Pick of the blogs

Physically disabled journalist and blogger Sarah Ismail wouldn't be without the internet for anything. Here she highlights some of her favourite disability blogs

Over the years, I’ve learnt that the Web gives all disabled people a clear voice – something that many of us don’t have in offline life – as well as access to a lot of useful, interesting information that otherwise we’d have no way of accessing.

I discovered blogs about three years ago, and since then, there’s been no looking back. I started editing my personal blog, Same Difference, (samedifference1.com) in summer 2007. There I publish all kinds of useful information for disabled people and their families and friends. I also comment on disability representation on TV, in movies, in books and on stage, celebrate progress in disability rights and rant about disability wrongs.

Since I started blogging and reading disability blogs, I’ve been lucky enough to “meet” other disabled bloggers with all sorts of disabilities – some of which I’d never otherwise have heard of. One of my favourites is the brilliant BendyGirl, who blogs at Benefit Scrounging Scum (benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com) about, in her own words, “life in a broken bureaucracy with a bendy and borked body.”

There’s also a blogger called The Goldfish who, as well as writing her Diary (blobolobolob.blogspot.com), runs an annual blogging event called Blogging Against Disablism Day. Every year on 1 May, disabled bloggers (and bloggers who care about disability) worldwide make a special effort to publish a post about some form of disablism. The Goldfish then links to all of these at her site. I’ve participated since 2008. I love the idea of the day and look forward to it each year.

Then there’s Crippen, the disabled cartoonist. I visit his website, (crippencartoons.co.uk) whenever I need a smile. And, of course, no list of disability websites would be complete without the BBC’s Ouch! (bbc.co.uk/ouch) Ouch! includes a blog, a regularly updated disability news page which links to disability news stories from newspapers throughout the UK, and a messageboard. They are also the publishers of the one and only Disability Bitch (bbc.co.uk/ouch/opinion/b1tch) and the hilariously brilliant monthly column, Disability Is Everywhere.

I’ve also “met” online some parents and family members of disabled people who blog and campaign for disability rights in all areas. Nicky Clark, whose daughters are both disabled, is campaigning to get more disabled actors and actresses on TV, particularly in roles of disabled characters. She runs the appropriately titled Don’t Play Me, Pay Me campaign. (dontplaymepayme.com)

Then there’s the one and only Sharon Smith, who had a public confrontation with Frankie Boyle after she heard him making negative comments about people with Down’s Syndrome, her five-year-old daughter’s disability, during a show in April this year. This inspired her blog, I Live For Glitter, (k1tt3ns.blogspot.com) and made her an overnight media sensation.