Peter Torres Fremlin
@desibility.bsky.social
Covering world news with a disability lens. I love languages, questions and places I've lived 🇬🇧🇧🇷🇧🇩🇪🇬 Writing Disability Debrief: https://www.disabilitydebrief.org/signup
Heraclitus said that "panta rei", (everything flows). It's at the heart of his philosophy. You can't bathe twice in the same river. #disability #ableism #ageism www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/oh-i...
Oh, it's happening to me
Ageism, ableism and adaptation, with Ashton Applewhite
disabilitydebrief.org
This is a @404media.co appreciation post. What an incredible newsroom. They consistently report stories that are genuinely meaningful and wouldn't have received adequate coverage elsewhere - and they do it so incredibly well. I'm an enormous fan.
We'd love our network to get behind @desibility.bsky.social's call for submissions. The everyday lives of people with disabilities are too often underrepresented. This is a chance to share those experiences directly, in people's own words. Details: www.disabilitydebrief.org/dear-disabil...
Dear Disability Diary
An open call for new writing
disabilitydebrief.org
🎉New Podcast🎉 Very excited to share that our episode with Peter Torres Fremlin @desibility.bsky.social, Joe Wood and Vanessa Rampton is now available! Listen here for an incredibly rich discussion on assisted dying, disability politics, and what agency really means. assistedlab.ch/podcasts
Assisted Lab's Living Archive of Assisted Dying – Podcasts
Assisted Lab is a research group based at University of St Gallen, Switzerland, with research affiliates in Canada, Northern Ireland, and the Netherlands, which investigates the cultural productions –...
assistedlab.ch
Very pleased to share my new essay in the Disability Debrief @desibility.bsky.social about what my experiences in a residential institution taught me about power and resistance & how those lessons have come back to me during rising authoritarianism. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/inst...
What being institutionalised taught me about resistance
And why these lessons come back as Trump attacks marginalised communities
disabilitydebrief.org
While scrolling the Blackwell's website, I found out that my little book on France is available for the almost absurdly cheap price of £6. Anyone who needs a primer on France that is short, sharp and (hopefully!) stimulating should go for it... blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
France
Emile Chabal, a leading specialist of contemporary France, tells the story of a paradoxical country. From the calamitous defeat by Hitler's armies in 1940 to th
blackwells.co.uk
It's stormy weather for making media covering international disability rights. See how we cover global disability news and make a platform for new stories on disability. And please help us continue: www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/weat...
Weathering the storm
Help Disability Debrief sail against strong winds
disabilitydebrief.org
"My disability made my body a unique canvas for fashion and styling. Through clothes I found new forms of inclusion and participation. And with a unique form of self-expression, I found my identity." – Tanzila Khan www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/find...
Finding my armour in threads
Fashion and identity as a wheelchair user in Pakistan
disabilitydebrief.org
📝New piece out by Disability Debrief (which we happen to be quoted in!) Top quotes from the past months of disability reading 👇 www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/list...
Listen and smell intently
Undesirable activities, histories of disability rights, and more
disabilitydebrief.org
New advice column, by and for people with disabilities (of all types). Recommended if that's your jam 🙂
Peter Torres Fremlin@desibility.bsky.social · 4mo ago“As a young autistic woman, how can I figure out if someone is using me or if they are genuine? I don’t want to go around being bitter and not trusting anyone.” A new disability advice column by @teawithhb.com. Dear HB: an agony aunt in constant agony. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/am-i...
“As a young autistic woman, how can I figure out if someone is using me or if they are genuine? I don’t want to go around being bitter and not trusting anyone.” A new disability advice column by @teawithhb.com. Dear HB: an agony aunt in constant agony. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/am-i...
What does “nothing about us without us” mean if our words are written by machines? I get that AI can be an assistive tool, but if we adopt it recklessly, we undermine an essential component of disability advocacy: how we share our lived experience. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/made...
