State of the Nation: Will Pike

podcast

Oct 1

Series 4 / Episode 3

Episode 3: Designing a Society We Can All Belong In

In the third episode of State of Our Nation, Kari Gerstheimer is joined by disability consultant, keynote speaker, and media professional Will Pike to explore what happens when disability changes not only your life, but your understanding of the society around you.

Will sustained a spinal cord injury in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks while staying at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Since then, much of his work has focused on disability, access and inclusion. He founded the Disability Task Force, bringing together people with different disabilities to help organisations understand accessibility and representation from lived experience.

Will also created the short film Yes I Can, If… exploring the everyday barriers faced by wheelchair users on the high street.

Watch Will Pike’s “Yes I Can, If”

Independence, autonomy and the right support

Will reflects on how independence can sometimes be presented as the ultimate goal, even when complete independence isn't realistic for everyone. But autonomy, having control over your own life, is something that good support should make possible.

For people with significant care needs, the right support shouldn't take autonomy away. It should create the conditions for people to exercise it.

Will's experience of peer support reinforces this. He now volunteers with the Spinal Injuries Association, visiting people who are newly injured and helping them see that the period they are experiencing in hospital does not have to define the rest of their lives.

A system that asks us to prove what we can't do

Will and Kari also explore the experience of navigating benefits and social care systems.

Will describes the contradiction between rehabilitation, which encourages people to push themselves and discover what they are capable of, and assessment systems that can require people to describe their worst days and their limitations in order to access support.

Kari reflects on her own experience of supporting people through legal processes and hearing repeatedly about the emotional toll of having to tell the same story, focusing on everything that is difficult or impossible.

In their follow-up In Conversation, Kari and Andy return to this theme. They discuss how assessments and professional relationships can affect people's self-belief and identity, particularly when systems focus on rationing rather than prevention, early intervention and the outcomes that matter to people.

Valuing skilled care

For Will, getting the right support isn't simply about having enough people around you. It is about having skilled people who understand what they are doing.

He describes care as highly skilled work, particularly for people with complex needs, and argues that carers are undervalued in ways that ultimately affect the quality and stability of care.

This connects with the conversations in earlier episodes of State of Our Nation: if social care is about enabling people to live good lives, then the people providing that support need to be valued as skilled professionals.

Designing for everyone

Will challenges us to think about universal design — designing environments and services so that accessibility is built in from the beginning.

He uses housing as a example. Rather than making a small proportion of new homes accessible, why not establish a baseline where all new homes have features such as wider doorways and step-free access?

The benefits wouldn't only be felt by wheelchair users. Accessible homes can help parents with prams, older people, people recovering from injury and anyone whose circumstances change throughout their lives.

Andy and Kari reflect on how accessible design could prevent people from becoming isolated or having to fight for basic adjustments after something has already gone wrong.

The latest episode of State of Our Nation, Will Pike, is out now.

This episode is followed by In Conversation with Andy McCabe.

Listen to the episode and join the conversation about what social care could look like if we designed it around all of us.

You can find the series on Spotify , Apple Podcasts, or listen to each episode on our website. Just click on the link to the right.

Find out more about Social Care Future here

For information on The Big Conversation on Care

Use AccessAva, our online digital service to find free social care resources and legal support.

Try AccessAva today