"After being told she wouldn't be able to receive her award onstage like the other recipients, the 25-year-old said she was "in shock and trying to figure out what to do".

So, no she didn't. From the rest of the article, it looks like that was information that only came out later, when some lowly fact-checker called in order to set the caption. Or it's not true and was made up by the person writing the caption.

Especially odd to mention the availability of a ramp under a picture of her motioning to stairs.

It's clearly a backfitted excuse.

Crawl over to the one giving the award 🤣

It is, but I think we can cut her some slack on freezing up in a posh situation, in shock at having been blindsided by that insult. She did make a scene after the event, which is why we're reading this. I assume there were other awardees, whose reaction/support she couldn't count on if she interrupted their ceremony and turned all the attention to herself.

I work in events and this is a wild oversight.

I bent the rules a little and used the headline the BBC used on Instagram 🤭

I’m disabled and a wheelchair user living in the UK.

There is almost no way to know, ahead of time, how accessible a venue will be. There are some resources available but they’re almost always created by other disabled people and might be outdated or they may not share your disability, so they might see things slightly differently than you do. It also takes a lot of work to figure it out - how will I get there? How will I get around once I’m there? Are there any stairs? Are there accessible bathrooms? Will there be enough space for me to move around, to turn, to get through a door?

She got there on the day and assumed that a ceremony for a disability campaigner would be accessible. Now that it turns out it wasn’t, she has taken the opportunity to spread awareness about it, making this event probably some of the most successful disability activism she has ever done, ironically.

The UK is absolutely awful for accessibility. It’s a massive, unbelievable heavy burden to be disabled, and as a wheelchair user it’s very hard to get around. There are so many things that businesses, employers, schools and public services do not consider which just makes our lives so much harder. It’s such a deep-running systemic issue.

If you’re in any position to impact decision making anywhere in your life, I’d encourage you to bring accessibility into those decisions. Whether that’s making sure that a website you’re designing is considering the needs of disabled people, or encouraging your employer to install ramps instead of stairs, or as simple as getting your office to consider using sans-serif fonts and light coloured backgrounds for black text instead of white. It’s something that all of us can help with.

It's probably a participation trophy

I worked with a company some time ago contracted in as support services as they weren't equipped (see: trained) to work with individuals with barriers. My job was to support those they had hired and get staff up to speed on how best to work with them. I'm of the opinion they were doing fine given that they had a fully blind not-from-birth individual working for them and doing great but hey, paycheck. Part of my service was to identify areas that need improvement. Sometimes this is often crowded doorways, or floor obstacles, and shelving that is too high/deep/unstable, etc.

So I'm there working with staff and leadership to get them up to ramming speed, we reach comfortable threshold, my time is done. Off the clock I request a meeting to speak with them about some potential improvements. You see, at this particular location they utilized a color-coded system for everything. This was to support individuals with dyslexia and poor reading comprehension. Pretty cool, right? They had come up with a way to minimize issues for people who may not even want to admit they have barriers. Some of you may already know where this is going.

In my report and the meeting I outlined a major flaw that was costing them employees and they did not even know it. You'd be surprised how many people are colorblind and don't even know it themselves. So in my report I pointed out that along with typical shorthand and their color system, which they should absolutely keep, they should add simple symbols. Circle for yellow, triangle for red, square for blue, etc. I also pointed out that they could also consider adding single indents that match with colors and symbols, which would support older populations and individuals with ocular degenerative diseases. Basically open themselves up fully to a population other employers turn down.

Last I checked they had implemented these changes, or some variation(s), and word came back that they were receiving TOO many applications with most of their workforce having one or more barriers that would normally force them into some larger financial assistance structure, with all the red tape and bullshit that comes with it, cause boy are the limitations and expectations in these programs bonkers at times.

Point being that even those who have put thought into solutions for problems they themselves don't have, it is specifically because they don't have the same limitations that solutions are often half finished. Some people, and yes some institutions, try to do what they can. At the end of the day some fixes are better than none at all. More can always be added later.

"we want to make clear our unreserved apology to X and we are making every effort to ensure this doesn’t happen again"

Is a standard bullshit response in Britain, which unvariably doesn't get any follow through.

See also "lessons have been learned".

The question is; can their desire to appear to be doing the right thing be leveraged into making them actually do the right things thus inculcating their identities into making a genuine shift.

Many sportspeople are knighted (Dameified?). Service to community for regular folks also gets honours for those who stand out. At least in the wider commonwealth this has been true for all my life and my parents too. Look up Sir Clive Lloyd, Sir Bobby Robson, etc. There’s a lot of orders of knights who are appointed solely at the discretion of the monarch in there but those specific orders are usually related to the functional aspects of the monarchy. I’m thinking specifically of the orders of the Garter and Thistle here. Generally, at least in Elizabeth’s reign the majority of honours I’ve seen have been for service to the community, arts, sports etc. and the person has genuinely been involved.

Agree on the lordships though

I wish

And if anyone advocates for better rights for disabled people without his explicit permission, he'll just kick them out of the party.

"Sir Starmer"

Let's not forget his stamp of approval from the very establishment that refuses to account for the needs of anybody but the well off.

We do. It's called the Equality Act 2010. It requires reasonable adjustments for disabled people. However, this is not always provided for in reality. The equality act is mentioned in the original article

I can only speak as an American myself but I don’t believe so.

It’s something I’ve heard through the vines (back in the days of Reddit) that Europeans and other travelers are often impressed by when visiting is how accommodating our buildings and their infrastructure are.

I have always assumed part of the reason they don’t is it helps we are a much younger country that in most areas has plenty of room for such accommodations. Implementing and enforcing ADA requirements like the US does on new construction and renovations in cities with buildings and infrastructure as old and tight as exists in Europe would be difficult to say the least.

Source - I’m some random guy on the internet who works at general contractor that has to abide by ADA requirements when building and renovating spaces.