Last week I joined the Blue Space in UK Policy stakeholder workshop, hosted by the Environment Agency and Brunel University London. The meeting brought together a focused group of researchers, practitioners, and policy partners who are actively working to improve how blue spaces are understood, governed, and accessed across the UK. Rivers, seas, lakes, and …
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Access to blue spaces is often imagined as something simple. Build a ramp, widen a path, install the right infrastructure, and participation will follow. But time spent in, near, and around water tells a more complicated story. I’m very pleased to share that my latest paper has been published in Disability & Society: “Not just …
Read more “Not Just the Ramp: A New Paper on Access and Blue Space Fieldwork”
After months of swimming, walking, floating, and listening together, fieldwork has come to a close. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who shared their time, stories, and presence. Thank you for guiding me, trusting the process, and co-creating moments of care, laughter, and reflection in, near, and around water. This has never …
What does it mean to gather data not just about people, but with them – in motion, in water, in real time? This July marked the start of my PhD fieldwork, exploring how people with visual impairments experience, access, and connect with blue space. Working closely with blind and partially sighted swimmers, I’ve begun a …
What does it mean to see the world differently and how can we build environments that respond to those differences with care, not exclusion? On 17 July 2025, with support from the University of Brighton Doctoral College, we hosted Sight Support Worthing (SSW) on campus to deliver a tailored visual awareness training session for postgraduate …
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What does change look like when research, community, and local leadership come together? This summer, Sea Lanes Brighton (the UK’s national open water swimming centre) is running a series of VI-only swim sessions, developed in response to feedback from the co-designed research pilot in June. Taking place every Wednesday from 11am–12pm, the pool is closed …
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As part of the post-event ripple effect, I joined RNIB Connect Radio to talk about how open water swimming can — and should — be more accessible to people with sight loss. We discussed the practicalities of VI swim sessions, the emotional depth of water connection, and how space, trust, and interdependence matter. It was …
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Going live on national television wasn’t something I expected to do so early on the research journey — but being invited onto BBC Breakfast to talk about Accessible Waters was a real privilege. The conversation followed the recent VI-only swim session in Brighton, and gave space to reflect on the wider research: how people with …
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The Access All podcast on BBC Sounds is known for thoughtful, grounded conversations around disability and access — so I was honoured to be invited on to discuss my work with visually impaired swimmers and blue space connection. The conversation covered everything from co-produced swim-along interviews to the joy of bobbing about with others in …
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What does it feel like to swim in a space shaped with you, not just for you? To feel welcomed, supported, and part of something — not watched, but witnessed? That was the atmosphere at Sea Lanes Brighton, the UK’s national open water swimming centre,where we hosted our first research-informed swim day exclusively for people …