What does 2026 mean if you're young and disabled?

7th January 2026

bbc.co.uk/accessall

Access All – Ep 193

Presented by Emma Tracey

EMMA- Hello. We have such a lovely episode for you for this first episode of 2026. I recorded an interview earlier with three disabled young people about their aspirations for 2026, but also just about their lives, about their social lives, their work lives, education, friendship. Here’s a flavour of what it sounds like:

SEREN- When you’re applying for a job you need to really sort of downplay your disability. But when you’re applying for things like PIP you just have to be the worst or you don’t get the support, and it’s just really challenging to go from one extreme to the other.

NIAMDH- Any chance I get I go and see my deaf friends because I feel like we can sort of relate to each other more, like we’re all going through life with the same challenges. I can become friends quicker with people who have the same disability as me.

IZEMRASEN- Ableism in general is discriminatory behaviour and thoughts about the disabled community. And internalised ableism is when you are doing it about yourself.

EMMA- Sit back, relax and enjoy. Here goes.

MUSIC- Theme music.

EMMA- Hello, I’m Emma Tracey, and this is Access All, the BBC’s disability and mental health podcast. You’re very welcome back into the New Year. If you haven’t done already please do subscribe to Access All by pressing that big subscribe button on BBC Sounds if you’re in the UK, or outside the UK it’s wherever you usually get your podcasts from.

I have three young disabled people with me today and it’s not always easy at this age, is it? There are proposed benefits cuts for under-22s, support for education can be hard to come by, and AI is shrinking the job market. So, let’s say hi to our guests and get to know them a little better.

SEREN- Hi, I’m Seren. I am a content creator. I’m 22. I have Tourette’s Syndrome and I’m visually impaired.

NIAMDH- Hi, I’m Niamdh. I’m 17 and I’m deaf. And I had a fight with my local authority to get access to support in school.

IZEMRASEN- Hi, my name is Izemrasen. I am 27 and I’m deaf and have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome so I use a wheelchair and crutches. And I am a trainer and wheelchair basketball player.

EMMA- Thank you very much for being here. Now, we’ve also got disabled Yorkshire BBC journalist Kit Taylor. Kit is pretty young as well, to be fair. But you're here, Kit, to give us analysis on some of the big issues that come up. Now, you are a journalist but you don’t exclusively focus on disability, but you do have your fingers in all sorts of pies which means that you meet lots of young people. Kit, what are they telling you?

KIT- Absolutely. So, I think there are a few common themes amongst young disabled people. And what I’m going to be doing today is just tying a few of those threads together and explaining some of the major issues that are happening and what’s being done around that.

EMMA- And give us a tiny little headline. What are people coming to you and telling you, the young people that you meet?

KIT- Primarily at the moment there’s a lot to do with the jobs market, accessing employment, but also accessing the support to get that employment, along with social lives, isolation and of course at the moment finances.

EMMA- Now, many people say, Kit, that young people have not got it easy nowadays. COVID played havoc with education and how people received that. But disabled people some feel have it even harder. And last year, Kit, one policy in particular had a big impact, didn’t it?

KIT- Absolutely. So, last year the government announced a number of proposed changes to benefits for disabled people. One of those proposals in particular could have a massive impact on younger people; it would mean that under-22s with long-term illnesses or disabilities would no longer be able to claim a health top-up on Universal Credit under government plans. Now, at the moment under the current system those over the age of 18 but under state pension age in England, Wales and Scotland can get incapacity benefits on top of

Universal Credit if the Department of Work and Pensions assesses them as too sick to work. Now, the idea would be that this money would instead go towards training to support those young people into further employment and education, but it could impact a lot of young people who would start claiming the benefits shortly. Now, disability groups aren’t particularly happy about this. Scope in particular said how the benefit cuts could make it actually harder to get into work for young people and that instead the focus should be on accessing tailored support for those young people to really support them into work with the tools that they need to do so.

EMMA- Yeah, absolutely. Now team, how do you feel about what’s gone on? Izemrasen?

