91¸£ÀûÉç

05th November 2025

bbc.co.uk/accessall

Access All – Ep 185

Presented by Emma Tracey

EMMA- Hello, this is Access All. I’m Emma Tracey. And later in this episode the disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms, will be updating us on the full review of Personal Independence Payments:

STEPHEN- Well, we’ve announced today that following discussions I’ve had over the summer with lots of disabled people’s organisations and others we’re setting out the detail for how the review is going to operate. So, we’ve appointed two co-chairs. I’m delighted to announce today that…

EMMA- Ooh, and you’ll have to stay tuned to find out who will be working with Sir Stephen Timms on that review of Personal Independence Payments. Now, joining me this week I’ve got Eliza. Hi, Eliza.

ELIZA- Hello.

EMMA- Eliza’s a disability influencer who doesn’t use social media on the weekend, which fascinates me. How do you manage that?

ELIZA- I have two phones. I mean, sometimes I do mess up, but I do try my best to take weekends off and holidays. So, I kind of turn off my phone that has social media on it and then not turn it back on until the end of the weekend.

EMMA- And what are the benefits? What have you found?

ELIZA- It’s just a lot better for my mental health. It allows me to have a separate space, particularly when you’re working from home or working for yourself it’s really hard to have a separate space from your work life.

EMMA- Why do you need to take the break for your mental health? Are there some tricky parts to being a disability influencer?

ELIZA- Yeah, for sure. There’s a lot of negativity that comes through, a lot of hate comments, and reading those when you’re just about to eat your Sunday roast is not really what you want. So, I make sure to try, if I do have to read them, I’ll read them during work time.

EMMA- How do you feel when you get back on the Monday and open it all up again?

ELIZA- Yeah, a mix. Some days I feel quite excited. I mean, as much as there is negativity to social media there is also a community of people there that are so lovely and I’m really pleased with, I’m proud of what I’ve built, and I’ve made friends from being online. And so sometimes I’m really excited to step back in. Other times if maybe my mental health isn’t in the best place I can feel a bit more nervous. But once I open it and get back in to it it’s all fine. And if I’m really struggling then I can always just ask for some help.

EMMA- I mean, is it all about notifications? Because I feel like I’m a slave to my notifications.

ELIZA- Yeah, I’ve got those turned off.

EMMA- All of them?

ELIZA- Yeah.

EMMA- This person knows what they are doing. I’m so envious of you. One of the notifications I would like you to turn back on is your podcast provider’s notification for new Access All episodes please.

ELIZA- For sure.

EMMA- Thank you. On with the show.

MUSIC- Theme music.

EMMA- Hello, this is Access All. I am Emma Tracey. And over the next 30 minutes or so you will get a 360 degree view of what’s going on in the world of disability, mental health and neurodivergence. We’ll be talking Strictly, politics, hairdressing, marathons; honestly, there is something for everyone. You can contact us in all the usual ways. I really love hearing from you. You can email us accessall@bbc.co.uk. And please do, if you haven’t already, subscribe to us. Hit that big subscribe button either on 91¸£ÀûÉç Sounds or get us wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, joining me this time is Eliza Rain, known online as Disabled Eliza. Hi, Eliza.

ELIZA- Hello.

EMMA- Tell us, for those who haven’t seen you pop up on their TikTok, their Instagram, their YouTube feed tell us what you do and tell us a bit about you.

ELIZA- So, hi, I’m Eliza. I am a white fem person with a blonde bob, and I’m a wheelchair user. And my wheelchair is a lovely pink vibrant colour. And I create content all about disability awareness and LGBTQ+ positivity. My pronouns are they/them. And I just talk about disability, my life, dogs, musical theatre, and kind of anything that takes my fancy to be honest.

EMMA- And you’re neurodivergent as well, yeah?

ELIZA- Yes, I’m autistic. I don’t tend to talk that much about being autistic or dyslexic on its own, but mainly talk about issues with access, and that can be wheelchair access but also because of lack of access because I’m autistic.

EMMA- So, what kinds of adjustments have you found that you could do with as an autistic person?

