusive holiday destination
- Inside Our Autistic Minds: Chris Packham helps give autistic people a voice in a new documentary
- Quaden Bayles: bullied boy with dwarfism bags role in new Mad Max film
- TV Access Project: a coalition of broadcasters pledge to make the TV industry more accessible for disabled talent
- Strictly Come Dancing seek a wheelchair dancer for new series
- Naidex 2023: check out accessible products and inclusive brands coming together at the Disability Horizons Marketplace
- Dare to Dance: Strictly’s Amy Dowden hosts her own dancing show
All my Disability Horizons content is 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 top 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 regularly, as well as browse other content from the rest of the amazing DH team, subscribe to the Disability Horizons newsletter.
Trip to Bristol
It feels like a lifetime ago but at the beginning of February, I headed to Bristol to meet up with my friends Steph and Paul and see the Editors live at The Marble Factory (review below). It was nice to spend time with them but was disappointing it was cut short as Mum was eager to head home early. That’s the hardest part of relying on others – having to compromise everything and not having the flexibility to choose when to do things.
On the plus side, we stayed at the Ibis Hotel on the Bristol Harbourside and its accessible from was amazing. It had a large lounge area with the bedroom and bathroom in an adjoining room. It had wooden flooring throughout so it was easy to manoeuvre my wheelchair and portable hoist.
It also had a walk-in shower but I didn’t get a chance to try it out. Plus the bed had a perfect gap underneath to get the hoist wheels/legs under when transferring me on/off the bed, meaning I didn’t need to use elephant feet to raise the bed up.
My only criticism would be the accessible room was several floors up and I had to use a small lift to get up. Then the room was at the furthest point of a long, narrow corridor. It would have been better on the ground floor near the entrance. Plus if they included a ceiling hoist and profile bed in the accessible room, then it would’ve made it easier to do my personal care.
Books
I’m still continuing to read The School for Good and Evil series. I’ve got about a quarter left of book three and, although they’re good, I’m starting to feel that I need a fairytale, fantasy break. So, once I’ve finished this, I may postpone reading the next four books in the series and read a few autobiographies stacked up in my Audible library.
TV
I’m still binge-watching my way through The Vampire Diaries – just started series five. I’m still loving it but some storylines either confuse me or frustrate me. For instance, I’d rather Elena be with Stefan than Damon (almost like Team Edward or Team Jacob in Twilight).
I also watched an interesting two-part documentary called Inside Our Autistic Minds, where naturalist and presenter Chris Packham meets four people with autism and helps them create films to share what it is like to be autistic to their family and friends.
In addition, I finished watching the new series of Waterloo Road. It was ok, but not as good as before. There were a lot of predictable moments throughout the show I thought. Plus, I was hoping to see more previous characters make appearances as staff or parents.
Furthermore, I watched the unstoppable Lionesses to another tournament victory. The England Women’s football team retained the Arnold Clark Cup, beating South Korea, Italy and Belgium in the three-day friendly competition.
As much as it’s great we’ve won two Arnold Clark Cups and the European Championship last summer, we’ve achieved all this on home soil. Therefore, I’m anxious about whether we can keep up this winning streak and become World Champions in Australia this summer – fingers crossed!
Lastly, I’m so glad the “happiest 90 minutws of the week” has returned with Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. It is so joyful, funny and entertaining and the show always puts a smile on my face.
Audio Description petition
My campaign for audio description has continued throughout February 2023. This has included researching how AD is created and produced and contacting audio describers and other people in the TV/film industry to find out more about how AD is decided, recorded and distributed.
If you, or someone you know, works in this field and would be happy to help me in this research, please get in touch.
The petition has now gained a total of 3669 signatures, which is incredible!
But I’m eager to reach thousands more. The more signatures we get, the more likely changes will be made within the TV and film industries. Please, please, PLEASE continue to sign & share my petition!
Guest Bloggers Wanted
I’m still eager to collaborate with even more bloggers in 2023. 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 post – 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:
- Review: Editors at The Marble Factory, Bristol | February 2023
- Get a 30-day FREE trial of the Spokz People wellbeing community and programme for disabled people
- Music Interview: Novacrow
5 favourite blog posts
Here are my 5 favourite blog posts I’ve read this month:
- What “I’m Fine” Really Means When You Live With Pain at Despite Pain
- 10 Accessible Winter Activities That Aren’t Sports-related but Still Super Fun! at Simply Emma
- How I shop for clothes – as a legally blind person at Fashioneyesta
- Surrounding Yourself With The Right People at New Lune
- Ableism – Society & Disability at The Life of Sophie
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