IZEMRASEN- Yeah, I have been keeping up with what’s going on. I’ve been going to some of the protests, especially when the changes regarding PIP and Access to Work were announced as well.

EMMA- Okay, so PIP, Personal Independence Payments, non-means tested benefit designed to cover some of the extra costs of being disabled. Access to Work, the government scheme that helps with the extra cost of being disabled at work.

IZEMRASEN- It took me two years to be able to get PIP in the first place, and I’m in the process of getting Access to Work. And currently doing change of circumstance with PIP because they only gave me standard mobility payment.

EMMA- And how are you finding those processes?

IZEMRASEN- Stressful [laughs]. You need a god-tier amount of patience to be dealing with the system.

EMMA- And do you have that patience?

IZEMRASEN- Yes, [laughs] you have to find it. Because for example one of the statements they had said to me was that Izemrasen does not require any aid to communicate. I use hearing aids. I’m deaf. And it is creating unnecessary stress.

EMMA- Okay. Well, obviously the DWP aren’t here to respond to your comments, but we certainly take them on board. And thank you for sharing your experiences there. Seren, how do you feel about how disabled young people have it in the UK at the moment? Do you follow the news and follow what’s being said?

SEREN- Yeah, I try to follow the news, but sometimes it does just catch up with you. It does sometimes feel like it’s getting closer and closer to you, and at any point your benefits could be taken away and your access to support could be taken away. I luckily didn’t have a very bad experience with PIP; I found that actually they were quite helpful. But I do feel like personally you have to hope that you get a nice person and they take pity on you. And if you don’t get a nice person and they don’t take pity on you then you’re not going to get the support that you deserve, which feels quite backwards [laughs].

EMMA- Take pity, that’s such an interesting way of putting it, because the whole thing is about empowering disabled people to live a fulfilling, valuable, valued life. and the fact that you feel like someone needs to take pity on you is really interesting.

SEREN- Yeah. I personally don’t believe that some of the people who are working on the claims have quite up to date disability knowledge.

EMMA- What gives you that feeling?

SEREN- I guess when you’re talking to people it kind of either goes one way and they want to sort of baby you, think that you can’t do anything possibly for yourself at all, and then there’s the complete other end of the spectrum where they might decide that actually if they think you can do something then your claim is invalid almost.

EMMA- How do you feel about what Seren’s just said there, Niamdh? Does that chime with you?

NIAMDH- I’m lucky in the sense I’ve only just turned 17 so I’ve never had to deal with PIP. I get Disability Living Allowance.

EMMA- Sure. Well, you’ll be getting the Scottish payment anyway, which is different again. But I suppose I’m talking about generally do you feel in the systems that you are in that sometimes expectations are low, and then sometimes you’re expected to do more than is possible?

NIAMDH- Yeah, definitely. I mean, with my fight I got told that I didn’t need any support because I was academically achieving average for deaf people. But at the end of the day deafness is not a learning disability, we shouldn’t have lower expectations just because we’re not supported enough to

achieve the same as hearing people. We’re the exact same; we can achieve the same if we get given the accurate support to be able to achieve the same.

EMMA- Well, do you know what, we’re going to come back to your fight and to education in a bit, Niamdh. But whilst we’re talking about work related benefits let’s talk about jobs. I remember growing up, a lot of my friends had jobs in school. And I was the only blind person I ever met that had a job in university because I was a braille proofreader, the most niche, niche job in the world. But I think it’s always been pretty hard for disabled people to get jobs at that early time into your teenage years and into your university years. How have you guys found that part of your career? Seren, did you work going through university?

SEREN- So, I was a student ambassador which involved giving lots of tours around campus and things like that. But I actually found it difficult, not because of the tours, because I have a very good sense of where I am and my brain is just very good with navigation, so that was perfect. But just sort of how people actually reacted. So, I had quite a few parents make funny comments. One parent asked what my cane was and thought it was sports equipment. I don’t know why they thought I was carrying sports equipment round on a university accommodation tour. But it kind of got a little bit too much at the end so I only did a few shifts on that.

