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SubscriptionsAuthor: Penny Pepper
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Piss and Pity: A Disabled Person’s Eternal Search for an Accessible Convenience
Why is it acceptable for disabled people to live without a dignified way to go to the toilet? asks Penny Pepper
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‘Disability, Illness and Impairment are the Norms of Human History – Living Through This Labour Government’s Benefits Cuts Is Brutal’
Cutting disability benefits will do nothing but heighten the scapegoating of disabled people once again – how can a Labour Government introduce such a punitive measure? Penny Pepper asks
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‘Letters To My Younger Selves – And the Quiet Women Who Made Me Who I Am’
The voyage of my life could never be described as ‘easy’, writes Penny Pepper, but it has been built around friendships that brought illumination in the toughest of times
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‘Government Narratives About ‘Disabled Scroungers’ Give Trolls Permission to Viciously Attack Us Online’
The notion that disabled people are scroungers and benefit cheats is almost permission to further abuse against them, Penny Pepper writes
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‘More Empty Promises on Health and Social Care Let Disabled People Down Again’
Do I really need to keep saying that this is where the personal is the political? writes Penny Pepper
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Assisted Dying: ‘There Can Be No Human Hierarchy for Whose Life Is Valuable or Not’
Any law to help people die is the beginning of a slippery slope for disabled people whose lives are already devalued, writes Penny Pepper in her monthly column
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Indifference for the Disabled: A Traumatising Night Affecting My Every Day
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper describes the aftermath of a terrifying break-in, which she fears may have been a disability hate crime
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‘Unsurprising Seasonal Anxieties for the Disabled and Elderly’
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper wonders what new threats disabled and elderly people will face as the season turns
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‘The Tories Are Out But We’re Still Fighting for Our Disabled Community’s Rights’
Disabled people may have been cheering the end of Tory rule – but their trust has not been won by Labour, writes Penny Pepper
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Disability Pride Month: Would You Dare Ask Any Other Marginalised Group What That Is?
Every change that improves the lives of disabled people has been predominantly led by disabled people themselves, whose stories are overlooked or misappropriated, writes Penny Pepper
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‘Disabled People Must Have the Capacity and Freedom to Vote’
There are 14 million disabled people in the UK – are politicians even considering them in this election campaign?
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‘Assisted Suicide: Always Personal and Always Political’
For Penny Pepper, debates about changing the law on assisted suicide are a way in for a dangerous, niggling, idea of how we should value disabled people’s lives
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The Frida Effect: In Praise of Disabled Women
On International Women’s Day, Penny Pepper celebrates how other disabled women came to be her pillars of strength, wisdom and joy
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‘Fighting the Five Giants: It’s Time to Renew Our Social Contract’
Every one of us will experience illness, damage, impairment, disability and, inevitably, old age, writes Penny Pepper
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The Awesome Rise of AI… You Must be Choking
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper explores her love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence
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When Lost Humanity Breaks Down Healthcare
Penny Pepper reflects on the concerning and uplifting behaviours she witnessed during her four-week stay in hospital this summer
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‘My Emergency Stay in an NHS Intensive Care Unit was a Catastrophic Awakening’
In the first part of a series detailing her journey after several sudden brain haemorrhages and seizures this summer, Penny Pepper reflects on what has changed – for good and for worse – in our NHS
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Just Another ‘C’ Word? The Weird, Wonderful and Worrisome History of Cripple
Penny Pepper explores how she encourages disabled people to reclaim labels – to twist and refute them
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The Dreadful Truths about the ‘Disabled Freeloader’: All the Things We Get for Free!
Penny Pepper debunks the bigoted beliefs held about the Blue Badge, support workers, wheelchairs and more…
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‘The Patronisers Club and the Calculator of Hate’: A Bigoted Focus on Disability Continues
When will the disabled experience be seen and valued in a humane way?
