(Re)Introducing ThisAbility® Limited

A new era of socially conscious Disabled business. Radical, anti-ableist, anti-racist, interdependent, accessible, healing, and regenerative. Shared in Crip Time.

Hey, friends!

Following the introductory post about this newsletter, I’m delighted to (re)introduce my business to the world: ThisAbility® Limited.

My business will turn eight on 22 October 2024. So, I am (re)imagining what is possible for us in 2024 and beyond. I get so much joy from my business, but staying afloat and thriving has been an ongoing struggle.

As a Disabled entrepreneur of colour, I don’t have the luxury of not fighting for my business. I don’t have the luxury of not fighting for anti-ableism within socially conscious brands. I don’t have the luxury of not fighting with Disabled people, especially Disabled People of the Global Majority¹ (colloquially people of colour), to dismantle ableism for Disability Justice. I do this wholeheartedly, without apology and fear or favour.

I’m not afraid to be curious, compassionate, and courageous. I have to adapt to progress forward. I have never been afraid to adapt my business entirely and reinvent ourselves.

As the Founder and Chief Radical Officer at ThisAbility® Limited, read on for details about this radical (re)imagining. You won’t see us the same.

I’m excited to share details about my business’ (re)launch, ThisAbility® Limited. I’m ready to support every socially conscious brand into a fully anti-ableist organisation.

Ownership

Back in September 2023, Mama said another profound thing to me:

[Open Quote] “Why do Disabled people like you create things, but you don’t own things?” [End Quote]

This question felt profound, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. As a Disabled entrepreneur of colour, this particularly resonates with me. 

I decided to trademark ThisAbility. So, I am delighted to share that since 8 December 2023, ThisAbility® has been registered as a trademark of ThisAbility® Limited at The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom. UK Trademark number: UK00003954170

I will lead ThisAbility® Limited to start owning what we create and start thriving into the future.

(Re)introducing ThisAbility® Limited

Let me (re)imagine my business by formally (re)introducing ourselves to the universe:

Disability, daringly. ThisAbility® Limited works with socially conscious brands to tackle deep-rooted ableist systems to enact Disability Justice. We are driven to help these brands divest from ableism to become anti-ableist ecosystems and shift from socially conscious to socially impactful by integrating Disability culture. In doing so, ThisAbility® Limited helps to reset cultural standards (values, beliefs, and narratives) and catalyse a fundamental paradigm shift toward Disability liberation.

We are planting anti-ableism into creativity. Right now, we’re helping socially conscious brands become anti-ableist, socially impactful ecosystems. Our services include public speaking, consulting, creating accessible and liberated ecosystemic design, and creative strategy. In short, we aim to create a more accessible and just world where Disabled people can thrive and succeed, not despite their Disabilities and accessibility needs, but because of them.

As a Certified B Corporation™ business and a business proudly owned (and led) by “a Global Majority Disabled AF Oracle”, we are an unapologetic, fully remote team currently based across the UK, with a global footprint. Our eclectic team, representing a broad spectrum of Disabilities, is at the heart of our B Corp certification. This certification means we’ve made a legally binding commitment to prioritise the needs of our staff, clients, community, and the planet (including flora, fauna, and funga) before the needs of our shareholders, ensuring everyone feels valued and ethically represented. 

We work tirelessly to ignite, amplify, and invest in Disabled creativity worldwide, thereby ensuring a liberated future for Disabled people and, ultimately, collective liberation for all.

Our business may be limited in name, but we are unlimited in imagination.

Angela Y. Davis said it best, [Open Quote] “We are not afraid to adopt a revolutionary stance — if, indeed, we wish to be radical in our quest for change — then we must get to the root of our oppression. After all, radical simply means ‘grasping things at the root.’” [End Quote].

Image description: Bold, wild, fearless existence. Sulaiman (a wholeheartedly Disabled AF and British-Pakistani man) is lying in bed on his right with a nasal ventilator mask over his face as he works on his MacBook Pro laptop. On the grey case of his MacBook Pro are seven stickers on the back of the screen via Sulaiman himself and his Disabled global kin (by bond) – Jennifer White-Johnson, Alice Wong, Sandy Ho, and Mia Mingus. Sticker 1 is a circular pink sticker with red text that says “Cripjoy.” Sticker 2 is a sticker with a white background featuring a gradient black to purple text that says “Create More Anti-Ableist Spaces” in capital letters. Stickers 3 and 4 are cursive text that says “Radical Joy,” one a sticker of pink text with a black outline and the other a colourful holographic sticker. Sticker 5 is a graphic of the black power fist against a white background with the infinity symbol and the words “Black Disabled Lives Matter” written in bold white font placed down the wrist of the fist. Sticker 6 is a graphic of the black power fist against a white background with the infinity symbol for neurodiversity in bold white lines placed down the wrist of the fist. Finally, sticker 7 is an extensive rectangular white background with black text over four lines; on lines 1 to 3, the text says, “Access is… Solidarity is… Disability Justice is…” and on line 4, the larger text says, “Love” in capital letters with the “o” replaced with a red heart emoji. Sulaiman is wearing his Bunny Oodie (“like a jumper crossed with a blanket crossed with a cloud”) in purple via @the_oodie, and he feels calm as he works on his MacBook Pro. End.

