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It was super to be joined by Nic Cook in this session. Nic is a disabled parent, PhD researcher, public transport user, and grass-roots environmentalist.

She has worked in disability justice, within Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) as well as community organising and activism, leading campaigns, and co-developing approaches to disabled-led decision-making for inclusive and accessible infrastructures. She set up and facilitated the Disabled Climate Action Forum in the North East, which brought together disabled people to develop inclusive climate action whilst acknowledging climate injustices and ‘eco-ableism’ in net zero policies. This is currently being re-launched by Difference North East, a local DPO.

Nic is currently doing an ESRC-funded PhD interrogating where disabled people and disability are represented and understood in active travel planning, and how we might crip those processes for fair and inclusive mobility. She writes poems that think about the relationship between the instability of the natural world and human thought, feeling and action. She lives on coastal Tyneside with her son.

During the session, Nic mentioned an important Government consultation that is currently open on mobility aid legislation, and some sessions being run by Wheels for Wellbeing to support people to understand and respond to the consultation, which you can find out more about via this link: https://wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/our-campaigns/campaigning/mobility-aid-legal-changes-every-journey-everyone/

Nic also mentioned the work of the Motability Foundation: https://www.motabilityfoundation.org.uk/

We would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for making this session possible.