Keep up to date with the latest news and contributions from Forum members and guests!

The Forum is made up of a wide range of people with different disabilities and experiences and we want our blog to reflect that. As such, you might hear from someone with a visual impairment in one post and someone with epilepsy in another.

If you have an idea for a blog post, get in touch! See our blog submission guidelines for more information.


York Ending Stigma Logo: An orange ciircle reads York Ending Stigma with a speech bubble saying "Let's talk mental health"

Daily living, work and the power of reasonable adjustments

We recently published part 1 – But you don’t look disabled –  where Lauren introduced herself and talked about not looking disabled. Now, in this blog, she’s focusing on work and daily living. Daily life isn’t that easy….

York Ending Stigma Logo: An orange ciircle reads York Ending Stigma with a speech bubble saying "Let's talk mental health"

“But you don’t look disabled…”

We’ve been talking to York Ending Stigma recently about their work and also what it’s like to have a physical impairment and poor mental health. Lauren, one of York Ending Stigma’s champions, has kindly written about this, and…

York Anti-racist Collective under a circle of empowered fists of a variety of skin tones

BAME? Disabled? Fancy getting creative this summer?

We are very excited to tell you about York Anti Racist Collective’s (YARC) Art Liberation Program, especially as they’re committed to making the workshops inclusive of disabled people! York Anti Racist Collective Art Liberation Program Starting Summer 2022,…

Disabled is spelt out in letter tiles

Attitudes and assumptions about disability

There are a lot of negative assumptions in our society which are damanging to disabled people. Obviously these more negative assumptions affect people’s attitudes towards disabled people. But it has wider impacts on our lives; if you underestimate…

Greyscale photo of Helen's tummy and her feeding tube

Feeding Tube Awareness Week Q & A with Helen

Feeding Tube Awareness Week 2022 runs from 7th till 11th February and is, as the name suggests, a chance to increase awareness around feeding tubes! Helen from the Steering Group has had her feeding tube for a few…

Hackney Cab on a quiet street

Taxis in York

We were recently asked how taxis in York work, or don’t work, for the disability community. This is what you told us. Primarily wheelchair users responded to us so the comments mainly reflect that experience. We are anecdotely…

A Blue Badge clock dial

City of York Council Executive Meeting – 13th January

On 13th January, Executive (made up of some councillors from York Greens and York Lib Dems) were asked to consider the location of barriers around the footstreets, to approve a increased budget to implement the scheme and to…

Illustration of three people talking. Each is in a separate frame and icons at the bottom of the image imply that they're talking via video conferencing

Get involved!

Our annual survey highlighted three key areas for us to work on; health and care, physical accessibility and attitudes and awareness. Further discussion has helped us get a bit more detail about those areas. We’re holding a couple of…

Group of people by one of the barriers holding a sign that says #ClosedToUs

Meet: York Accessibility Action

York Accessibility Action tell us who they are and what they’ve been up to: “In the summer of 2020, City of York Council closed various streets that Blue Badge holders were previously permitted to access, including Goodramgate and…

a glass jar on it's side with pennies spilling out

A cashless society – good for everyone?

Helen has been looking into the rise in cashless shops and venues and how they might affected disabled people. With Covid came a reluctance to handle cash. From a risk management perspective it made sense to ask people…

Green book icon next to AccessAble in purple lettering

AccessAble and City of York Council

AccessAble helps disabled people to find accessible venues and are here to tell us a bit about their work with City of York Council. In November 2020, when City of York Council renewed their partnership with AccessAble, they…

Illustration of three people talking. Each is in a separate frame and icons at the bottom of the image imply that they're talking via video conferencing

What do disabled people want in York

Last night, we held a meeting to talk about what you want us to work on in the coming year. Our annual survey helped us establish three priorities: Health and CareAttitudes and AwarenessPhysical Accessibility The discussion doesn’t stop…

Blue badge parking bay

Martin Higgitt report about city centre access

Helen has been reading a lot of reports about the footstreets and she wanted to tell us about one in particular, the Martin Higgitt Associates report which includes some sensible ways forward and some interesting data. We read…

Disabled parking bay

Footstreets Update

Yesterday night, there was a meeting that lasted over 4 1/2 hours. It was considering additional information which had been requested at the meetings on 25th October. Once the information had been considered, the councillors were asked to…

Grey circle with a black icon of a bin under the words In With The Bins

In With The Bins!