Made by humans, for humans
Why Disability Debrief doesn’t use AI (and when it does)
disabilitydebrief.org
Disability lists, wheelchairing in the snow, and what does winning look like? www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/spot...
Spotlight or Substance?
The Zero Project 2026 and what's missing from disability lists
disabilitydebrief.org
Much of the disability movement is against assisted dying, but disabled people have also been at the forefront of demanding access to it. This article takes a step back to see the complexities of what's at stake, in terms of policy & personal experiences. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/coun...
How different countries approach assisted dying
Dignity, autonomous choice, and the slippery slope
disabilitydebrief.org
Do personal stories ignore global inequity? One Disability Debrief reader thought so. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/coll...
Together as a collective force
Debrief readers, relevant stories, and more from the mailbag
disabilitydebrief.org
Are disabled artists allowed to tell the stories we want? What's the relationship between art and activism? And can art actually end ableism? In my new essay, I reflect on 10 years of making disability media. www.bodybabble.com/p/do-disable...
Do disabled artists have to be activists?
Reflecting on 10 years of making disability media
bodybabble.com
“The parents distance themselves from the harm they inflict by telling themselves it comes from a place of love.”
Peter Torres Fremlin@desibility.bsky.social · 6mo ago"I teach my students to be bold warriors against any mistreatment, to find their own place in our culture. But I'm not able to do that in my own case." www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/root...
"I teach my students to be bold warriors against any mistreatment, to find their own place in our culture. But I'm not able to do that in my own case." www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/root...
I spent the month in pre-election Dhaka, and heard a lot of conspiracy theories
Dhaka pre-election diary (pt 1, possibly, of 2)
January 6-19 2026
open.substack.com
On the fruits and flaws of disability community: "You can’t pick palm nuts without your hands getting oily". Alexander Ogheneruemu writes about Deaf community in Nigeria, how it liberated him and others at the same time as its challenges and corruption. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/pick...
"Silence has long been one of my dearest companions. But over the past months it has abandoned me." Tharā Gabriel evocatively shares her experience of tinnitus the impact on her life, and the search for an assistive technology that might help - or hurt. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/sear...
Searching for silence
Tinnitus 1 - 0 Trinidad and Tobago
disabilitydebrief.org
A difficult topic but thankful to the team @truthout.org and to my dear friend and collaborator @mariannedhe.bsky.social for suggesting me as a possible person to write this.
Truthout@truthout.org · 7mo agoIf we can create and build on communal structures of care, we can hold that grief together more easily.
In 2025 I took my first flight in over four years, started using a machine to help me breathe at night, and fell in love. As for the wider world? This year was the most significant setback to global disability rights in my lifetime. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/onwa...
Onwards into the unknown
Setbacks and soulmates: a disabled look back on 2025
disabilitydebrief.org
I've started my own Substack! Brief weekly comments on Middle East political & conflict trends. My first post argues that a new form of militarization is driving authoritarian transformation in Israel: Netanyahu takes a leaf from Hafez Assad’s playbook open.substack.com/pub/sayighye...
Netanyahu takes a leaf from Hafez Assad’s playbook
A new form of militarization of Israeli politics and society is reminiscent of how dictator Hafez al-Assad built authoritarian rule in Syria
open.substack.com
Part of disability is trying to explain our experiences, whether it be to children, bureaucrats or a new lover. My favourite quotes on self-advocacy and much more, including @accease.bsky.social @rossshowalter.com @afropersonnage.ch et al www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/self...
“Self-advocacy is hard work”
Explaining our experiences, “cripping up”, and kids' questions
disabilitydebrief.org
If The Squeaky Wheel has ever given you a smile, a laugh, or a temporary cold sore, please consider donating at thesqueakywheel.org/donate.
“I'm honoured to be your ancestor”: remembering Alice Wong in her own words. Alice's writing changed the way I see myself and our future. Here are the ones that touched me most: www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/hono...
