Frances RyanFRSL is a British journalist, author, and activist for people with disabilities. In 2021 the Shaw Trust named her one of the UK's ten most influential disabilities activists. Global Citizen called her "a prominent voice for people with disabilities in the media".[2] She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Ryan is a journalist, author, and activist for people with disabilities.[5][6][2] She began writing about disability in 2012[7]: x and has written the Hardworking Britain column for The Guardian.[4] She has worked as a political researcher at the University of Nottingham.[8]
In 2022, she commented on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation on disabled people. She argued that many disabled people require extra electricity for medical equipment or extra heat. She said, "If you're chronically ill, you can't go round multiple shops for the cheapest deal."[13]
In 2021 the Shaw Trust named her one of the UK's ten most influential disabilities activists.[6]Global Citizen called her "a prominent voice for people with disabilities in the media".[2] Ryan was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022, due in combination to her authorship of Crippled and her writing for The Guardian.[17]
Personal life
Ryan has generalised muscle weakness and uses a wheelchair.[9][18] Due to her disability, Ryan was unable to travel for a book tour, so she spoke at online events. For a television interview about her book, she declined a producer's suggestion that she be filmed performing tasks around her house, as she did not think this would have been asked were she not disabled.[19]