Today’s guest blog post comes from the In With The Bins campaign and talks about the need for sanitary bins in men’s toilets. Note: Cis is short for cisgender which describes a person whose gender identity is the…

Two hands typing on a laptop keyboard

Dyslexia Awareness is more than just a week in October

Dyslexia Awareness Week was held at the start of October but as anyone with dyslexia knows, it’s about much more than one week a year! My name is Lydia and I was diagnosed with dyslexia and irlens syndrome…

An empty Blue Badge parking space shows the yellow wheelchair icon associated with disability

York Footstreets Update

The footstreets issue continues to be an important issue for many disabled people and Blue Badge holders. We mention both groups as we know not everyone who is disabled has a Blue Badge, and not everyone who has…

Hand holding a fragment of paper out in front of them that reads Share Love Not Hate

Staying safe in York: Disability Hate Crime

Thanks to Olivia, who has written about our first online event about Disability Hate Crime. York Disability Rights Forum (YDRF) hosted its first online Disability Hate Crime event on Thursday 14th October. Its aim was to raise awareness…

A sign painted on a concrete wall reads 'everyone is welcome'

Upcoming Events!

There’s some exciting things coming up! Book through the eventbrite links, or email hello@ydrf.org.uk. York Disability Week is 27th November to 4th December and the programme will be out soon so keep your eyes open for that! How…

Pippa at her desk, headphones on, writing in front of her laptop

Working with a disability

We have another guest blog from the lovely Pippa, this time she’s talking about working with a disability; the challenges and the rewards. She’s also part of a team which are running an online career networking event especially…

York Tandem Club outside the Minster

York’s Walking Group for Ambulatory Disabled People

Ambulatory is a bit of a mouthful but it just means you can get around on foot. Open Country is a Yorkshire-based charity with over 30 years of experience in enabling disabled people to access and enjoy the…

Disabled parking bay

Get in touch with your local councillor about the footstreets

City of York Council have yet another survey out about the footstreets extensions. We fully appreciate that it’s exhausting responding again and again, especially when the topic hasn’t really changed. However another way of having your thoughts raised…

a glass jar on it's side with pennies spilling out

What does the £20 cut in Universal Credit mean in York?

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, or recieve Universal Credit, you are probably aware that the £20 increase in Universal Credit is being cut. If not, we’ve got a quick summary: In March 2020, as the…

Hand holding a fragment of paper out in front of them that reads Share Love Not Hate

Hate Crime Awareness Project

National Hate Crime Awareness Week runs from 9th to 16th October with the purpose of raising awareness of Hate Crime. York Disability Rights Forum has taken this opportunity to raise awareness of Disability Hate Crime. We formed a…

A Blue Badge clock dial

Footstreets: The reasons

The footstreet issue has dominated our activity for the last 17 months and, as we’ve had the same conversations repeatedly, we thought it’d be good to set out clearly the reasons the council has put forward for making…

Being a good ally is an active process

Being a good ally to any community is an ongoing process. It requires being open-minded, reflecting and learning from that. Even as disabled people, we need to work at being a good ally. How to be a good…

Hand holding a fragment of paper out in front of them that reads Share Love Not Hate

Join us to talk about disability hate crime

Disability hate crime is on the increase As part of Hate Crime Week, join us to find out more about disability hate crime, including how to report it and how you can be an ally to anyone experiencing…

York Minster on a sunny day

Shopmobility and Dial & Ride

Edited to update: Dial & Ride do run to the city centre, the information we used for this post was based on their website at time of writing. Whilst Shopmobility and Dial & Ride are great services which…

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