ELIZA- I have loop earplugs and I also bring fidget toys with me everywhere. They’re always in my bag for if I ever feel like I need to grab them, particularly if I’m in the theatre or something I might grab them.

EMMA- To another theatrical situation, Eliza, every week my friend on the show, the person who’s with me talks through some of the big things that have happened over the last seven days in the world of disability and mental health, neurodivergence. And one of the big stories was around Ellie Goldstein leaving Strictly Come Dancing. Have you been watching?

ELIZA- I have, yes.

EMMA- She did the tango to Abracadabra by Lady Gaga, which I had forgotten what a banger that is.

ELIZA- Oh my gosh.

EMMA- And I don’t think it’ll be a surprise to anybody who’s seen some of the episodes with Ellie in it, but she had to do a serious face, [laughs] and that was one of her biggest struggles this week.

ELIZA- Yeah, yeah.

EMMA- But she did get voted off. She had to go on the dance off. Did you see that particular episode? What are your thoughts on it?

ELIZA- Yeah, I really loved watching Ellie. And one of the things I really love about Strictly is that they are very inclusive when it comes to disabled people. I think Ellie has done a great job, every week has improved massively. I was looking online at some of the videos from the first week to now, and just seeing the amount of progress that was made is just amazing. And yeah, she did a great job.

EMMA- It sounds like they worked really hard. And this is what Ellie and Vito said at the end when they got voted off:

[Clip]

PRESENTER- [Applause] Ellie, how much have you enjoyed dancing with Vito?

ELLIE- Very much. You’re a kind person and the person who I always wanted from day one. And my life is so, so heartwarming, and thanks to you. You make my days so better.

[End of clip]

EMMA- So, Eliza, what would you like to see next in terms of disability and Strictly Come Dancing?

ELIZA- I would love to see a wheelchair user on Strictly Come Dancing. I think that what they’ve done so far is amazing, they’ve had a variety of different disabilities and looking how to adapt learning for those disabilities. But I think it would be so cool to see a wheelchair user, particularly as the actual physical dancing would look quite different and the professional would have to adapt to having somebody using wheels instead of their feet. And I think it could be really cool and really different, I mean just to have like a big Strictly ramp coming down the stairs, it’d look amazing, like a massive slide.

EMMA- I reckon you’ve had a dream about that.

ELIZA- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

EMMA- It sounds like someone’s dream that, that that happens [laughter]. But you’re not the only one who wants there to be a wheelchair user on Strictly Come Dancing. There’s been a campaign for many years from wheelchair using dancing, so let’s see. Let’s watch this space for the next series.

ELIZA- I am available [laughs].

EMMA- There’s a lot of TV around with disabled people in it this week, Eliza, because also Dragon’s Den featured a wheelchair user. Do you watch Dragon’s Den?

ELIZA- I have watched Dragon’s Den, yes.

EMMA- There have been a lot of series, if you had every episode you’d be doing…

ELIZA- There have been a lot of series. I had a surgery earlier in the year and it was what I watched for about two weeks in recovery, it was just like episode after episode.

EMMA- Well, listen the disabled contestant this time was Simon Sansome with his Snowball app. And in this clip he explains what that is:

[Clip]

SIMON- Think of it as an advanced version of Trip Advisor for the disabled community. It’s a free app, available on Apple and Android. You can create a profile, and you can add places, leave reviews and say if you’ll go back, okay, on how good or how bad the accessibility is. But it’s more than that: you can now fill up your car if you need assistance, find an accessible toilet, changing places facility, restaurant, pub, hotel, tourist attractions and much, much more.

[End of clip]

EMMA- Eliza, actually as it happens quite a big part of your job is reviewing accessibility of places, particularly around London, isn’t it?

ELIZA- Yes.

EMMA- So, what do you think of his description of the app there, is that something you would use?

ELIZA- Yeah, I think so. It’s always helpful to know what’s going on. So, I think having something that’s actually been vetted by a disabled person or somebody that’s actually going to a business that’s reaching out to somebody to get them to come and review their business can work really, really well. And then you know that that information is reliable.

EMMA- And what does your reviewing involve?

