Being Actually Inclusive, or Just Hoping No One Notices
The gap between performative allyship and genuine disability inclusion isn’t subtle. It’s the difference between changing your culture and changing your logo.
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There’s a graphic by Robbie Crow on LinkedIn, the BBC’s Strategic Disability Lead, doing the rounds right now. It splits disability allyship into two columns: what active inclusion actually looks like, and what performative allyship looks like instead. I’ve seen versions of this idea before, but this is really a good one. Gaslighting. Tokenism. Avoidance. Silence. These aren’t edge cases. These are so common, unfortunately.
“I Don’t See You As Disabled” Is Not a Compliment
Let’s start with the gaslighting, because it’s the one that really gets on my nerves.
A lot of people think that “I don’t see you as disabled” is a compliment. But erasing a key part of my identity isn’t nice. At best, it’s thoughtless. I actually appreciate it if people think one or two steps ahead when they realise I’m a wheelchair user. There is no need to ignore that. It’s a part of me. So they don’t book the restaurant in the basement without a lift, they acknowledge I’m disabled and plan accordingly. If they don’t see me as disabled, disaster is inevitable.
Crow’s graphic pairs this with “everyone is a bit autistic”, the classic move of universalising a specific experience until it becomes meaningless. The practical effect of both phrases is the same: they let the speaker off the hook while erasing a whole group of people. If disability is invisible, or if we’re all a bit the same, really, then there’s nothing structural to change. No lift to install. No accessible toilet to budget for. No new trains to order.
In transport, I hear this version constantly. “Our passengers don’t really have a problem with the current setup”, usually said by someone who has never used assistance before or travelled with their older mother once, in a wheelchair, super off-peak, during summer holidays. The problem has been erased, so no action is required.
The Equality Act 2010 doesn’t offer that comfort. Disability discrimination law doesn’t care whether you think you see disability or not. It cares whether barriers exist and if they are reasonably removed.
Tokenism Is a Policy, Not an Accident
Tokenism is often mistaken for inclusion. I’ve sat on advisory panels where disabled people were a muted audience to endorse decisions that have already been made. That’s not consultation. That’s performance.
The research backs this up. A 2025 reflection for UK Disability History Month put it plainly: “At best, an organisation might get one token disabled person, usually someone who’s exceptionally privileged, and think that’s enough.”
This matters in transport. The UK’s Transport Select Committee said in its Access Denied report that disabled people must be “seen, heard and acknowledged” in reform, not added as an afterthought. But the reality is stations remain inaccessible, and campaigners warn it could take a century to make all UK stations step-free at the current investment rate. Meanwhile, advisory groups still fill annual reports of operators who haven’t improved.
Tokenism functions as an alibi. “We consulted disabled people” is the sentence that ends conversations that should be starting them. The right question is not whether you consulted disabled people. It’s whether anything changed as a result.
Silence Is a Choice With Consequences
The right column of Crow’s graphic ends with silence: staying quiet when confronted with ableist behaviour or jokes. This is where I want to talk directly to the non-disabled people reading this.
When bystanders stay silent about ableist behaviour, disabled people often see that as endorsement, not neutrality. This has consequences on so many levels.
It’s the same with avoidance: staying away from conversations about disability because they make you feel uncomfortable when they can be such a chance to learn and to overcome the negative feelings. To challenge the perception. What’s needed is proper engagement. That’s a reason to lean in, not back away.
In 2026, with DEI under political pressure in both the US and UK, silence comes with a cost. We really need allies now. Organisations quietly dropped their disability inclusion commitments when DEI became inconvenient. The programmes that disappeared first were the ones that were never structurally embedded. They were window dressing. It became obvious as never before what was always lacking: The power given to disabled people to shape decisions, not just validate them.
What To Do Now
The four active inclusion behaviours in Crow’s graphic (self-reflection, active listening, continuous learning, proactive advocacy) are not soft skills. They’re structural commitments.
Self-reflection means asking who is shaping your accessibility strategy? Are disabled people in the room from the start, or are they invited to comment on a finished product? If the answer is the latter, that’s not inclusion. That’s a review process with a tiny little bit of diversity.
Active listening means suspending your instinct to explain or justify when a disabled person describes a barrier. The planned and agreed-upon process and the lived reality are not the same; there wouldn’t be a single failed assist on the railway, and every airport would meet assistance time standards with 100% success. Hear the reality first.
