Bethany Handley Details Accessibility Barriers in UK Countryside After Losing Leg Use
Bethany Handley, 26, a writer and advocate, has spoken out about the systemic barriers preventing disabled individuals from accessing the British countryside. Having grown up immersed in the natural world in rural Monmouthshire, Handley lost the use of her legs three years ago, transitioning to full-time wheelchair use following years of deteriorating health. This experience, she states, rendered her "literally padlocked out of all my favourite landscapes," a situation she describes as more disabling than her medical conditions.
Handley's journey began with a visual impairment from birth, later compounded by glandular fever in her GCSE years and subsequent diagnoses including endometriosis. Her health progressively declined, leading to frequent fainting and eventual loss of mobility. Despite initial struggles with an ill-fitting personal wheelchair and a period of homelessness due to inaccessible accommodation, Handley secured a lightweight chair through crowdfunding, enabling her to revisit many cherished locations.
She champions the social model of disability, asserting that physical and societal environments, rather than individual conditions, create barriers. Handley highlights prevalent obstacles in rural areas, such as stiles, padlocked gates, and narrow kissing gates, which she argues are unnecessary and exclude disabled people. "We design people out of nature," she contends, advocating for a re-evaluation of how access is considered in landscape design.
Handley has since adapted her engagement with nature, including surfing on a modified board and utilising an all-terrain wheelchair to ascend a Black Mountains ridge, an act she describes as "really defiant." Her experiences are chronicled in her book, My Body is a Meadow, which explores reclaiming the natural world for all. Despite ongoing health challenges, Handley continues to find joy in nature and advocates for the equal right of disabled people to access landscapes.
