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Most organisations can tell you what they believe about disability inclusion. Fewer can tell you what actually happens when that belief meets a real system, a real budget, or a real person. That's what I write about here — how systems work, how power moves, how partnerships are built, and what it takes to move from intention to practice.
These are selected reflections from my Mindful Disability Inclusion newsletter. If these raise more questions than they answer, that's the point. New reflections land every two weeks.
Subscribe to Mindful Disability Inclusion on LinkedIn
Featured Thinking
Featured Thinking
Five pieces that reflect where my thinking and practice are now.
25 August 2026 · 4 min read
Most CEOs will say, without hesitation, that they want the business, loyalty and trust of people with disabilities. This article asks the harder question: is that what the organisation actually delivers, or only what it intends?
Read “We Want Their Business. So Why Don't We Have It?” on LinkedIn
10 June 2026 · 6 min read
A provocation about how disability inclusion is positioned. Organisations often experience inclusion as a cost, a project, or a compliance obligation, when what they really need is organisational capability — stronger systems, better leadership, and the ability to work with complexity.
Read “We Have Been Selling the Wrong Thing” on LinkedIn
23 February 2026 · 6 min read
A policy can be sound and still fail the person who ultimately needs it. This piece examines the spaces between policy, procurement, implementation and lived experience, and where the value chain actually breaks down.
Read “From Policy to Lived Experience: Fixing the Disability Inclusion Value Chain” on LinkedIn
2 March 2026 · 3 min read
A reflection on a consortium that chose curiosity over compliance in programme design — and what becomes possible when disability inclusion is part of programme architecture rather than an obligation added later.
20 January 2026 · 2 min read
Formal authority is only one form of power. This reflection explores how influence moves through relationships, timing, credibility and trust — and why the difference between authority, agency and influence matters.
Read “How Power Actually Moves in Disability Inclusion Work” on LinkedIn
Leadership, Systems & Organisational Change
Leadership, Systems & Organisational Change
The thinking behind my work with organisations and leaders.
24 April 2026 · 5 min read
Disability inclusion is human change work, not just a technical exercise. What happens when a programme delivers inclusion successfully but doesn't leave behind the capability and conditions for it to last?
Read “We're Good at Delivering Inclusion. We're Less Good at Leaving It Behind.” on LinkedIn
12 February 2026 · 4 min read
South Africa does not lack disability policy. The harder question is what happens after it's written — the persistent gap between strong commitments and everyday reality for people with disabilities and their families.
Read “When Good Policy Exists but Lives Do Not Change” on LinkedIn
2 February 2026 · 2 min read
What happens when resistance is no longer overt, but shows up through quiet questions about legitimacy, authority and belonging?
Read “How Do We Practise Inclusion When the System Pushes Back?” on LinkedIn
28 December 2025 · 3 min read
Disability inclusion is fundamentally about systems, power, decision-making, and whose expertise gets recognised in shaping the solutions that affect them.
Read “Disability Inclusion Is Not a Silo. It Is Systems, Power, and Practice.” on LinkedIn
Power, Culture & Influence
Power, Culture & Influence
Because inclusion is also about who gets heard, who has influence, and how change actually moves.
9 April 2026 · 4 min read
How we enter a system shapes what becomes possible within it. A reflection on positioning, relationships and power when practitioners have expertise but no formal authority.
30 March 2026 · 4 min read
Knowing what inclusion should look like isn't the same as knowing how to shift a system. On the less visible forces that shape change: relationships, power, history, whose voices are heard.
9 March 2026 · 7 min read
We are all socialised into ideas about difference and belonging. Does meaningful inclusion require more than changing institutions — does it require the social courage to question the lines we were taught to draw?
Read “Who Socialises Whom?” on LinkedIn
26 January 2026 · 3 min read
Strong values create commitment — but also certainty, defensiveness and resistance. On context, dialogue and relational approaches when working across different understandings of disability inclusion.
Read “When Strong Values Make Inclusion Harder, Not Easier” on LinkedIn
12 January 2026 · 3 min read
Language can signal values, but it can also create hierarchy and exclusion. On terminology, translation, local ways of knowing, and the danger of treating “correct” language as a proxy for commitment.
5 January 2026 · 2 min read
Good intentions don't guarantee good outcomes. How technically sound interventions can still produce withdrawal, silence or compliance when practitioners focus on intent over lived experience.
Read “When Inclusion Produces Harm: What We Miss When We Only Look at Intent” on LinkedIn
Partnership, Participation & Development Cooperation
Partnership, Participation & Development Cooperation
For organisations and consortia moving from participation as a requirement to partnership as practice.
25 May 2026 · 4 min read
What changes when the people affected by an inclusion process genuinely shape it? On participation, power and facilitation — designing for people versus creating the conditions for people to shape it themselves.
Read “What Happens When Inclusion Is Not Designed for People, but Built with Them?” on LinkedIn
11 May 2026 · 8 min read
Disability inclusion partnerships often begin once funding is already secured and roles are being negotiated. What's lost when relationship, trust and honest conversation start too late in the process?
Evidence, Policy & Lived Experience
Evidence, Policy & Lived Experience
Looking more critically at the evidence, structures and assumptions behind disability inclusion.
11 September 2026 · 4 min read
Does our reporting do justice to the effort, learnings, growth and maturity our disability inclusion work offers our organisations?
Read “We Commit. We Spend. We Work Hard at This. Why Doesn’t the Writing Ever Say So?” on LinkedIn
4 May 2026 · 7 min read
After decades of working in disability inclusion, a hard question: are we always measuring what we think we're measuring? On the assumptions, choices and power embedded in disability data.
Read “What If Most Disability Data Is Telling Us the Wrong Story?” on LinkedIn
Earlier Reflections & Other Perspectives
Earlier Reflections & Other Perspectives
Earlier pieces that remain part of the journey, but sit outside my current core positioning.
13 April 2026 · 4 min read
Why does resistance emerge when inclusive education moves from principle to practice? On whether some resistance is produced by how inclusion is introduced.
Read “Inclusive Schools Sound Good. Until They Become Real” on LinkedIn
15 October 2025 · 5 min read
A personal reflection on reaching a point where work no longer felt safe or meaningful — agency, safety, ableism, and reclaiming purpose and voice.
Read “Broken by a Toxic Work Environment? Here's How to Reclaim Your Power and Purpose” on LinkedIn
24 August 2022 · 6 min read
An early reflection on moving from commitment to tangible action — what drives inclusion work, how we work with others, and where greater impact may be possible.
Read “Have Fun as You Increase Your Disability Inclusion Impact” on LinkedIn
6 September 2022 · 5 min read
A practical reflection on difficult conversations in disability inclusion work — active listening, empowering questions, trust, and the skills needed for genuine belonging.
Read “Building Your Disability Inclusion Transformative Conversations Toolbelt” on LinkedIn
29 August 2022 · 5 min read
An early reflection on expertise, passion and purpose, and how these come together in work that feels meaningful and aligned with your strengths.
Read “Thriving by Building Your Expertise and Increasing Your Passion” on LinkedIn
Mindful Disability Inclusion — the Newsletter
Mindful Disability Inclusion — the Newsletter
If these raise more questions than they answer, that's the point. New reflections land every two weeks.
Subscribe to Mindful Disability Inclusion on LinkedIn
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