03/12/2025
Today, on , Liverty tenant and Tenant Advisory Committee member Joanna sent her networks the below message & granted us permission to share. It speaks more powerfully than we ever could:
“Dear friends and colleagues,
Today is the International Day of People with Disability. The theme this year is “Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress.” It is a worthy theme — but as always, the lived reality matters more than the slogan.
And so, today, I want to offer something simple and sincere.
Thank you to those who meet me with steadiness and respect — who recognise me as a person, not just a task in their day.
That kind of presence is never small. It makes inclusion real in ways that policy alone cannot reach.
I also want to quietly acknowledge that disability is not something to be “overcome.”
It is a relationship between a person and the world around them.
Healing, when it happens, is rarely about fixing bodies. It is about repairing systems, assumptions, and the small daily interactions that either honour dignity or diminish it.
As we speak today of disability-inclusive societies, my hope is gentle but firm: that we keep building environments , personal and professional, where disabled people can live without having to explain, justify, or shrink themselves to fit.
I will continue to do my part, in my work and in my life, to insist on courage, dignity, and mutuality. And I am grateful for those who travel with me in that spirit.”
