Disability History Month Wall of Fame

Swansea University Students’ Union
Disability
History
Month
Wall of Fame

Chloe Morgan
Nominated by Katie Phillips (Welsh Affairs Officer)
Chloe is the previous SUSU Disability Officer. She continues
to raise awareness of disabilities and accessibility issues in
our ableist world. Chloe has played a key supporting role in
this year’s Disability History Month campaign by planning
events and gathering/creating resources.

Miles Singleton
Nominated by Katie Phillips (Welsh Affairs Officer)
Miles is this year’s SUSU Disability Officer. He strives to
make the university more accessible and raise awareness of
hidden disabilities. He has helped shape the goals and
structure of Disability History Month to ensure we are as
inclusive as possible in our campaign.

Sophie Butler
Nominated by Katie Phillips (Welsh Affairs Officer)
Sophie is an online fitness coach, social media influencer
and disability advocate who focuses on uplifting women
and being unapologetically disabled. She believes in
empowerment through education and has a Sunday School
on her Instagram @SophJButler where she raises
awareness around topics such as internalised ableism,
spinal cord injury and microaggressions.

Henry Fraser
Nominated by Katie Phillips (Welsh Affairs Officer)
Henry was 17 years old when he became paralysed from the
shoulders down. He has conquered unimaginable difficulty to
embrace life in his new way of living. He has become an
accomplished mouth-painter, author and motivational speaker.
He now sells his artwork and was commissioned by The Times to
produce a piece for the front cover of their first rugby World Cup
supplement. He was named as the Powerlist's 7th most
influential person living with a disability in Britain 2017.

Lewis Vaughan Jones
Nominated by Maddie Gilbert (Commuter Students Officer)
Lewis is a BBC presenter who recently made the rounds on social
media for changing his hearing aid battery during the live News. He
had sudden hearing loss (as well as childhood issues with grommets
and scarred eardrums) and now wears a bone anchored hearing aid.
He’s been really open about his experience of hearing loss and the
aids he’s using which I think is amazing for raising awareness.
If anyone is interested in finding out a bit more about his story, he
did a piece last year on “Hear Me Out!”:
https://hearmeoutcc.com/episode-12-lewis-vaughan-jones/

Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer
Nominated by Theresa Ogbekhiulu (Education Officer)
Lolo is an actress, model and influencer that has
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She is an Indie Spirit Award
Nominee for her role in the film Give Me Liberty. Her
performance was listed as one of the best by the Sundance
Film Festival in 2019. She’s been interviewed by many
media outlets including, CNN, Buzzfeed and The Hollywood
Reporter. Lolo has a Youtube channel called, Sitting Pretty,
where she talks about living as a disabled person.

Haben Girma
Nominated by Theresa Ogbekhiulu (Education Officer)
Haben Girma is an American disability rights advocate and
the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School. She
was named a White House Champion of Change by
President Barack Obama and got a spot on the Forbes 30
Under 30 list. Haben believes disability is an opportunity for
innovation. She travels the world teaching the benefits of
choosing inclusion.talks about living as a disabled person.

Marsha Elle
Nominated by Katie Phillips (Welsh Affairs Officer)
Marsha is an amputee model who is trying to combat
ableism within the fashion industry. She aims to give hope
to the community by having disabled representation within
the industry while dismantling ableists oppressive thinking.
In addition to this she is a talented singer-songwriter and
motivational speaker.

Stephanie Thomas
Nominated by Theresa Ogbekhiulu (Education Officer)
Stephanie is an amputee and the founder of Cur8able, a
fashion styling service for people with disabilities. Her
Disability Fashion Styling System empowers people with
disabilities to dress with dignity and self-reliance. She is
also the author of Fitting in: The Social Implications of
Fashion and Dressing with Disabilities.
If anyone is interested in finding out a bit more about his story, he did a piece last year on
“Hear Me Out!”: https://hearmeoutcc.com/episode-12-lewis-vaughan-jones/

Bernadette Hagans
Nominated by Katie Phillips (Welsh Affairs Officer)
Bernadette is a cancer survivor and amputee model. She had to re-learn to
walk on a prosthesis and was later signed with the Zebedee Management
modelling agency, working with models with disabilities. Her story got the
attention of fashion brand Kurt Geiger who recently featured Bernadette as
a campaign ambassador. On the topic of her prosthetic she said "People
kept telling me to try to hide it and people were expecting me to get it
skin-coloured, but in my head I was like, if I'm going to have a robot leg, I
want it to look like a robot leg", "I'm trying to show that my leg is an
accessory - it's not something to be ashamed of and so I'm just trying to
show that and show that you can still live a happy life."

Keah Brown
Nominated by Theresa Ogbekhiulu (Education Officer)
Keah is a disability rights activist, author, and journalist
with cerebral palsy. She is the creator of the hashtag
#DisabledAndCute, which first went viral in February 201.
Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, ESPNW, Harper’s
Bazaar, and Marie Claire UK, among other publications.

