Podcasts are a great media source for information, education, laughter, escapism and relaxation. You can listen to them anywhere – at home, in the office, in the car, on public transport and even on holiday. Plus, you can easily access them on any device at no cost.
Here at Disability Horizons, we recommend 11 of the best disability podcasts you should listen to for advice, support, humour and entertainment.
It’s Good To Walk
Ed Jackson became disabled following a swimming pool accident, which left him with dislocated C6/C7 vertebrae and a ruined rugby career.
Despite this, he has gone on to be an adventurer, charity founder, broadcaster, speaker, author, brand ambassador and mentor.
Ed is best known for presenting Channel 4’s European Champions Cup rugby highlights and doing commentary for the Six Nations. He was also part of Channel 4’s presenting team for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.
It’s Good To Walk is Ed’s debut podcast, in which he chats to disabled and non-disabled guests about resilience, determination and their journeys through adversity.
His guests include Paralympic rower David Smith MBE, who has an incurable tumour on his spine that has paralysed him four times, racing driver Billy Monger, who lost both his legs in a car crash while racing, and DJ, music producer and mental health advocate Carly Wilford.
Access All: Disability news and talk (BBC Ouch!)
Access All: Disability news and talk (formerly BBC Ouch!) is a weekly podcast about mental health, wellbeing and disabled people. It includes life stories and solutions with a friendly touch for listeners around the world. It is presented by BBC News’ Disability Correspondent Nikki Fox.
This new re-brand of the podcast launched in April 2022 and it features a range of disabled celebrity guests including Briony May Williams, Melissa Johns, Ruth Madeley, Alice Tai and many more.
As well as interviews, Nikki also discusses a range of disability-related news topics, such as accessibility, finance and attitudes with people from the wider disability community and industry experts.
Previous episodes from BBC Ouch!, which has been going since 2006, are also available to listen to with hosts Simon Minty and Kate Monaghan. They also interview a range of disabled people, discuss hot topics on disability and share their own experiences.
The Martyn Sibley Show
Martyn Sibley is a busy man as a disability entrepreneur, businessman and disability campaigner. As well as being Co-founder of Disability Horizons and Purple Goat, he has also been running his own podcast – The Martyn Sibley Show – since March 2017.
In the early years, Martyn interviewed a variety of influential and successful disabled people, including Paralympic cyclist Sarah Storey, travel blogger Cory Lee, consultant and presenter Simon Minty, TV presenter Sophie Morgan, entrepreneur Josh Wintersgill and disability rights activist Baroness Jane Campbell – to name a few.
He also featured some members of the Disability Horizons team, including our other Co-founder Srin Madipalli, our Editor-in-Chief Liz Ransome-Croker and our former business manager, the late great Chris Cusack.
In May 2020, Martyn then started a new daily journal, in which he recorded a 5 to 10-minute podcast sharing what had been happening in his life each day, what he had learnt and how he was feeling.
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Most recently, Martyn has released a new, even more personal series featuring family members, including his fiance and mum, reflecting on life events, such as the pandemic, health challenges, recent travels, anxiety, career progression, childhood and growing up with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
lABLEd
lABLEd is a podcast about disability, illness and difference hosted by Alice Evans and Lucy Wood. They are two disabled thirty-something women who stumbled across each other online in 2020 after Lucy shared a post about the idea of doing a disability podcast.
They both discovered that they have a very similar approach to life and a similar outlook on disability. Lucy, who is a marketing coordinator at AccessAble, has cerebral palsy (CP) and is a wheelchair user. Alice, who is a disability advocate working in social services, has the genetic eye condition retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and uses a guide dog.
Drawing on their own lived experiences of disability, they created the lABLEd podcast, which puts the focus back on the individuals and the voices and stories of disabled people, rather than societal expectations.
lABLEd exists to promote a different kind of disability advocacy, a platform where disabled people could tell their own stories and we could explore the vast scope of the disabled experience.
Each episode they interview a variety of people with different disabilities, impairments and health conditions. The guests share their experiences, challenges, attitudes they face from others and even their achievements and success.
In addition, the lABLEd podcast has a feature called “History Lesson”, in which Lucy and Alice tell a story about a historical figure who lived with a disability or health condition.
The Grumpy Gits
Presented by broadcaster, actor and disability campaigner Adam Pearson, disabled journalist Simon Sansome and autism advocates Chris Leasmith and Duncan Casburn, the ‘Grumpy Gits’ spend each episode putting the world to right and discussing everything from disability to the stupidest of questions.
