In the UK one of the first pieces of disability rights legislation was the 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. Over the next three decades, disability rights campaigners made a distinction between illness and impairment, for understandable reasons but perhaps with hindsight, this has had unintended consequences. Language is returning to including both, so disabled people and people with long term health conditions is a common phrase. So if you created a Venn diagram of disability and of illness, how big would the intersection be?

To explore this we invited three people who have fine minds and long term health conditions. We speak with UK based Catherine Hale, Founder and Director: Chronic Illness Inclusion, to US-based Katie Elizabeth who is editor and author and a director of Stigma Fighters and David Ager, a Location Analytics Specialist who comes with his personal take.

We had a fantastic, personal and insightful conversation. We highlight why some people with non-visible conditions feel like imposters, or they are not always believed. Why identifying as disabled when you’re long term ill is positive. Where traditional models of disability like the social and medical models help and hinder. There’s some compare and contrasts with US and UK viewpoints and we finish by asking our guests, what would help most in the future?

LINKS

Twitter accounts for guests and their connected organisations

Catherine Hale
Katie Elizabeth
David Ager 

Links to further reading 

Chronic Illness and Inclusion Project (CIIP) – 

Mobilising a Collective Voice for Social Change

What are energy impairments?

Images from Rea, thank you, Rea. https://www.reastrawhill.com University of Leeds
Here's a link to Rea's blog https://www.reastrawhill.com/post/chronic-illness-and-disability-am-i-disabled