Jacqui Browne: "I see disability as being part of my identity, I see it in a positive way, because it informed me and shaped the kind of person that I am."

Image Description: Image of Jacqui Browne sitting on an electric scooter, wearing sunglasses and summer clothes, with the sea behind her smiling. Underneath the photo is the text "I see disability as being part of my identity, I see it in a positive way, because it informed me and shaped the kind of person that I am. - Jacqui Browne, Disability Rights Activist"

What does the phrase disability is a dirty word mean to you.

For me, I certainly don't see disability as a dirty word. It's part of who I am and it's very much part of my life but it's not only my life. I see disability as being part of my identity, I see it in a positive way, because it informed me and shaped the kind of person that I am. I was born with a number of impairments, some of which gave rise to various health-related issues, as opposed to disability issues. A question I often wonder about, is there a difference between the life experiences of people who have been born with impairments, as opposed to people who acquire impairments.  And I fully understand that difference and that experience where some disabled people might see or perceive disability more negatively than people who have grown up with it as part of our lived experience. Because as I always say, I never knew any difference, you know. So it's part of who I am really. So I certainly don't see disability as a dirty word.

But I do see it certainly has, without a shadow of a doubt, informed what I am about and my outlook on life and my understanding around inclusion and accessibility. Of course it's heightens our awareness around those kind of factors that you mightn’t think about, if you didn't have an impairment. Disability is not a dirty word for me, and I would find myself as somebody who is disabled but living with a range of impairments, some visible, some invisible.

“I see disability as being part of my identity, I see it in a positive way, because it informed me and shaped the kind of person that I am.”

What does it mean to you to identify the disabled woman?

I think that as I mentioned earlier, like disability not being a dirty word, I’m a disabled person and but also a very important part of that identity for me is being a disabled woman. Gender is part of life, in whatever shape or form we all identify. I identify as a straight disabled woman but I fully respect the experience of people who have other gender identities, including different sexual identities.  I think we all have the right to be who we are. I also think the experience of disabled women as opposed to maybe disabled men and I’m not going to include children here but as you turn into adulthood I do think there are significant differences. Sometimes subtle and I think they reflect the broader mainstream society we often talk about. For example, when you look at politicians at the moment, at the public health response to Covid-19, what are we looking at every day on public platforms? – men. The same glass ceiling issues are there for disabled women just as they are for all women in society, so I identify with women in general, in terms of you know, discrimination, exclusion and all that and I think it is even a double jeopardy, as we often call it, for disabled women.