EMMA- Oh, the actual responses got a bit too much?

SEREN- Yeah.

EMMA- So, it wasn’t the job itself, you were actually a blind person with a really good sense of direction, but it was the people’s attitudes?

SEREN- Yeah, basically. And it was quite often the parents and then the kids would just sort of shy away and, ‘Oh my god, dad, be quiet’ so yeah.

EMMA- And now you work for a youth organisation. How has that gone for you?

SEREN- Yeah, it’s gone really well actually. I’m about a month in and my employer has been amazing.

EMMA- What have they done?

SEREN- So, my boss actually sat me down yesterday and we had a meeting, and she literally got the recommendations report from Access to Work and ordered the stuff straightaway. Also they have sort of an internal kind of support thing as well, so I’m going to have an assessment through there to see if they can adapt our workplace and things. But they’ve been absolutely amazing. I’m genuinely baffled because the stories you hear it puts dread into you that oh no, it’s going to go really badly, but it didn’t.

Access to Work were paying for the braille display, and they’ve decided that my employer needs to pay for the accessibility training and things. And I don’t believe they provided the sessions with my executive function coach. But I was happy that they approved the braille display to be honest.

EMMA- Because they’re thousands of pounds.

SEREN- Yeah [laughs].

EMMA- And when you talk about a braille display, braille note taker it’s about using your computer with braille or else having an alternative to pen and paper, which is very handy when you’re walking around trying to write down notes and stuff, isn’t it?

SEREN- Yeah.

EMMA- Seren, you’ve just got this job, you’re 22; how difficult or easy was it to get a job and to get this particular job?

SEREN- Up until this job this was my dream job working for someone I really wanted to work for. But I think a lot of my volunteer experience helped me with that.

EMMA- What did you do?

SEREN- I volunteer with young people. But up until then I applied for so many jobs and it just felt like it wasn’t getting anywhere at all.

EMMA- So, what happened when you applied for the jobs?

SEREN- Quite often I wouldn’t even get through to an interview. And a lot of the time that’s disheartening because I have five years of experience in social media, I was applying for social media type jobs, I know I have the experience and I know I have the qualifications. But it’s kind of not getting any feedback as to why you haven’t got an interview is really difficult. And the

fact that you’ve put on your application that you have a disability it always makes you question whether didn’t I get that because of lack of experience or did I not get the interview because I have a disability and they don’t think I can do the job. Because social media is very visual, and obviously I have a visual impairment, so I could understand why people might think that, but that’s why I need the interview to be able to prove to them that actually I can do the job really well.

EMMA- Yeah. And did you ever think of not disclosing, not telling on your immediate first initial application?

SEREN- I think I tried on some of them. The one that I didn’t put it on I did get an interview. And then the others I didn’t. But I found that in that interview they then realised I was blind and I didn’t really hear after that.

EMMA- Okay. Izemrasen, you’ve had an interesting journey through work, haven’t you? I mean, you’ve got Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, your mobility is getting worse; I don’t think you’ll mind me saying you’re using a wheelchair more and more. Tell me about how that’s impacted on your work experience journey.

IZEMRASEN- I did have issues outside of my mobility issues. I did have issues even when my mobility was good, because obviously me being deaf, or at the time hard of hearing. I had an interview one time where they saw my hearing aids, I didn’t mention that I was hard of hearing, that I was deaf, and I think I was 18, 19, they asked, ‘What’s that?’ I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s my hearing aids, I’m hard of hearing, I’m deaf’. I got a phone call back saying, ‘Oh you didn’t get the job’ which I thought the interview went really well. I asked, ‘Oh, may I get some feedback as to why?’ and they were like, ‘Oh, you did everything fine, everything was good, the only thing is your hearing is a health and safety issue’. The fact that they said that blunt straight on shocked me. At the time I didn’t know the protections that exist for disabled people because I…

EMMA- You’re learnt your rights.

IZEMRASEN- I’ve learnt my rights now.

EMMA- Yeah okay [laughs].