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‘High Time for High Fashion to have Found Us’
Vogue Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful understands we have to go beyond stunning photography and glorious clothes – and push for further discussion around the disability narrative, writes Penny Pepper
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‘When COVID Said My Name’
Penny Pepper shares her thoughts on finally catching the virus as a Clinically Extremely Vulnerable disabled person
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Disabled Life: Crippled by Confusion, Banished by Barriers
Penny Pepper wears her bloody, beaten heart on her tattered sleeve in this powerful snapshot of the constraints imposed upon disabled people
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The Fundamental Right to Intimacy
Do disabled people have sex? Of course we do, writes Penny Pepper. Why are you so surprised?
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A Letter to Nowhere: ‘Like Many Disabled People, I’m Fearful’
Penny Pepper pens an open letter to her Conservative MP, explaining why the NHS crisis is personal and political for those ‘living in the real world’
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‘Pity Porn on Santa’s Knees’
Penny Pepper reflects on what the festive season means for her, as politicians and the media continue to marginalise the creation of new cultural narratives around disability
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Being An Employer of Your Own Care
Penny Pepper has spent more than 20 years balancing the books, hiring and firing, and eyeing up spreadsheets – like many disabled people, all in the name of ‘Direct Payment’
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Bogged Down with the Eternal Fight for the Perfect Convenience
Why is it still not widely understood that disabled people have the right to decent toilet facilities just like anyone else? asks Penny Pepper
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Twenty-Seven Cardigans and Still Not Enough: A Torturous Style Journey
Penny Pepper reflects on her relationship with fashion – and how punk took her into disability activism and feminism
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Class War – One of Disabled People’s Many Battles
Penny Pepper explains why class continues to be so oppressive for working-class disabled people
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My NHS and how the Tories Broke It
Penny Pepper reflects on how the Government dodges responsibility for the lack of resources available for our health service
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Barriers, Ignorance… And More Barriers: The Every Day Experiences of Disabled People
Society and politicians need to wake-up to the fact that disability is a normal part of the human condition that can impact us all, says Penny Pepper
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From Nostalgic Disability Direct Action On Screen – To Rishi Sunak’s Cold Shoulder in the Spring Budget
A new BBC film, ‘Then Barbara Met Alan’, looking at the beginnings of disability direct action, contrasts sharply with Rishi Sunak ignoring disabled people from his Spring Statement, says Penny Pepper
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The Care Carnage
As the Health and Care Bill returns to the House of Lords, Penny Pepper dissects why it will hit disabled people the hardest
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A Disabled Person’s Liaisons with Politicians: A Love-Hate Affair
Penny Pepper explores what a steady stream of inadequate disability ministers reveals about the sorts of people required to really improve disabled people’s lives
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The Highs and Lows of 2021: A Disabled Person’s Perspective
Penny Pepper shares some of the enduring inequalities and the memorable breakthroughs which characterised the past year for disabled people
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Recognise Disabled People’s Rights Instead of Turning them into Charity Cases
Penny Pepper explains why well-meaning but pity-inducing fundraisers do not lead to structural change for marginalised people
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Empty Shelves and Driver Shortages are Important – But So are the Disabled People Left Without Carers
The effect on the lives of disabled people of care workers reluctant to come from abroad, and a shortfall of those joining the profession in the UK, is being unsurprisingly ignored, says Penny Pepper
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The Rejection of Disabled Creativity – Enough Is Enough
Penny Pepper explores the failure of the diversity and inclusion trope for disabled people with a variety of stories to tell
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The Government’s New Disability Strategy is No Strategy At All
Pepper offers her own suggestions for policies that would help remove barriers for disabled people
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Travels on Another Path: Obstacles for a Disabled Explorer
Penny Pepper shares her experiences of trips away and why, despite doing everything to mitigate it, the challenges of travel continue to reinforce disabled people’s second-class status
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Liberty, Equality, Infirmity?
As members of the House of Lords discuss lifting pandemic measures put in place to enable disabled peers to discharge their duties from home, Penny Pepper explains how archaic attitudes are still plain to see in society
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Who the Hell are the Disabled?
The impact of COVID-19 has made it starkly clear to those who live disability that it’s the imposed barriers of social organisation that makes them disabled, explains Penny Pepper
