This is how we do it: ‘His disability might change the sex we have, but we’ll adapt’

Jayda has lost desire in the past, but is loving the “vanilla-plus” sex she has with Syd – who has motor neurone disease How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymouslyWe can lay naked together without having sex, or we can have sex, an…

Jayda has lost desire in the past, but is loving the “vanilla-plus” sex she has with Syd – who has motor neurone disease
How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We can lay naked together without having sex, or we can have sex, and I never have to worry about feeling vulnerable

I don’t fit the normative idea of masculinity – and that attracts people who are looking for something different

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This is how we do it: ‘His disability might change the sex we have, but we’ll adapt’

Jayda has lost desire in the past, but is loving the “vanilla-plus” sex she has with Syd – who has motor neurone disease How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymouslyWe can lay naked together without having sex, or we can have sex, an…

Jayda has lost desire in the past, but is loving the “vanilla-plus” sex she has with Syd – who has motor neurone disease
How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We can lay naked together without having sex, or we can have sex, and I never have to worry about feeling vulnerable

I don’t fit the normative idea of masculinity – and that attracts people who are looking for something different

Continue reading...

University Challenge special axed over lack of support for disabled contestants

Christmas alumni episode had one blind entrant and another who was neurodivergent, both of whom say they did not get helpThe BBC has apologised and pulled a Christmas episode of University Challenge after two contestants complained about a lack of prov…

Christmas alumni episode had one blind entrant and another who was neurodivergent, both of whom say they did not get help

The BBC has apologised and pulled a Christmas episode of University Challenge after two contestants complained about a lack of provision for their disabilities.

The festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, hosted by Amol Rajan, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities.

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Young people in the UK: are you unable to work due to longterm illness?

We would like to speak to under-30s in the UK who are unable to work because of a longterm health condition We would like to speak with young people in the UK who are unable to work due to longterm health issues.How long have you been unable to work a…

We would like to speak to under-30s in the UK who are unable to work because of a longterm health condition

We would like to speak with young people in the UK who are unable to work due to longterm health issues.

How long have you been unable to work and why? How has it affected you – both financially and psychologically? Have you been able to access healthcare, or have you faced challenges?

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Unflinching hologram installation tells stories of UK’s ‘war on the poor’

Manchester’s Museum of Austerity uses AR to depict real people with disabilities who fell through society’s safety netIt is impossible to look away from the shimmering figures that emerge in what appears at first to be an empty room. And that is the po…

Manchester’s Museum of Austerity uses AR to depict real people with disabilities who fell through society’s safety net

It is impossible to look away from the shimmering figures that emerge in what appears at first to be an empty room. And that is the point.

Through a headset donned at the entrance of Museum of Austerity, which opened at the Home theatre in Manchester on Wednesday, holograms of people glow in eerie augmented reality. Approaching them, they feel real and touchable but also ghostly and ephemeral, which they are: they are real people who died when our societal safety net did not catch them.

The Museum of Austerity installation, an English Touring Theatre (ETT) co-production with National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio and Trial & Error Studio, will be at Home Manchester from 8 to 11 November 2023. Each session lasts 45 minutes, running 11.30am9.15pm, Wednesday to Saturday.

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‘A magical, vibrant, fantasy world’: the joyous kids’ TV show revolutionising disability onscreen

After a mum despaired of children’s toys’ failure to represent disability, she went on to create a glorious, colourful television series. This is her storySeven years ago, I sat at my desk and asked myself some big questions. Could I devise a children’…

After a mum despaired of children’s toys’ failure to represent disability, she went on to create a glorious, colourful television series. This is her story

Seven years ago, I sat at my desk and asked myself some big questions. Could I devise a children’s TV show which bursts from screens like a candy store of creativity? One that is bright, sweet and funny, capturing the magic of play and the limitless ability of young children to transcend reality and disappear into their own imaginations? Could I play with the conventions of children’s programming – which had historically excluded 150 million disabled children worldwide – and draw on my own experience as a disabled person to create a world so tangible that little fingers would long to reach in beyond the screen and hold the cute stop-motion characters in their hands?

These questions led to the creation of Mixmups. It’s a new 52-part series about three friends – Pockets the bear, Giggle the cat and Spin the rabbit – who transport themselves on playful adventures along with their guardian, the comical trunk-beaked Lucky Loover Bird. Each episode begins with the friends cooking up an idea for play – to go to space for a moon cheese sandwich, find a magical library where all the books can talk or catch a lost dream in a jar so that they can remember it for ever. They place toys and objects into a blue mixing box, add some sparkles and, using their magical wooden spoon, “Mix up the magic” (of play and imagination) and get swallowed inside the box on an adventure.