The podcast first began in January 2019 as While Disabled, in which Simon Sansome interviewed well-known disabled people including Rosie Jones, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Samantha Renke. Then, in April 2021, he teamed up with Adam, Chris and Duncan to rebrand it as The Grumpy Gits.
In each episode, they discuss their day-to-day lives with a disability and/or parenting disabled children, digest some of the most bizarre news stories of the week.
They also answer some ridiculous questions, such as “has there ever been a situation in your life where you wish you could’ve thrown a smoke bomb and disappeared?” and “if you could make a rule for the day that everyone had to follow, what would it be?”.
The Disability Download
This new series of podcasts by disability charity Leonard Cheshire. Hosted by Erin, who has rheumatoid arthritis, The Disability Download is a place to “share stories and open up conversations about disability.”
Joined by guest hosts along the way, including disabled model Caprice, BBC correspondent Gary O’Donoghue and Ruth Owen MBE, it covers current topics, shares stories and opens up conversations about disability, including sex education, inclusive sport, music and mental health.
How Do You Cope?
Comedians and radio presenters Elis James and John Robins talk to a range of guests about the mental health challenges and hurdles they’ve faced in their own lives, whilst asking the question… “How Do You Cope?”
Guests that feature on the podcast include The Last Leg co-host Alex Brooker, Sex Education actor George Robinson, TV presenter Chris Packham, Queen guitarist Brian May and ITV journalist Tom Bradby.
The Beernuts Productions Podcast
The Beernuts Productions Podcast is a fun and entertaining interview podcast, hosted by an Australian man simply known as Gough, who is a blind comedian, writer, producer, editor, director and actor.
He chats to disabled and non-disabled comedians, actors, musicians, artists, athletes and basically anyone else who is interesting. Each episode is 20 minutes in length and is recorded professionally at the Beernuts Studios.
In November 2021, he spoke to our very own editor and writer Emma Purcell about living with cerebral palsy, sight loss and her career in journalism.
You can also check out an interview Emma did with Gough back in January 2021.
RNIB Connect
RNIB Connect Radio is a UK radio station for blind and partially sighted people to find out what is happening in the community. The podcast includes charity updates, interviews with people living with sight loss, news and current affairs relating to the blind community, advice and support in accessing services and much more.
There are also other great podcast channels from RNIB Connect Radio including:
- Conversations – blind and partially sighted people speaking about a wide range of topics
- Read On – the audiobook show all about accessible reading
- Tech Talk – technology for blind and partially sighted people
- Sport – see sport differently
- The Happy Hour – mental health, mindfulness, and overall wellbeing
- Tracks of My Life – take a journey through our guest’s life
- Support – other podcasts from RNIB.
- TV Guide – daily audio TV listings
The TiLt Parenting Podcast
TiLT Parenting, from parenting activist, speaker, and author Debbie Reber, features transformational interviews and conversations with authors, parenting experts, educators, and other parents aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising neurodivergent children (eg ADHD, autism, learning disability, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, and more).
TiLT aims to help parents feel empowered and in choice in how they parent, have more peace in their daily lives and parent and advocate for their child from a place of confidence and awareness so that their children can thrive in every way.
Topics on the podcast include navigating big life transitions, support in schools, drug addiction, technology, travel strategies, social skills, positive discipline and much more.
Disability Horizons (DHTV podcast)
Last but not least, our very own Disability Horizons podcast! Our podcasts are audio recordings of our Disability Horizons TV channel that is hosted by product reviwer Zec Richardson, TV personality and journalist Mik Scarlet, and occasionally Dan White.
They discuss a variety of disability-related topics, including sex and relationships, chronic pain, carers and caring, the NHS, disability pride, the Paralympics, disability hate crime, disability representation in the media and much more. Check it out for yourself with our disability and humour episode…
They’re also often joined by guests, including broadcaster and disability campaigner Andrew Miller, founders of Spokz People and interabled couple Mel and Steve, and even fellow podcasters Lucy and Alice from lABLEd (who even took control of hosting one episode in May 2022).
You can access all these disability podcasts via the links in this article or wherever you get your podcasts – Apple, Google, Spotify etc.
What other disability podcasts do you listen to? Or do you host your own podcast that we’re not aware of? Share your suggestions in the comments box or on Facebook and Twitter @DHorizons.
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