PHIL FRIEND

In 1946, the British government decided which jobs were suitable for disabled people. Lift attendant. Car park attendant. That was broadly it. Under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944, these roles were formally designated — reserved exclusively for registered disabled workers. It was actually an offence to give the job to someone without a disability without a special permit. By the 1960s, almost every lift attendant and car park attendant in Britain carried the green

A tech writer spent a year using AI for everything and called it a revelation. I'd call it a Tuesday. Here's why disabled people have been doing this for decades — and what that says about the world we live in. Joanna Stern spent a year using AI to do almost everything. She's a technology writer. Her new book, I Am Not a Robot, is out this week. She appeared on NPR's Fresh Air to talk about it — the year she used AI to read her medical results, draft her messages, and process

AI-generated image Let's start with something most of us can agree on. Getting out of the house in the morning is a logistical challenge. Kids refusing to eat breakfast. School bags that vanished overnight. The dog who decides today is the day to throw up its breakfast. Life is complicated before 9 am. I know this. I'm a wheelchair user. I'm also a husband, a father and a grandfather. My morning complexity is the same as yours — plus a bit extra. This week, the extra arrived

It's been a grim week for disability news. Access to Work is in crisis. One disability organisation found that support hours for their clients dropped by 82% in three years. Inaccessible railway stations are locking millions of people out of travel, employment, and healthcare. Benefits reform is creating real fear for hundreds of thousands of families. If you've been following the headlines, you could be forgiven for feeling like disability is under attack. But step back for

I watched the International Women's Day speeches in the House of Lords recently. Baroness Jane Campbell wasn't in the chamber. She joined via Zoom, supported by her personal assistant. It was a small but telling moment. A great demonstration of what happens when barriers are removed, talent can flourish. Jane used her speech to reflect on a "first break" she received decades ago. That single decision started a career that changed disability rights in this country. It's a r

Disabled Entrepreneur AI is threatening the jobs that disabled people depend on most. But their lifetime of navigating a world not built for them might be exactly the skill set the rest of us now need. Nearly a million young people in the UK are currently not in work, education or training. The highest figure in a decade, and still rising. At the same time, entry-level job postings are running 45% below their five-year average. Graduate roles in banking and finance have falle

It’s January. The long evenings are still with us, but thoughts are already drifting towards summer. Holidays. City breaks. A bit of warmth and light. For many people, this is the moment when flights get booked, and plans begin to take shape. For disabled people, especially wheelchair users, that process comes with a different set of questions. Not just where to go, but whether flying will be manageable at all. Credit where it’s due. British Airways has done something gen

We keep saying we want more disabled people in work. So why are we making the support they rely on harder to use? The government is clear about its ambition: more disabled people in employment, fewer people stuck on benefits, and a labour market that makes better use of talent that is currently overlooked. It’s an aim many of us would support without hesitation. But ambition only matters if the systems underneath it actually deliver — particularly for employers who are expect

In this post, I reflect on a thought-provoking article by Rachel Botsman and explore what her ideas mean for disabled people navigating work, isolation, and connection in a post-pandemic world. During COVID, the world stayed home. Work went online, meetings went virtual, and life became more accessible for many disabled people. What had previously been dismissed as “unworkable” – remote jobs, flexible hours, online events – became normal almost overnight. In her RSA article T