Disability, daringly

Why is “Disability, daringly” our brand tagline? Simply because everything we do centres on Disability, daringly.

Through ThisAbility® Limited, I am bold, wild, and fearless in curiously, compassionately, and courageously centring Disability and leading socially conscious brands to become fully anti-ableist organisations.

I cannot do anything else anymore, and I cannot lead my business to do anything else.

Why anti-ableism matters

I wish to keep things simple, clear, and focused. As a Disabled and Person of The Global Majority-owned Disability Justice business, I am leading my business focus on anti-ableism for socially conscious brands because:

1. I’m no longer working with brands that aren’t socially conscious.

2. I’m embedding anti-ableism into socially conscious organisations and helping them become socially impactful, anti-ableist brands.

3. I’m dismantling anti-ableism by highlighting how it’s connected to all systems of oppression (especially racism, white supremacy culture, cissexism, and capitalism).

4. I’m sharing my thoughts on Disability Justice through anti-ableism.

5. I’m using anti-ableism as the tool for our radical, collective liberation of all of our kin (by blood or bond, our human and more-than-human kin, and our inner and outer selves). 

6. I’m no longer tolerating the politics of palatability.

7. I’m centring Disabled wisdom and richness by divesting in ableism and enacting Disability liberation.

Like everything I do, this (re)imagining will be explored with a long-term active praxis of unconditional Access Intimacy, interdependence, and Revolutionary LOVE® in Crip Time², too.

Also, I am not interested in debating my lived experience as a Disabled AF, British-Pakistani entrepreneur as well, why D&I/DEIJ/Disability inclusion is unhelpful (especially for Disabled people of The Global Majority), and I am not interested in justifying my existence. This courage is how I lead my business, and we only do work rooted in justice and collective liberation. Without apology, without oppression.

Now is the time

Time waits for no one. Yet, we cannot exclude Disabled people from a justice-oriented future for our collective liberation.

I have had enough of organisations (even most Disability-led organisations) who are only interested in so-called “Disability inclusion/representation” without having an intersectional approach that (along with anti-racism) is rooted in anti-ableism and Disability Justice.

I have had enough of socially conscious brands not working towards becoming anti-ableism organisations.

I have had enough of not centring Disability, daringly, in everything.

I have had enough of not fiercely wheeling away from organizations that don’t align with our values.

I have had enough of tolerating ableism and racism.

I have had enough of not trusting my wisdom, richness, and love.

I have had enough of our inaction.

Now, I move. For anti-ableism. For anti-racism. For anti-oppression. For Disability Justice. For environmental justice. For social justice. For collective liberation. For Revolutionary LOVE®. For Disability, daringly.

Onwards and upwards.

If you dare, let’s dismantle ableism within socially conscious brands and care!

May this new adventure be radical, restful, regenerative, accessible, easeful, healing, nourishing, conscious, abundant, caring, liberated, interdependent, and loving for us. We got you x

1. People of the Global Majority: coined by Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens, MBE is “a collective term that first and foremost speaks to and encourages those so-called, to think of themselves as belonging to the majority on planet earth. It refers to people who are Black, African, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or, have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’. Globally these groups currently represent approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the world’s population, making them the global majority now, and with current growth rates, notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic, they are set to remain so for the foreseeable future. Understanding that singular truth may shift the dial, it certainly should permanently disrupt and relocate the conversation on race.” (R. Campbell-Stephens, 2020). This term aligns wholeheartedly with my Disabled AF British-Pakistani existence and Queer creative energy. It is my way of wheeling away from all systems of oppression, including but not limited to me no longer being capitalism’s plaything, ableism’s commodity, racism’s tool for power, colonialism’s puppet for violence, white supremacy culture’s fetish for manipulation, cis-able neocolonial-racist-supremacist heteronormative patriarchy’s armour for bullying, and oppression’s pawn for harm.

2. Through Sulaiman’s radical and badass leadership, we work, live, exist, play, and love in Crip Time. In short, Crip Time is the bending of time (and time travel) that Disabled people are experts in practising, and centres Disabled bodies and minds by and for Disabled people through interdependence and Revolutionary LOVE^®.