Disability isn't niche

This is getting boring now

Hello,

I’ve had so many conversations with disabled friends and colleagues recently that boil down to this: we’re not getting work because editors, commissioners and whoever else holds the purse strings think disability-focused content is niche.

And you know what, I’m so flipping bored of it. I’ve been explaining just how common disability is since I entered journalism twelve years ago and very few people seem to have got the memo. How many times do we need to say the same thing?

Here’s the thing though. I’ve heard exactly the same reason being used to turn down work from friends who write about race, LGBTQ issues, or even feminism.

If issues that affect women - i.e. more than half the population - are considered niche, it would appear concerns about audience interest are not a reason but an excuse not to do something.

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Looking for cool, last-minute weekend plans? Look no further.

Join me in conversation with my dear friend and brilliant activist

Ellen Jones

as we chat about my book, The View From Down Here, at The Common Press, our beloved queer bookshop.

We’ll be chatting about the complex intersection of ableism and sexism and how it has shaped my life from work to dating, education to friendship, and much more besides. There’ll also be a healthy dose of disabled queer chaos/joy, and who would want to miss that?

Tickets here or, if you can’t make it, you can grab a copy of the book here.

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This isn’t a call out of anyone in particular (I am lucky to work with fantastic people who do think disability is important) but of the creative industries in general. Across the board, the ‘default’ audience is still imagined to be white, straight, male, nondisabled and middle class.

(Which is pretty daft considering that we know women and minorities are the main consumers of most creative content - nearly 80% of fiction sales in the US and UK are to women. But sure, niche.)

This entrenched belief isn’t just factually incorrect, it’s creatively stifling. How many brilliant stories, how much fascinating research, what kinds of unique perspectives are we never seeing or hearing because we’re too scared to take a punt? Surely the most interesting tales are the ones we haven’t heard before.

It’s also distinctly anti-progress, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Sometimes you have to lead from the front - create a market by creating the media to sustain it. I find that there’s a large proportion of decent people who perhaps would never go out of their way to read about disability but are genuinely very interested when given an easy-to-access opportunity to do so. When I say there are people we could reach if we tried, they are who I have in mind, not the much smaller group who angrily believe the media is too woke (who are, let’s face it, best left alone). It may be true that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink, but it is also true that you do actually need to provide the water.

Please, please can we tell more new and different stories in 2025 and beyond? I think we’ll soon find that they are exactly what audiences are looking for.

Speak soon,
Lucy