I’m a regular writer and speaker on disability, society and churches, in the national and Christian media. I link here to recent articles and talks. For my academic writing, visit my hcommons page.
2022
Disability and God’s Justice (text). Modern Church blog, Nov 2022. I reflect on why disability is a social justice issue for churches – because it’s about God’s justice.
Disability Justice: a conversation with Emily and Naomi (video). Preach Magazine YouTube Channel, Sept 2022. We talk about the barriers that disabled people meet in church life, and how that reality can be a long way from God’s Kingdom of equality and justice.
Torch Trust ‘Reflections’: interview with Emily and Naomi (audio). Reflections, Torch Trust podcast/RNIB Radio, Sept 2022. An in-depth conversation about our book.
Book Review: ‘My Body is Not a Prayer Request’ by Amy Kenny (text). Inclusive Church blog, Aug 2022.
Book: At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches by Naomi Lawson Jacobs and Emily Richardson. Published by Darton, Longman and Todd (2022).
A Vision for Disabled Christians (text). Preach Magazine, 20th July 2022. Co-written with Emily Richardson. In this blog post for Preach we reflect on the experience of writing our forthcoming book, ‘At the Gates: Disability, Justice and Churches’.
Opening Up the Church Gates to Disabled People (text). Church of England Newspaper, 8th July 2022. Ahead of the book’s publication, I reflect on how churches can create cultures of access for disabled people. Read on the website if you’re a subscriber, or buy the issue for 89p on the CEN app (find out how to download here).
Disability and Church: Intersectionality (video). Church Times/HeartEdge webinar. I spoke on disability and sexuality, on a panel together with Fiona MacMillan, Rev Dr Lamar Hardwick and Rev Rachel Mann.
A Man with a Mission: Mark 1:40–45 and ‘Mission With’ Disabled People (text). Article for the ANVIL Journal of Theology and Mission (vol. 38, issue 1). Disabled ministers and writers reflect on mission and disability in this thought-provoking issue – read the full issue here.
2021
(Still) Calling from the Edge: Conference Review (text). Inclusive Church blog, Oct 2021. A review of the 2021 disability and church conference, an annual disabled-led partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields Church and Inclusive Church, which celebrated its tenth year in 2021.
Disability and Power in the Church of England (video). Michael Ramsey Centre for Anglican Studies, November 2021. Panel discussion with Kt Tupling, for the ‘Power in the Church of England’ webinar series.
Disability and Sexuality: Queer Encounters with Diverse Bodies and Minds (PDF). Talk for Open Table London, September 2021.
Shut In, Shut Out, Shut Up: Ableism, Faith and Church (video). HeartEdge, May 2021. For a third series of Fiona MacMillan’s disabled-led discussions on disability and church, I joined autistic advocate Ann Memmott to talk about ableism in church and society.
Tizard Centre Autism Online Journal Club: A discussion on autistic people in churches, theology of autism and including autistic people in communities (video). Tizard Centre, University of Kent, April 2021. With Krysia Waldock and Damian Milton, I took part in a panel discussion of Krysia Waldock‘s paper on attitudes to autistic people in churches. Krysia wrote a summary of the panel for the Participatory Autism Research Collective.
2020
Shut In, Shut Out, Shut Up: Disability, Church and Coronavirus (video), September 2020. Panel discussion with neurodivergent priest Rachel Noel on access and participation in a post-coronavirus church. In this groundbreaking video series, Fiona MacMillan brings together theologians, activists and researchers from the disabled Christian movement.
Disabled People are Worthy of Love (text), Lacuna, June 2020. Written in response to an advice columnist’s recommendation to a non-disabled person to leave their partner with a chronic illness. “Life is about risk, and this is one of the risks you take when you begin a relationship with any human being.”
Disabled People Say Welcome to Our World (text), Church Times, May 2020. As churches have moved online during the pandemic, they have opened up their virtual doors for some disabled people, after years of exclusion. I write here about what churches can learn, from their lockdown move online, about disability access and justice. There’s a simple language version of this article.
2019
The Upside-Down Kingdom of God: Stories of Disabled and Neurodivergent People in Churches. A downloadable booklet in plain English, sharing the findings of my research on disabled people’s experiences of churches and Christianity. Thanks to Krysia Waldock for reviewing the booklet for the Inclusive Church blog.
PhD Thesis: The Upside-Down Kingdom of God: A Disability Studies Perspective on Disabled People’s Experiences in Churches and Theologies of Disability, SOAS, University of London, 2019. My thesis, on disabled people’s experiences in churches, can be downloaded from the SOAS research website.
2016
‘The Cult of Health and Wholeness: Normalcy and the Charismatic Christian Healing Movement.’ Book chapter in Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane: Precarious Positions, University of Chester Press, 2016.
Reflections, Torch Trust, Premier Christian Radio, 10 June 2016. Interview about my research with Marilyn Baker, for Premier Christian Radio’s show on disability and faith.
Questions of Faith: Faith and Disability, Share Radio, 26 June 2016. Interview with Mark Shoffman, with Rev Bill Braviner and other disability theologians, on the barriers faced by many disabled people in faith communities.
2015
Passing for Normal: The Austerity Politics of Visibility and Invisibility for Disabled People. Paper presented at the ‘Disrupting Visibility: The Politics of Passing’ conference, Goldsmiths, University of London, June 2015.
“Many disabled people desperately need the safety that is found in [the] invisibility that allows for passing.”
‘Imagine: Outside.’ The Still Point (1), 2015. Creative reflections on doing disability research as a disabled researcher. Performed at the Still Point journal launch. “I wonder if we have become too accustomed to waiting.”
Find more of my storytelling at Stories from the Garden. Occasional reflections on disability in the modern world can be found at But Lighthouse.