ELIZA- It involves me going to a location, but also it’s involved before I get to the location. It’s kind of how do I find out how

accessible somewhere is. And I’ll always consider that when I’m reviewing somewhere.

[Clip]

ELIZA- I’m about to go on every single type of public transport in London. But one more thing to add into the equation though, I’m also a wheelchair user, so we’re going to go on every single type of London transport as a wheelchair user. And I’m going to vlog it all so that you can come along the experience too and see what it’s like.

[End of clip]

ELIZA- And then I’ll go to the location, what’s it like going in, how easy is it to get tickets, do they offer carer tickets. Because so often a company may say that they offer carer tickets but then you have to go through ten steps to get one, or it’s not that clear and you have to reach out and then wait for an email or whatever.

EMMA- What is the coolest, best, most accessible place, thing that you have reviewed?

ELIZA- Oh. There’s a couple of theatres I’ve been to. I find the Old Vic very accessible.

EMMA- There was somewhere with retractable stairs?

ELIZA- Yeah, that was the Kimpton Fitzroy. That’s really cool, that’s like a very expensive hotel. So, they basically have these stairs outside the hotel, and there is a doorman that is outside this hotel and they kind of help every single person in. But when a wheelchair user shows up the stairs then retract and turn into a platform lift. So, you basically go in a platform lift instead of up the stairs, and then you go into the main lobby. Whereas the other option is you have to go round the back through the wheelchair accessible entrance. But this way you still get the same experience as everyone else.

EMMA- And does it look pretty?

ELIZA- It looks like stairs, and then suddenly it’s not stairs anymore.

EMMA- It’s like Harry Potter.

ELIZA- Yeah.

EMMA- And what about the worst?

ELIZA- Essentially any time that I show up to a shop that says they’re wheelchair accessible it happens a lot, in theatres as well they

always say that it’s wheelchair accessible, they’ll say that they have an accessible toilet, and I show up and it’s actually it’s not accessible. And then also just like locations just lying, or having to cancel tickets or just not actually accommodating me when I get there.

EMMA- Well, Simon Sansome got a clean sweep from all five dragons. They all gave money. And here’s what happened:

[Clip]

SIMON- I’m just elated at the moment. I’ve got five fantastic dragons with great connections. And this could turn into a huge app to help millions of people.

[End of clip]

EMMA- Now for something completely different. The government’s planned reforms to the Personal Independence Payments were abandoned earlier this year after a rebellion by Labour’s own backbenchers. They wanted to limit eligibility for Personal Independence Payments to people who got four points in a daily living activity. Now, that’s not going to happen now, but ministers say that changes still do need to be made to the non-means tested disability benefit. Named after the disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms, the Timms Review will happen over the next year and the government says will be co-produced by disabled people. Stephen Timms, the minister of state for disability and social security, to give him his full title, sat down with me a couple of days ago when he had some news to reveal:

[Clip]

EMMA- Hello, minister.

STEPHEN- Hello, Emma.

EMMA- Tell me about what’s been happening and what you can announce.

STEPHEN- Well, we’ve announced today that following discussions I’ve had over the summer with lots of disabled people’s organisations and others we’re setting out the detail for how the review is going to operate. So, we’ve appointed two co-chairs. I’m delighted to announce today that Dr Clenton Farquharson, who’s a wheelchair user, I think quite well known in the disability movement and a trustee of Disability Rights UK is one of the co-chairs. And the other is Sharon

Brennan who used to be with National Voices and served for a number of years on the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee with the Department of Transport. So, they’re joining me as co-chairs.

EMMA- Okay, let’s go with that one first. Because the last we spoke at the beginning of August there was no talk of co-chairs. You were going to lead the review with a steering committee. What changed?

STEPHEN- We are indeed recruiting a steering committee, but it’ll be the three of us involved with that rather than just me. So, the other thing we’ve done today is launched an expression of interest so that anybody who’d like to be involved in the steering group can put themselves forward. That’s going to be open for four weeks, so I’d really welcome Access All listeners stepping forward and volunteering to be involved. The details are all on Gov.uk. And, as you say, we’ve then got a year almost in which to carry out this review. I’m hoping we’ll have the first meeting of the steering group with the co-chairs before Christmas.

