“My name is Laura and I am the founder of ‘This is Visibility’. As someone who has Cystic Fibrosis and currently waiting for a double lung transplant, I wanted to create a community to raise awareness of disabilities and create a safe space for us to make friends, connect and share our stories and daily experiences. Check out our stories here, filled with incredible stories and shared experiences, which have brought me so much comfort especially when I have needed it most!”
“There are many challenges that affect people with disabilities in our daily lives and even more so during this year. We have been shielding, we have lost jobs and we have struggled with finances. But this isn’t just recently, people living with disabilities have often been invisible and sometimes end up paying more for everyday items and living costs – we have to pay the added cost for delivery for food when we may be unable to leave the house, we have to pay more for electricity due to possibly being home more often.”
“There are far too many examples, I know we have together shared so many examples and challenges of why life with a disability costs us more. Growing up and living with a disability, it breaks my heart that even though there are 14.1 million people in the UK that have a disability (Scope), life costs us £583 more on average a month solely because we have a disability (Scope – The Disability Price Tag, 2019)- how can this be allowed to happen?”
Laura and Rachel Beattie
“With nearly 50% of people living in poverty either a person with a disability or live with a person with a disability (JRF) I just had to do something to tackle this economic inequality. Why should we pay more to just live day to day just because we are disabled?
To tackle this inequality and to say a huge thank you to our community I decided to launch our ‘This is Visibility Members Programme’ – offering discounts and rewards on our favourite products and brands. By reaching out to companies on behalf of us as a community to secure these discounts to counteract the unfair and unjust added costs we have to face solely because of our disability. There have been many times in which I have been questioned on whether I have a disability when I have accessed offers available to people with disabilities.
‘This Is Visibility’ removes these barriers and stops us from being questioned – a place where we can shop without having to explain ourselves and ultimately, enjoy shopping again like everyone else.
‘You can sign up to become a member here to gain access to our exclusive discounts and start saving – I would love for you to join our community! As with speaking with so many of you, I know we have often felt like we were forgotten, invisible in society, and constantly left out of the conversation- with daily reminders from no disabled parking at a venue to inaccessible shops to lack of representation in the media to being subject to stereotypes that still persist for people with disabilities. This has to stop and my mission for This is Visibility is to make us visible as a community, as people, as humans – as I truly believe equality starts with an accessible society for all.”
“Thanks so much for being a part of this community, which brings me so much joy and support- please do say hello on our social media channels or drop me an email here.”
@laurajbeattie