IZEMRASEN- But I was a baby disabled child.

EMMA- A baby disabled child, I love that. You used to also, as well as being a baby disabled child, you also were a figure skating – seeing as we’re in icy season. Tell me about where you’ve gone from being a figure skater to now. What were your aspirations and how did they have to change?

IZEMRASEN- I started figure skating when I was 16, 17 and I found it so relaxing. Actually my mobility, my EDS actually was a perk.

EMMA- So, you’re bendy?

IZEMRASEN- I’m bendy. And it meant that I could lock into place for certain moves when I hyperextended, which was all great. And I absolutely loved the sport. Then I went to university and studied dance and fitness, because one of my goals at the time was to become a figure skating trainer so I could train people off ice and on ice. And dance and fitness work so well with that goal.

EMMA- Okay. You use a wheelchair 90% of the time now. Can you be a wheelchair using figure skater or did you have to pivot? Hah, do you see what I did there, pivot? [Laughs]

IZEMRASEN- It was clear in my head that I needed to stop dance and fitness unfortunately.

EMMA- Okay. So, what did you do instead?

IZEMRASEN- Performing arts, film, TV and stage. So, I studied videography, directing, producing. It is also my second love because I studied that for college as well.

EMMA- You’ve got a lot of strings to your bow, Izemrasen. Because then you’ve gone back to fitness now.

IZEMRASEN- I’m now a gym instructor, currently doing my level 3 personal training qualification. I also help coach the juniors in development at my local wheelchair basketball team.

EMMA- And you worked in a sports shop as well, within the gyms and sports shop. I always think it must be very hard for young people who have things, have support they need at work at very early career. How did you find telling people that you needed extra things?

IZEMRASEN- When I started working at the sports shop I started using crutches a lot more often. I was dealing with a lot of internal ableism due to some outside judgement about ability, about mobility aids.

EMMA- What’s internal ableism?

IZEMRASEN- Internal ableism, ableism in general is discriminatory behaviour and thoughts about the disabled community. And internalised ableism is when you are doing it about yourself.

EMMA- Yeah, so that was happening. And it happens to us all, but I’d imagine and I remember it happened to me more when I was younger. And you’re struggling through trying to be as physically mobile as possible in this shop. What happened?

IZEMRASEN- I worked for about two weeks with my crutches and it came to a point where half the time I was working in the changing room, sitting on the stool because I was in so much pain. The pain was getting astronomically bad.

EMMA- Did you resolve it or did you leave?

IZEMRASEN- I stayed, because I was only a Christmas temp as well so it wasn’t long.

EMMA- So, you solved it by working in the changing room?

IZEMRASEN- No, actually, I gave in. I gave in and I was going, actually no, no amount of pain is worth my internal ableism. I was there going like, I just need to get a wheelchair, I don’t care about what others say about my wheelchair usage, I’m just going to use it.

EMMA- That was a big lesson for you in the workplace. Let’s come back to you, Kit Taylor. Kit, what are your observations?

KIT- I think the jobs market at the moment is a tough place to be in, and even more so for disabled young people. I’ve heard from a lot of people who just getting that first role can be so tough. And there is the cycle unfortunately of you can’t get a job without experience, and you can’t get experience without a job. And a lot of people are being caught in that. Once you do put in that application you’re faced with do I specify that I have a disability, do I say I’m disabled, could that count against me. And then you reach the phase of interview, do I ask for adjustments. And if you do get that work offer do you ask for further adjustments there. And I think it’s a difficult place to be in because you have to work out how much energy you have for that advocacy. And when you’ve fought so hard to get into a job in the first place how much do you want to say to an employer about that. And unfortunately a lot of people are tackling that at the moment and working out how much to say.

Realistically from what I’ve heard from other people, what I tend to recommend to people, it’s about asking for the support you need. I know a lot less people now are saying on applications they are disabled out of fear of not getting an interview or not getting the role as a result. But actually by saying yes, this would be helpful for me, I would like to have the support for the interview or for the job, you can actually ensure that you thrive in that interview and you do your best and you can focus on doing it well rather than having to tackle things like the timing or the building accessibility or what the room’s going to be like or what the questions are going to be. Actually you can just focus on doing your best and trying to get that role, and then of course having the support you need when you get into that job.

