About this site
Welcome to Disability Writes. This website has been set up by Just Services with funding from Arts Council England. Many disabled people face barriers in getting support and encouragement to write. This may be because there is:
- A lack of physical access to places where non-disabled people find such support.
- A lack of understanding, or an unwillingness to listen to the support needed by disabled people.
- An unwillingness to consider that what disabled writers have to say is of value.
- An unwillingness to give honest, constructive feedback to disabled people.
- And so on...
Disability Writes actively supports and encourages disabled writers, whatever their previous writing experience. It promotes the work of disabled writers to a wide audience of disabled and non-disabled people through this website and printed publications.
Disabled people can register to the site and receive constructive feedback on their writing through the work in progress section. We don't judge people on their spelling and grammar. We do encourage good quality writing.
Disability Writes began as a small project funded by Arts Council England to support and encourage disabled people to express themselves through writing. We did this by running creative writing groups and working with people one-to-one, recognising that some people were unable to come along to groups. We gave practical support such as scribing for those people for whom physically writing was impossible and gave honest constructive feedback to enable writers to improve their work. Some people told us that no-one had ever given them feedback before and believed that this was because they were disabled; many had found this unhelpful at best and patronising at worst. Through this project we published a book: Just Writers. This is a collection of 42 poems, stories and articles by disabled writers. Just Services, who set up the Disability Writes project, is a small workers' co-operative. We set up in 1999 to support and encourage people whose views are often unheard, through training and groupwork. In 2004 Whitehill Publishing became part of Just Services, enabling us to extend our work through publishing and promoting good writing from people who may have limited opportunities to become published writers.
What do we mean by the term disabled people?
We use the term disabled people to mean people who consider themselves to be disabled. This includes people with physical and sensory impairments, people with learning difficulties and people who experience mental ill health. We also recognise that some people have impairments or illnesses that are hidden.