Hannah Diviney

Hi I’m Hannah Diviney and I’m an ambassador for International Day for People with Disability for 2023.

I agreed to become an ambassador because I feel that representation is really important and that the more visible disabled stories can be in the community, and in the broader world, the better it’s going to be for the 4 million of us who have disabilities around the country.

One thing that I would love to shape about society, I think it would be creating a world where people’s differences and unique needs and abilities were accepted and catered for.

Words have so much power.

I mean, I’m a writer by trade, I’m a storyteller so words are my bread and butter and I think for me, calling out ableist language has always been motivated by wanting people to understand how much words matter.

I was on Twitter and I noticed some friends of mine were expressing discomfort with a lyric that Lizzo had written in a new song of hers, so I wrote a tweet, it took me less than 5 minutes and then my phone went ballistic for a couple of days.

Lizzo ended up changing the lyric, the world’s media covered it, and then 6 weeks later, Beyoncé did the same thing.

I ended up starting a global conversation and disabled people’s perspectives were heard around the world.

I think advocacy has taught me a lot about being resilient, about the importance of choosing your words and acting with care.

Please know that if the only person you can advocate for is yourself, that’s more than enough.