EMMA- Anyone want to respond to what Kit’s just said?

SEREN- I was thinking that it’s like polar opposites: when you’re applying for a job you need to really downplay your disability and how much you struggle, but when you’re applying for things like PIP and support like that you need to always talk about your worst day and you just have to be the worst or you don’t get the support. And it’s really challenging to go from one extreme to the other, trying to convince an employer actually no, although I struggle with these things I can still do the job. It's just a weird, weird thing to have to comprehend in your own brain, let alone out loud.

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

EMMA- I’m Emma Tracey and you’re listening to Access All where I’m talking to three disabled young people about their lives and their aspirations for 2026. Let’s jump back in:

Niamdh, you had no BSL in class, and you were speaking BSL at home and it’s your first language. You were having to use your cochlear implants all the time, which you don’t love. And then you realised that somebody else was getting BSL interpreter support, and you took Fife Council, your local council in Scotland, to court to get that support you needed, and you got it and you won. Tell me, Niamdh, has that support been put in place now and how has that changed your school experience?

NIAMDH- So, I now have a communications support worker who’s qualified in level 6 BSLwith me at all times in all of

’m doing Scottish Highers and level 6 qualifications this year.

EMMA- That’s like A-levels?

NIAMDH- I think so.

EMMA- Yeah, [laughs] I think you’re heading towards the end of school. This is the last bit?

NIAMDH- Yeah, this is the last year.

EMMA- And then you’ll be ready for university when you finish this bit?

NIAMDH- Hopefully.

EMMA- [Laughs] and how has that changed things for you having that communication support worker?

NIAMDH- It’s changed things so much because it would get to certain times in the day and I would be absolutely knackered. I couldn’t actually process what was being said because I was so tired; it was almost like it was going in one way and coming out the other.

EMMA- And what’s it like at the end of the day now?

NIAMDH- Still tired, but not as tired. And I can still process stuff, I can still comprehend what people are saying to me, and I’m not missing as much. And I know I’m not missing as much because I’m seeing the results on the other side of it.

EMMA- When I last spoke to you you wanted a career in politics. Is that still on the cards?

NIAMDH- Definitely.

EMMA- Okay. So, you’re going to study teaching and politics at Stirling Uni. And when you become a politician in the end what would you change?

NIAMDH- I think I’d want to get into the education side and try and better the education, because we all start somewhere and we all start in education. So, hopefully if we change education it’ll produce better outcomes for the next generations.

EMMA- The rest of you, had you difficulties at school? We hear so much about SEND and how difficult the right support is to come by for children now. But over the last ten, 15 years what were your experiences?

IZEMRASEN- I had a support worker for most of my primary school years until I was in Year 3. And then a teacher had gone and said, ‘Hmm no, this student is just lazy’ and removed that support that I had. Which meant that I spent the rest of my education without any support, which meant it affected my grades massively. I don’t think I was fully aware of what I was losing. But when I was in college it made getting support for my dyslexia and my ADHD helped so much. And then when we were at university we realised even further so I got further help, so extra time.

EMMA- Okay, so it got better.

IZEMRASEN- It got better.

EMMA- But tell me, were you aware that you were being called lazy? And how did that feel?

IZEMRASEN- So, I heard from my parents that that was what was said. I’m mixed race so I come from an immigrant background, so a lot of immigrant parents are going to say what teachers say like it’s gold. The teacher of your child is saying this sort of stuff and it means oh, the teacher is completely correct, they know what they’re doing here. And they reflect it onto their child going, you’re simply not putting in enough work.

EMMA- And how did that feel?

IZEMRASEN- Obviously not great. Unfortunately, as I say now, it is what it is, the past is the past, it’s about how I move forward on with it.

EMMA- Did it affect your mental health at the time?