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‘Disabled people are sexual’: inside the audio pornography boom that is revolutionising desire

From transgender and disabled performers creating their own erotica to the mum whose sexy voice-acting was interrupted by her kids, meet the podcaster diving into aural sex contentPornography wasn’t something Amelia Lander-Cavallo thought much about. U…

From transgender and disabled performers creating their own erotica to the mum whose sexy voice-acting was interrupted by her kids, meet the podcaster diving into aural sex content

Pornography wasn’t something Amelia Lander-Cavallo thought much about. Until, that is, they were asked to host a podcast on the subject. Lander-Cavallo had “kind of given up on porn for a variety of reasons” but as a blind, non-binary drag performer, cares deeply about the representation of disabled people’s sexuality, feeling they are often infantilised or dismissed.

“Generally speaking – and this is one of the main reasons I was excited to do this podcast – it’s very important to me that people understand that disabled people are sexual,” they explain over Zoom from the Sheffield home they share with their wife Al, who sits just out of shot. “Most people just don’t assume that disabled people have sex, think about sex, care about sex – and would consume porn, be interested and excited by porn. So it was great to talk to people who have made this their entire career.”

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‘Disabled people are sexual’: inside the audio pornography boom that is revolutionising desire

From transgender and disabled performers creating their own erotica to the mum whose sexy voice-acting was interrupted by her kids, meet the podcaster diving into aural sex contentPornography wasn’t something Amelia Lander-Cavallo thought much about. U…

From transgender and disabled performers creating their own erotica to the mum whose sexy voice-acting was interrupted by her kids, meet the podcaster diving into aural sex content

Pornography wasn’t something Amelia Lander-Cavallo thought much about. Until, that is, they were asked to host a podcast on the subject. Lander-Cavallo had “kind of given up on porn for a variety of reasons” but as a blind, non-binary drag performer, cares deeply about the representation of disabled people’s sexuality, feeling they are often infantilised or dismissed.

“Generally speaking – and this is one of the main reasons I was excited to do this podcast – it’s very important to me that people understand that disabled people are sexual,” they explain over Zoom from the Sheffield home they share with their wife Al, who sits just out of shot. “Most people just don’t assume that disabled people have sex, think about sex, care about sex – and would consume porn, be interested and excited by porn. So it was great to talk to people who have made this their entire career.”

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Rejoice at this U-turn over rail ticket office closures – whatever the reasons for it | Zoe Willliams

Did ministers actually listen to public opinion, or were there less noble and more political motives involved?I want to believe in a world where this happened: Mick Lynch, head of the RMT union, did a media round last year so successful, running such e…

Did ministers actually listen to public opinion, or were there less noble and more political motives involved?

I want to believe in a world where this happened: Mick Lynch, head of the RMT union, did a media round last year so successful, running such effortless rings around Piers Morgan and the bishop of Durham in particular, that he built up his own power base in ambient public popularity, reflected in growing support for the rail strikes. As a result, the government’s previous strategy – to wind back rail subsidies via cuts to wages, jobs and conditions, acting and speaking in lockstep with the industry while stonewalling the union – gradually unravelled over 18 months.

In consequence the transport secretary, Mark Harper, has had to climb down on cuts to ticket offices – 1,000 were due to have been axed; that number is now zero – the government’s previous harmony with the industry is in discord, and Lynch is declaring a “resounding victory”.

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The UK government is about to make some disabled benefits claimants even poorer | Lucy Webster

Cost of living payments for those receiving Pip have been quietly axed, forcing many to choose between charging their wheelchairs or staying warmIt’s getting cold, which means that many disabled people will, once again, have to choose whether to keep w…

Cost of living payments for those receiving Pip have been quietly axed, forcing many to choose between charging their wheelchairs or staying warm

It’s getting cold, which means that many disabled people will, once again, have to choose whether to keep warm or charge their wheelchairs. Only this winter, they won’t be getting any additional help with the cost of living.

Last year, the government allocated cost of living payments to those on low incomes, and to disabled people who receive personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit. And yet, as the next round of low-income payments start to go out this week, that separate disability payment has been quietly scrapped. If it wasn’t so nakedly cruel it would be absurd.

Lucy Webster is a political journalist and the author of The View From Down Here: Life as a Young Disabled Woman

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