Continuous learning means continuing after the induction. Understand what the Equality Act 2010 actually requires. Read some court judgments or Doug Paulley’s blog. You will be surprised. Follow disabled voices, not just the ones who are comfortable to follow.
Proactive advocacy is action. When a colleague makes an ableist remark, say something. When an accessibility concern is raised in a meeting and pushed aside, notice that. When a procurement decision deprioritises accessibility because of cost or laziness, push back.
None of this is complicated. All of it requires deciding that the discomfort of action is preferable to the comfort of inaction.
Some interesting links
A court case in Leverkusen / Germany, descended into chaos after a hearing about a disabled man being forcibly removed from a train.
Ilias Emmanuil, a wheelchair user and accessibility activist from Leverkusen, was travelling on a night train from Cologne to Linz on 4 September 2024. Despite having a valid ticket, booked through the Austrian rail operator ÖBB’s app, which indicated wheelchairs were permitted, the train manager refused to let him travel because the train had no wheelchair space or accessible toilet. Emmanuil had already boarded with help from fellow passengers and refused to leave voluntarily, arguing his removal was discriminatory.
Three police officers were called. What followed was filmed by another passenger: after several minutes of struggle, police used pain compliance techniques, restrained him face-down, handcuffed him, and carried him off the train while he screamed.
The incident caused significant delays to the night train.
In court, Emmanuil faced charges of resisting arrest, making insulting remarks to officers, and publishing the video on Instagram with the officers’ faces visible. He admitted the insults but attributed them to the pain of the restraint. He also produced a screenshot from the ÖBB app showing wheelchairs were allowed on the train.
The hearing collapsed when Emmanuil’s lawyer, Christian Mertens, started shouting at the judge after the judge acknowledged the train operator’s right to enforce house rules on its own service. A spectator in a wheelchair then began screaming in the public gallery and refused to leave. The judge adjourned.
The whole incident was arguably avoidable. Emmanuil can walk short distances and use a standard toilet, so the train manager could simply have found him a seat and left the wheelchair somewhere. But Germany has no Equality Act or ADA comparable to UK or US legislation. The German article is here.
Assistance staff at Stansted Airport are planning to strike over a pay rise worth the equivalent of ‘a tin of beans per week’, says the Unite trade union. Their employer, ABM, said this calculation is incorrect and that it would continue negotiations.
The European Disability Forum published its list of concrete proposals to improve accessibility in rail transport. The document aims to influence the ongoing revision of the TSI-PRM regulation. It sets minimum accessibility standards for trains and stations. TSI-PRM stands for “Technical Specifications for Interoperability relating to Accessibility” of the EU’s rail system.
“We’re Not Done Yet” - Apple’s Head Of Accessibility On 50 Years Of Making Technology For Everyone, and a nice look back on their accessibility marketing campaigns.
Bus passenger satisfaction levels in the UK have once again risen, with journeys in England up by 2% to 85%, and journeys in Scotland up by 5% to 91%, according to the latest annual 2025 Your Bus Journey survey from Transport Focus. But passengers are also experiencing a widening gap between disabled and non-disabled passengers, with satisfaction levels at 83% and 87% respectively, indicating that improvements to bus services are not being felt equally. For many disabled passengers, barriers in accessibility and confidence in travelling may still shape how journeys are experienced.
Something to watch
Here are things disabled people are expected to do that non-disabled people would never be asked. Once you notice them, you cannot unsee them.
Bits, Bobs & Jobs
Dr Martens (Yes, the shoes) is searching for a Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Employee Experience.
What does it mean for a disabled person to practice continuous vigilance, and why is it necessary? Kelly Mack explores research and articles on the topic.
Stella Young gets her own statue. If you don’t know who she was, watch her TED talk.
What I’ve just read: Kurt - by Sarah Kuttner (a German book) - My rating: 4/5
Some final words
The Accessible Link is a reader-supported publication.
Who is writing this newsletter?
I’m Christiane Link, and I improve the customer experience in aviation, transport, and travel. I worked as a journalist for over two decades and travelled extensively for business and leisure. I’m a wheelchair user.
Work with me
Whether you're a Customer Service Director, a Head of Customer Experience, a corporate Accessibility Manager, a DEI leader, a transport planner, or a member of a disabled employee resource group, I can help you make your organisation more inclusive. You can book me for speaking engagements or hire me as a consultant for your accessibility or DEI strategy, communications advice and other related matters. I have worked for airlines, airports, train operators, public transport providers, and companies in other sectors.
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Thanks for the mention, Christiane!