IZEMRASEN- Oh, 100% yeah [laughs].

EMMA- In what way?

IZEMRASEN- I got diagnosed with PTSD and depression.

EMMA- As a direct result of that?

IZEMRASEN- Multiple factors. Because I have CPTSD so it’s not only from that, but it did play a massive part.

EMMA- So, that’s complex PTSD?

IZEMRASEN- Yeah. It took a while for my confidence in general to come back up regarding myself. I’ve always been a big social person, but confidence with myself had been quite low for the majority of my teen years. And it’s only I would say in the past five years or so that it has improved massively.

EMMA- Seren, what was it like for you at school?

SEREN- I had a bit of a mixed bag. I grew up fully sighted. I lost my sight at 17, still unsure as to why, but now I’m diagnosed with optic neuropathy. But I grew up with Tourette’s Syndrome and that can be an invisible disability for a lot of people. My tics were motor tics mostly, which are the movements, the involuntary movements. So, I had things like curling up my toes inside my shoes and tensing the muscles in the tops of my legs and things like that. It gradually got worse as I went through my school years. And I always struggled in school. I didn’t ever think I was particularly academic. I really enjoyed reading and creative writing, but I really struggled and I didn’t have any support. And then when I got to my GCSEs my tics were getting worse, and I was trying as hard as I possibly could to hide them, and it had a massive, massive impact on my mental health. Only a few teachers and maybe a couple of friends knew about my tics at that point. I hadn’t been diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome yet because I didn’t have a diagnosis, or I thought I didn’t have a diagnosis I obviously didn’t have any exam support. My surname starts with an A so I was at the very front of the hall in front of everybody, and that was like my worst nightmare because it felt like everybody behind me was watching me the entire time, which was awful.

EMMA- And watching your tics?

SEREN- Yeah, absolutely. Even just little quirky things, because of my tics I really don’t like wearing shoes so I always have to slip my shoes off in exams to be able to concentrate. And you just can’t concentrate on your exams if you’re worrying about what other people are doing behind you.

EMMA- Okay. But then when you became visually impaired, ironically maybe, you got the support that you needed when you had Tourette’s Syndrome as well?

SEREN- Yeah, absolutely. I was in college doing a photography course ironically. I was admitted to hospital probably a week before the end of my first year because I’d started to lose my sight, and I was sort of scraping a pass in my first year with no support. Then when I came back after the summer I had one-on-one support put in place, and by the end of the year I’d got a distinction.

EMMA- Wow! That’s a really interesting thing about visible and invisible disabilities and different supports that you get. And then you went on to be a content creator with 700,000 followers on TikTok. What part does social media play in your life around socialising, friendships, all that kind of stuff?

SEREN- I have made some amazing friends on social media. Some of my best friends also have Tourette’s and I would never have met them if I hadn’t met them through the content they also make. I really owe social media a lot to my friendships.

EMMA- And do you think friendships are different for disabled people? Do you think we approach them differently?

SEREN- I think so, definitely. There’s been a very visible difference between making friends as a blind person versus making friends as a sighted person. I think especially even the little things like small talk: my go-to things for small talk when I was sighted were picking out things on people’s outfits that I liked to be able to start conversations. I’m a very social person, but obviously not being able to see those kinds of things anymore it does make it more difficult to ask people questions about themselves when you don’t know much about them.

EMMA- And is that easier online?

SEREN- Yeah, I’d say so. Especially a lot of my friends are content creators about similar sizes to me, so there’s lots of content that they make that then you know more about them as well, so yeah, gives you a bit of context.

EMMA- So, you get to know a lot more about them than you would by just having a drink with them in the pub.

SEREN- Absolutely.

EMMA- Niamdh, what do you think, do you think as deaf and disabled people we approach friendships differently or socialising is different for us?

NIAMDH- Yeah, I think so. I know myself I’ve got a group of hearing friends and I’ve got a group of deaf friends. I try and spend as much time with my hearing friends as I can, but any chance I get I go and see my deaf friends because I feel like we can sort of relate to each other more. We’re all going through life with the same disability, with the same challenges, so we know what it’s like. So, I think I can become friends quicker with people who have the same disability as me.