EMMA- And how will you decide who goes on that steering group? What will the criteria be?

STEPHEN- Well, we’ll need to make sure we’ve got a good spread of representation geographically. We’ll need to make sure we’ve got a good spread of impairment types as well. We want to make sure we’ve got the right balance of expertise on the group. And it may well be that we’ll have, for example, somebody with welfare rights expertise, they may well be disabled; but we don’t want to insist that they must be because we want to make sure that the right balance of expertise is in the steering group.

EMMA- What kinds of things will you be taking into account? I mean, will you take into account Scotland’s adult disability payment? They describe that as being more person-focused. And will you take into account the research that’s actually been launched in parliament on 30th October by anti-poverty charity, Turn To Us, where 80% of Personal Independence Payment recipients said that they were afraid of losing support, and 64% of benefit recipients said that they were worried that the DWP were trying to catch them out. Is that the kind of thing you’ll be thinking about in this review?

STEPHEN- We certainly can. That’ll be for the steering group to decide. What I envisage that we’ll do in the first meeting or two of the group is work out a plan between us for how we’re going to set about this task. I imagine the group will meet perhaps once a month between now and the autumn of next year. We’ll produce an interim report halfway through and then a final report by the autumn of next year. That’ll be submitted to the Secretary of State for final decisions. But quite what the group chooses to take an interest in, what it wants to pursue, how it wants to collect evidence, that will be for the steering group to determine. I am very keen this should be an open exercise. I want people to be able to see what’s going on, see the things that we’re talking about, and for everybody who’s got a viewpoint about this that they’d like to express to the steering group to have the chance to do so and for their views to be taken into account.

EMMA- There was another document released which is the government’s response to the Pathways to Work consultation; 47,000 people responded to that, and it is kind of relevant here to the Timms Review. How will those responses feed in?

STEPHEN- Well, all of that information will be available to the steering group. What we’ve published today is a report on the consultation, the answers we were given, the views that were expressed to us about all the things that we were consulting on. And you’re right, there’s some useful input there for the work of the review.

EMMA- The consultation was out at the time around the welfare reforms, and people used it to say that they did not want a change in PIP eligibility. And they also used it because they felt quite strongly about the health top-up of Universal Credit not changing the age of it, not changing to 22. Tell me how important are those responses? I know there are also collaboration groups going on to talk about all of these aspects.

STEPHEN- Well, we’re going to be taking them all very seriously. As you know, we haven’t proceeded with the change to the PIP eligibility criteria. We’ve made it clear, following the debate in parliament before the summer recess, that there will be no changes to the eligibility criteria for PIP until this review has concluded. We’re looking still at a whole variety of things that we consulted on. We’re taking those responses very seriously. And, as you’ve said, we’ve also set up a number of

collaboration committees to work with disabled people on the detail of what the proposals we’re going to bring forward should be.

EMMA- Access to Work, we talked about it in the summer, and something you said really resonated with a lot of people and we got a lot of feedback on it, that you were going to look at a simplified general way of assessing for Access to Work. You said that you’d have some results on that later in the year. We’re nearly in November now. What’s happening there?

STEPHEN- We haven’t yet finalised our proposals, but the idea of doing something slightly simplified, slightly less personalised I think is one of the ideas that we are looking at. We’ve got a big problem still with delays for Access to Work; if anything I think they’re getting worse. The demand for Access to Work is growing, growing rapidly.

EMMA- It’s getting worse, gosh.

STEPHEN- And we’ve got to come up with some new ideas to make sure that Access to Work can do the really, really important job that it needs to do.

EMMA- Because we’re still getting emails about it, minister.

STEPHEN- So am I.

EMMA- We had an organisation where they lost 30% of their funding, and then they did a letter to their MP, there was a TV appearance, and there was a backpedalling done. We’ve had a few of those where decisions have been changed after a bit of a campaign. But what about people who lose their funding but aren’t able to fight back?

