A note: when this website was at the ideas stage, Dani posted about an email exchange (below) with a journalist – she declines to give her ‘how I became disabled’ story. I’d focused on individual interactions, but many of us disabled people have had brushes with the media. And when details of our bodies and trauma are published online, it can be far-reaching – our names forever googleable alongside the traumatic details.

For journalists – well this is just the way we write about disabled people. Dani needed somewhere she could send that journalist that’d back her up… and hopefully in the future this website can be that place. Thanks to Dani for allowing me to put an edited version of the correspondence up here, and for the inspiration.

—Lucy Catchpole

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“Here’s my angle with sharing my story and the reason I share and publicize it:

My aim is for Dani’s Twins documentary film to be part of the current cultural moment that is seeing disabled people take ownership of disability narratives.

As for my disability, I do not share the trauma story of my accident. Both for personal reasons and for making an important point that disabled people should never feel obligated to share this information. I prefer the focus to be on how I, a woman with a disability, navigate motherhood and build a family.

What I do disclose in these human interest stories is that I sustained a spinal cord injury at age 23. It resulted in quadriplegia which caused paralysis and muscle weakness from my hands down to my legs. I am more than willing to deep dive into how that translates into how I function day to day and adapt as a mom. 

The article could be very transparent by stating this up front—that I do not delve into the ‘how it happened’ due to personal choice. This is an angle that would be a very empowering moment for disabled readers who feel exploited by this question. 

…In the disability community, we often call storytelling from this formulaic angle ‘inspiration porn’. I personally don’t mind an inspirational lens so long as it respects an individual’s boundaries around medical privacy and trauma.

The Washington Post article did a GREAT job with handling that and disabled and nondisabled readers admired and were empowered by the upfront honesty and authenticity.

A rare opportunity for your editor to look at this story through a truly representative disability-led angle.”

Dani Izzie – edited from an email exchange with a journalist, 2022

“…we would need to start at the beginning and say basically what happened in the accident.”

“If not, I understand, but it wouldn’t work as a subject for us.”

Email to Dani – from a journalist, 2022

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