EMMA- Are your deaf friends and your hearing friends separate?

NIAMDH- Yes, they are. I think recently, closer to the end of last year, I took one of my hearing friends along to the deaf youth group that I go to because I wanted to see how it would work out. And it worked out really good; the hearing friend that I took really enjoyed the time being there, and then my deaf friends were really interested and they liked it because he was trying to make an effort.

EMMA- He was the different person in a room for a change?

NIAMDH- Yeah. That was the first thing he said when we left, he was like, ‘Now I know what you feel like at school’ and I was like, oh.

EMMA- But you’re basically head girl, aren’t you, at your school?

NIAMDH- Yeah, so I’m the school captain. There’s two of us and then we’ve got eight vice-captains.

EMMA- Izemrasen, do you do social media? What’s your take on all this?

IZEMRASEN- Yeah, I do social media. It’s been very inconsistent, but recently I’ve started posting regularly around fitness. And one thing that I’ve found is that quite a lot of people have been messaging me going, oh I’d never thought about this adaptation. So, for example, with my legs one of them works properly, one of them has some nerve damage, so I can’t squat properly. So, what I do is put my bad leg on a box and my good leg I squat with it. And with deadlift I do it on my knees instead of standing.

EMMA- What about in real life, what’s your approach to friendships and socialising and stuff now?

IZEMRASEN- A lot of my friends I meet either at queer Islamic groups, also other queer and trans spaces, as well as the gym. I have a lot of gym friends [laughs].

EMMA- Do you think things have gotten better in terms of queer spaces and accessibility or have you just found the accessible ones?

IZEMRASEN- I have found the accessible ones. Unfortunately a lot of the nightclubs are extremely inaccessible. I can go on regarding it.

EMMA- Yeah, you could talk forever about it.

IZEMRASEN- I could talk forever about it. But a lot of the sober spaces, the ones that don’t serve alcohol they’re a lot better I’ve found, thankfully.

EMMA- Kit, sum up this conversation for me.

KIT- So, we know social lives are really important for disabled young people. There was a government report in 2025 into your disabled loneliness which found that there was a lot of poor mental health, decreased confidence, motivation and opportunities for social connection. But as we’ve heard here, there are those communities out there. There is the support that young people can find and have found. In particular Seren mentioned meeting people online with Tourette’s, having that shared connection, and even Niamdh talking about the young people’s groups that she goes to as well. So, I think what we’re seeing now is more young people seeking out those support groups and those communities and really using them as a tool to process all the changes that are happening at the moment for disabled young people.

EMMA- Guys, what are your hopes and aspirations for 2026? I’ll start with Niamdh?

NIAMDH- I hope to achieve all my Scottish Highers and get into university to study politics.

EMMA- Brilliant, very straightforward. Seren?

SEREN- I’m hoping to get involved with more journalism and hopefully make it towards Newsround and Blue Peter.

EMMA- Oh, kids presenter, brilliant! Izemrasen?

IZEMRASEN- I’m hoping to grow my fitness page in Instagram, and also get more into journalism and hopefully work at BBC Sport.

EMMA- Well, I want to tell more stories about disability in lots of different ways with lots of different people, and I’m very excited to do that in 2026. It’s been an absolute pleasure to have you all with me in this very first episode of Access All in the New Year. Thank you to Seren, to Niamdh, to Izemrasen, and to Kit Taylor as well. Thank you so much all of you for joining me.

IZEMRASEN- Have a lovely day.

SEREN- Bye.

NIAMDH- Bye.

EMMA- Contact us, I love to hear from you. You can email [email protected]. You can find us on social media, we’re on X and Instagram @BBCAccessAll. Or you can send us a voice or a text message to WhatsApp 0330 123 9480. Subscribe to us on BBC Sounds, or if you’re outside the UK it's wherever you get your podcasts. And we’ll catch you soon. Bye