What If Everyone Was Disabled?

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Factual

What if Everyone was disabled with blocks

BBC Radio 4 - What If Everyone Was Disabled?

Mat Fraser imagines how different our world would be if everybody had a disability.

The writer, actor and rights activist Mat Fraser imagines how different our world would be – in design, technology and attitudes – if everybody had a disability.

“Every single day, I’m reminded of my disability. Yeah, it doesn’t stop me from doing much… but the reminders are always there.”

Mat Fraser – writer, actor, rights activist, punk drummer, thalidomide survivor – isn’t afraid to challenge, to provoke and to ask awkward questions. Sometimes he allows his imagination to run riot.  In this programme, he wonders how different things might be if the vast majority of people, rather than the minority, had a disability.

Mat assesses how far we’ve come with accessibility and inclusivity, particularly in the last two decades, and considers what’s stopping us from going further. Money, power, politics, legislation and technology all play their part, but what about social attitudes towards disability?

Mat invites designers, architects, advisers and campaigners to share some great and not-so-great examples of inclusive design. He imagines having grown up in a world “where Sandy from Crossroads wasn’t the only disabled bloke I saw on TV”. And, his friend and fellow actor Liz Carr (Silent Witness) tells Mat about a public transport wheelchair experience that blew her mind.


Presenter: Mat Fraser
Producer: Steve Urquhart
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

What If Everyone Was Disabled?

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4