STEPHEN- What’s happened over the last year is that the guidance that we publish, the policy that’s been long established has been more scrupulously applied than was sometimes the case in the past. And I’ve had a number of examples reported to me of people finding they’ve got less funding following a reassessment. I think it does mean the decisions are being more consistent, but I recognise that some people have lost out.

EMMA- But what about all these reversals though? There have been decisions reversed because of a campaign. But what about like people who don’t th

They don’t get a decision reversed, they’ve lost their money, they might lose their job.

STEPHEN- Well, people are able to appeal of course against the decisions that are made. But we have been that much more scrupulous, and I think consistent, about the way the decisions have been made over the past year.

[End of clip]

EMMA- While we’ve been recording this episode of Access All on Tuesday morning the government has published the disability employment figures. And here to tell me more is Alex Collins from the Access All team. Alex?

ALEX- Hi, Emma. Yes, so as we were on air the government have given their latest details about disability employment. It’s something they give away every year as information. And just to give you some quick facts: there were 5.5 million disabled people in employment in the UK in 2025, and the disability employment rate was 52.8%, and that is compared to 82.5% of non-disabled people. So, the disability employment gap there is 29.7%. So, the disability employment gap is, you’ve probably worked it out, the difference between the employment rates of disabled and non-disabled individuals. Basically in the UK since 2013 things were pretty good in the UK for disability employment. But basically this data reveals since the pandemic there’s just been a sort of stagnation, suggesting that the government have got some work to do if they want to see things going in a positive direction.

EMMA- Alex, what are people saying about the figures?

ALEX- Ben Harrison is the director of The Work Foundation at Lancaster University and he told us that today’s data indicates that the employment prospects for disabled people in the UK have stalled since 2019, with just over one in two in work. Disabled people continue to face stark and significant disadvantages in the labour market.

EMMA- Alex Collins, thank you for filling us in on the current government disability employment figures.

MUSIC- We’re not just a podcast. Find Access All on social media and read our articles on the 91¸£ÀûÉç News website.

EMMA- How far would you travel to get your hair done? Because deaf people have been travelling from all over the country to

Nottingham to deaf stylist, Natasha Bloor. And Natasha is on the line. She works in Goose salon in Nottingham. She communicates with her clients through BSL. And she’s on the line with her interpreter, Piers, so the voice that you will hear speaking English for Natasha’s BSL is Piers’ voice. Hello Natasha, how are you?

NATASHA- I am good thank you. How are you?

EMMA- I’m really well. I just want to start by asking why you chose hairdressing. What drew you to it?

NATASHA- It was always my childhood dream, so I decided to do it as an apprenticeship and I just fell in love with it. A lot of deaf people started to come to the salon, and it meant that I was then able to become really passionate about my job.

EMMA- Natasha, what was the training like for you? It was COVID, people were wearing face masks. You do have a cochlear implant, but tell me a bit about training in a mainstream non-deaf salon.

NATASHA- Yeah, it was really difficult because everybody was wearing masks. I really struggled. There were times where I felt quite low because I wanted to be able to communicate and obviously I wanted to be able to give my clients what they wanted with their hair. I had to educate myself a lot through videos on YouTube and websites, and that’s how I learnt.

EMMA- Oh wow, so you taught yourself hairdressing alongside your training through videos. That’s amazing. And in terms of struggling to communicate do you read lips? Can you hear voices? How do you communicate with the clients who don’t use BSL?

NATASHA- So, as I say, I’ve got a cochlear implant. And I have been able to lipread as I’ve grown up, but I always ask people to repeat what they’ve said to make sure that we’re on the same page. As you see, I’ve got an interpreter today and that interpreter can join us in communication aid. And that interpreter is from SignWow which is a digital based service that supports deaf people.

EMMA- Salons are noisy and busy and fast moving. Tell me about the trickier aspects of your job and how you get around them?

NATASHA- So, music could be quite loud so I always ask my colleagues just to make sure everybody’s happy just to put it at a level that I then can communicate with my clients. And some of

my clients might have different accents and that can be a struggle at times, so I always ask my colleagues to just provide support. So, yeah we work together. I’ve got good people around me and I’m making lots of new friends, and also people that travel from far. I’ve had international people that come, and I can sign in International Sign Language so that’s great because I’m learning more about different languages as well. So, yeah my clients feel that communication is much more comfortable. They feel more comfortable with me. And I can give them lots of ideas as well. So, I think that builds a really good relationship between me and the clients.

