Everyone should feel as though they belong, are welcome and valued

Joanne Lockwood speaks with trainer, consultant, and disability inclusion advocate Esi Hardy about what it really means for people to feel welcome, valued, and able to belong. Esi explains that inclusion is a felt experience, shaped by whether environments remove barriers or force people to constantly adapt, self-manage, and compensate.

Drawing on Esi’s lived experience as a wheelchair user, they explore how access is created or denied through everyday decisions: venue layout, toilets, transport, signage, staffing attitudes, and the often-unspoken assumptions that disabled people will be accompanied or will accept being treated as an inconvenience. They discuss how these repeated frictions create exhaustion, limit participation, and can feed internalised ableism.

The conversation widens to the importance of co-producing accessibility with people who have lived experience, and to recognising disability as diverse (including sensory, learning, mental health, and invisible disabilities). They also touch on stereotypes about disabled people’s social lives and interests, intersectionality (including LGBTQ+ disabled spaces through Esi’s work with ParaPride), and why accessibility improvements benefit everyone.

They close by reflecting on the gaps in public strategy and long-term support, and the need for sustained action—not just awareness—to build more equitable workplaces and public spaces.