By Lucy Wood
‘Allyship’ is a word that describes social justice activism by groups of people to advance the interests of the marginalized. It relies on supportive associations through intentional, positive, and conscious efforts. For Disabled people, this can come from people with different disabilities across the disabled community and non-disabled people.
Here at lABLEd, as disabled women, Alice and Lucy work hard, both with the podcast and in their personal and professional lives, to promote a different kind of disability advocacy and allyship. We want to make lABLEd a platform where disabled people can tell their own stories in their own words and where we can explore the vast scope of the disabled experience. We practice allyship by making a space for diverse people with a variety of disabilities and health conditions to speak, as well as dedicating both air time and space behind the scenes to people who identify with other minority groups and believe that this allyship has helped us to grow and learn as individuals.
Allyship can come in may forms and we pride ourselves on practicing it across all aspects of our podcast. As long term listeners will know, Adam is our editor (and saviour) is non-disabled. Frankly, without him, we would not be able to make our show. He is an ally to the disabled community and by working together as part of our team, he allows the voices and issues of our contributors to be heard, making our guests feel seen, valid, and understood.
But do you have to own, produce, and edit a semi-successful podcast to be an ally? No. – This is a hobby that got out of hand – but anyone can practice good allyship on a daily basis. We thought we’d share some slightly more straightforward and less labour intensive ways to show your support and allyship for other minority communities:
1. Listening
Listen (and not just to our podcast). It is as easy as that. We talk about ableism, accessibility, disability rights, access to health and social care or disability benefits listen to us. It might be uncomfortable at first, what you hear might make you angry or even ashamed; but that is okay. It’s very difficult to have your privilege or lack of knowledge pointed out to you, but listening is the best way you can learn. And if you hear about an injustice or inequality that makes you angry, do something useful with that, turn that anger into passion and spread the information further out into your community. Minorities need allies to overcome injustices. We cannot fight on our own we need voices like yours to cultivate change
2. Speaking
Tell people that we must do better. The local pub has garden furniture in their accessible toilet, have a word. Someone used an ableist word at work, speak up. Your mate is posting a new video on TikTok, remind them to include captions. Minorities can’t be everywhere at once, do us a favour, when we’re not able to advocate for ourselves, raise your voice on our behalf.
And remember, if you are disabled, just because something is accessible to you individually does not always mean it works for everyone; lack of captions, interpreters, or other access needs that are overlooked are just as important as ramps and more commonplace accommodations.
3. Learning
I speak for all of us when I say we do not have the energy to repeat everything. We need you to do some of the leg work – do your own research. Instead of asking a disabled person you met on the bus questions about accessibility or prejudice, look for campaigners and advocates to follow on social media, read books written by disabled authors, use Google. We have learnt so much creating the podcast; listen to the show, follow our guests on social media, and learn about what they say. Give us feedback. If you are unsure of something, then ask that question. Doing the work yourself is impressive and really shows you value us.
4. Respect
Words are powerful. Being mindful of your language and learning what words people prefer to be used to describe their identity is an excellent start to allyship. If someone wants you to use a different word or phrase to describe themselves, then use that, or if you are unsure, ask
Just like racism, sexism and homophobia, there are words that disabled people find offensive, words as retard” and “spaz”. Although these words might have previously been socially acceptable these have changed over time, as with terms used around ethnic minorities and the LGBTQ+ community.
But also understand that some minorities have reclaimed words that have previously been considered slurs For example, example, some people within the disabled community have reclaimed the word “crippled”. This doesn’t mean everyone in the community uses it and it certainly does mean it’s acceptable for non-disabled people to use it.
Most importantly, please do not fear the word disabled. Know that the word liberates many disabled people – primarily non-disabled people have decided it is terrible.
5. Include
One of the most common phrases people say when challenged about inaccessible spaces is that they don’t need to change the environment or space because “disabled people don’t come here”. Remember that there is a big difference between “don’t come here” and “can’t come here”.
Invite your minority friends to join you in the things you enjoy; join them in the things that they enjoy. Make space for us in your community and leave the doors open; we might not always want or be able to participate, but if you make an effort to invite us we are more likely to do so.
Essentially, being an ally to any minority does not mean taking charge, taking over, or knowing what is best for us. Instead, it is about deferring to our community and learning from our lived experiences.
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