EMMA- I read about you that a lady came to see you all the way from London, and they were saying that their previous salon experience was the only thing that they would be asked in their whole time there by their hairdresser was what they wanted to drink. So, there was none of the usual holiday nattering or what are you going to do at the weekend, that kind of thing, and there was no big conversation about what they wanted done with their hair either. So, they were missing out on quite a lot, but then you can give them all that. How does that feel?

NATASHA- Yeah, it feels really good because obviously sign language is my language and I love to be able to communicate through that. When we have conversations, me and deaf people, the conversation can go on and on and on because deaf people just absolutely love to communicate [laughter].

EMMA- That must get a little bit tricky when you’re trying to cut somebody’s hair, Natasha?

NATASHA- It does get tricky. I always have to put my stuff down and then I’m communicating, it’s up and it’s done. And colours as well, I just say right, okay I’m going to do your colour first and then we can talk [laughter].

EMMA- I love that. Natasha, how far has somebody come to see you?

NATASHA- Spain, Italy, France. I think I had one client actually I think they might have come from Turkey.

EMMA- Wow.

NATASHA- So, yeah international friends coming from far and wide to see me.

EMMA- Oh, Natasha Bloor, you’re an absolute superstar. Thank you so much for speaking to us. We’ve had such a lovely time.

NATASHA- Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

EMMA- And if you’re just coming in on this on 5 Live in the middle of the night and you’re hearing me talk to Natasha and you’re hearing Piers’ voice, Piers is Natasha’s BSL interpreter. We’ll let Natasha get on with her work now. Thank you so much.

NATASHA- Thank you. Take care.

EMMA- Natasha Bloor there, absolutely smashing it as a deaf stylist. Lots of international clients. That’s so cool, isn’t it?

ELIZA- Yeah, for sure. I love seeing accessibility and people being able to chat to their hairdressers. It’s important. You want to know what you’re getting done.

EMMA- I know. I mean, I haven’t had my hair changed in years because I have no idea. I can’t see heads, what can I do, what am I going to ask for? Give me the Rachel I’d probably say, it’s the only one I’ve ever heard of. And Eliza, let’s talk about another string you are getting to your bow at the moment. You are planning to take part in the London marathon next year, but you’re doing it in a very interesting way. Tell me your plan.

ELIZA- I am rolling the London marathon in 2026, but I am doing it with support runners. So, I’m going to have four support runners with me, but I would like to try and push 10k on my own.

EMMA- The support runners will do what?

ELIZA- So, they will push me for the rest of it, but if they’re not pushing me they still are going to be running the marathon. So, at the moment it’s kind of looking like it’s going to be roughly 10k each. But essentially if they’re not pushing me then they will be running. And it can be two people pushing me at any one time.

EMMA- How do two people push a wheelchair?

ELIZA- So, it’s just one hand on each handle.

EMMA- Ooh, how will that feel?

ELIZA- I think it will probably just take a bit of weight out and it makes it a bit easier to push. I mean, I’ve never done that personally but [laughs] you know.

EMMA- It sounds like the people pushing will need to be quite coordinated.

ELIZA- Yes.

EMMA- And quite in tune with each other. So, how did you get that crew together?

ELIZA- I was really lucky that I have a lot of family and friends that are very interested in running the marathon, so I was able to just reach out to them and ask them if anyone was interested. And I actually had more interest than spaces available for my support runners. So, some people just do it with one, which could work really, really well. I think for me because the people that are going to be supporting me are not necessarily people that are super into marathon running and do it all the time, so having multiple people helped with that. But for me because my disability at times can involve quite intimate things I wanted somebody that I really know and trust and feel really comfortable with rather than just somebody that’s great at running that could push me really quickly.

EMMA- And how is your training going? Because you do want to do 10k pushing yourself, and you do have what you call – and I haven’t heard this term too often – a dynamic disability.