Tatiana Lee
Nominated by Theresa Ogbekhiulu (Education Officer)
Tatiana is an award-winning actress, international model, and
an inclusion activist with spina bifida. She is the voice behind
the blog Accessible Hollywood and its associated YouTube
channel, where she documents her endeavours to fight for the
rights of disabled people in Hollywood. Tatiana currently serves
as a Hollywood Inclusion Associate for RespectAbility, a
non-profit organisation breaking down stigmas and advancing
opportunities for people with disabilities.

Clara Holmes
Nominated by Theresa Ogbekhiulu (Education Officer)
Clara, who has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, is a fashion model
and public speaker based in London. She is passionate about
self-love, body positivity and making sure there is a diverse
representation of all bodies in the beauty industry. Clara has
been vegan for five years and was vegetarian for many years
before that. Fitness and healthy eating are important to her.
She documents her experiences on her blog and YouTube
channel named, Rollin Funky.

Olivia Attwood
Nominated by Liza Leibowitz (Welfare Officer)
Olivia who starred on season 3 of Love Island was
diagnosed with ADHD while in primary school and
continues to experience symptoms as an adult. She has
shared how living with ADHD can be a struggle and has
tried to raise awareness of the condition through social
media.

Stephen Hawking
Nominated by Liza Leibowitz (Welfare Officer)
Stephen was an English theoretical physicist whose theory of
exploding black holes drew upon both relativity theory and
quantum mechanics. In the early 1960s Hawking contracted
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable degenerative
neuromuscular disease. He continued to work despite the disease’s
progressively disabling effects. Hawking’s contributions to physics
earned him many exceptional honours, including being made
Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982 and a Companion
of Honour in 1989.

Millie Bobby Brown
Nominated by Liza Leibowitz (Welfare Officer)
An English actress and producer who starred in Stranger
Things, was born with partial hearing loss. Her hearing
continued to worsen, and she now is deaf in one ear. As a
result, she cannot hear herself perform. She has starred in a
number of television shows, films and music videos. In
addition, she has been nominated for several awards and
has won on 10 occasions, despite only being 16 years old.

Daniel Radcliffe
Nominated by Alanna Taylor (Student Voice
(Democracy) Co-ordinator)
Best known for his role in the Harry Potter films, many may
not know that he has dyspraxia (a developmental
co-ordination disorder). He revealed that he had a mild
form of dyspraxia in 2008 but has said that he never let it
hold him back and clearly, he has managed to achieve
great things with the condition.

Stevie Wonder
Nominated by Alanna Taylor (Student Voice
(Democracy) Co-ordinator)
Is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He
became blind shortly after birth. His love of music was clear from an early
age as he began playing a number of instruments, including piano,
harmonica, and drums. He has recorded music in multiple genres and has
had more than 30 U.S. top ten hits and 20 R&B number one hits. He has
sold over 100 million records. He has won 25 Grammy awards and won an
Academy award for best original song. He has been recognised in the
Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Rock Hall of Fame and
Songwriters Hall of Fame and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame and now most notably, has been recognised here in the Disability
History Month Wall of Fame.

Ellie Simmonds OBE
Nominated by Chloe Morgan
Ellie is a British Paralympian swimmer competing in S6 events. She was born
with Achondroplasia and moved to Swansea when she was 11 to utilise the
world class swimming pool and attended Olchfa Comprehensive School. She
competed in the Paralympics in Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 -
winning 5 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 2 bronze medals. She also won 21
gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals from World Championships and European
Championships. She has been awarded several awards and honours
including being named as BBC Sport Personality of the Year in 2008,
becoming the youngest person to be appointed as a Member of the Order of
the British Empire (MBE) in 2009 and was elevated to Officer of the Order of
the British Empire (OBE) in 2013.

Tanni Grey-Thompson
Nominated by Chloe Morgan
She was born in Cardiff with Spina Bifida and discovered a love
for sports in comprehensive school. She went on to have a very
successful athletic career, competing in wheelchair racing for
over 16 years, five Paralympic Games and won 11 gold medals, 4
silver medals and a bronze medal. She now sits in the House of
Lords after being made a Life Peer in 2010. She has won BBC
sports personality of the year 3 times and was appointed as
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in
2005.

Rosie Jones
Nominated by Chloe Morgan
Rosie has ataxic cerebral palsy and is a British
comedian, writer, and actor. She has appeared at the
Edinburgh fringe festival multiple times, performed on
Live at the Apollo, and has appeared on panel shows
like 8 out of 10 cats and Mock the Week. She is an
advocate for disability rights and recently appeared on
Question Time where she highlighted how disabled
people are often ignored.

Lee Ridley
Nominated by Chloe Morgan
Lee was diagnosed with a neurological form of cerebral
palsy when he was a baby, which left him unable to talk.
He is the first comedian in Britain to use a
communication aid to perform and is now more
commonly known as Lost Voice Guy. He became a
household name following his appearance on Britain’s
Got Talent in 2018. Lee won the 12th series of BGT and
has gone on to tour the country.