ELIZA- Yes, my disability changes day to day. So, some days I’ll be feeling okay for me, and other days I’ll be feeling rubbish for me, and I never quite know how I’m going to feel on any given moment. Because of that I don’t know how I’m going to feel on the day of the marathon, so I might feel really great or I might not. So, I’m not precious, if I can’t do 10k on the day there’s no rules, the 10k is just something that I’ve set myself. But if it turns out I can only do 2k that’s fine. But in terms of my training I’m just being really, really flexible with myself. Any day that I’ve planned to train I’ll just see how I’m feeling; if I don’t feel up for it I won’t go. But at the moment I can do about 2k, so I’m in a good place I feel to begin with.

EMMA- Yes, because it’s six months out.

ELIZA- Yeah, I’ve got a while. And it might sound a bit weird to somebody listening at home that somebody that’s a manual

wheelchair user is struggling with pushing, but that’s because I have power-assisted wheels so that makes it easier, much easier for me to push in my day-to-day life. So, although I do have some stamina with pushing it’s nowhere near up to the level of somebody that doesn’t use power-assisted wheels.

EMMA- Where are you doing your training? How are you doing it?

ELIZA- Mainly just in the park locally, and that helps to give me an idea of roughly what it will feel like to do it in public. But also I do have a wheelchair treadmill that I can use at home for when it’s raining, because when you try and push a wheelchair in the rain it doesn’t go well. So, the treadmill is good, it’s a very useful tool to have in the house for when I need a bit of training, but maybe I’m not necessarily feeling up for going out and about.

EMMA- Have you hung any clothes on it yet? I had a treadmill once and it was basically a clotheshorse.

ELIZA- Yeah, fair enough. Not yet. Actually I might be lying; I think maybe I’ve got a towel on the footplate at the moment.

EMMA- Yes, I knew it! I knew it.

ELIZA- But that doesn’t count because it’s only the footplate [laughter].

EMMA- And how do you feel after you train? Do you get the endorphins?

ELIZA- No. so, part of my assume it’s the disability, I don’t feel good after exercise at all, so I have no joy, no obvious endorphins anyway, which can make it quite difficult for me to train because it makes me feel really rubbish. Sorry, that’s probably not you want to hear but it is the truth.

EMMA- No, but it does lead me to my next question which is why, why do a marathon when exercise does nothing for you?

ELIZA- Yeah, I know, it sounds ridiculous. I’m doing it because I love the London marathon, I’ve watched it every year since I was a kid. I feel like it’s the day where London comes together and everyone’s just lovely. And it’s how I want the world to be the whole time. It’s fun, you see lots of disabled people taking part, you see people of all different ages and from all different backgrounds coming and doing this one race together, so it really feels like a community thing. Although I think I might hate every second, or at least when

I’m pushing myself, but I think I’ll love the experience of doing it.

EMMA- Well, good luck with it, Eliza.

ELIZA- Thanks, I’ll need it [laughs].

EMMA- Just before we finish this section, we talked about the purple pound last week and it’s just been Purple Tuesday where places and buildings have lit up purple to draw attention to disabled people’s spending power and to their customer experience as well. And Mike Adams, the CEO of Purple Tuesday was on, and he said that they were about to release new numbers. Now, the last time they calculated the purple pound was in 2017, it was £274 billion. In 2025 the annual disability spending power in the UK, which includes family, everybody in the household, is £466 billion.

That is it for this episode of Access All. Thank you very much Eliza Rain, otherwise known as Disabled Eliza. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you with me on the show this week.

ELIZA- No, thank you. I’ve loved it.

EMMA- If you have anything to tell me about what you’ve heard on the show this week, about Strictly, about hairdressing, about marathons, about politics or Personal Independence Payments, about access to venues, give me a shout. You can WhatsApp message me, you can send a voice message or a text message to 0330 123 9480. You can email accessall@bbc.co.uk. And you can find us on the socials on X and Instagram @91¸£ÀûÉçAccessAll. If you haven’t done so already please hit that subscribe button. If you’re in the UK that’s on 91¸£ÀûÉç Sounds; if you’re outside the UK it’s wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time. 

ELIZA - Bye. Thanks for listening.