Sharing my experience as a disabled entrepreneur with the UN

I’M JOSH WINTERSGILL, 28, AND I LIVE WITH SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY. IN JUNE, I WAS INVITED BY THE UNITED NATIONS ON BEHALF OF LEONARD CHESHIRE AS ONE OF THEIR GLOBAL AMBASSADORS TO SPEAK AT COSP 15, A THREEDAY EVENT IN NEW YORK (THE 15TH CONFERENCE OF STATE PARTIES TO THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES)

My session took place on day 2 of COSP 15, where I had to deliver a speech based on my lived experience to the roundtable session on economic empowerment and entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities—covering many aspects of early employment and barriers to securing internships, to finding employment after university and my transition into entrepreneurship with my business Able Move.

Able Move is known for transferring slings for wheelchair users to access air travel, alongside their popular waterproof wheelchair towels.

Before my session started, I was privileged to be invited to a side event hosted by the UK’s Minister for Disabled People, Chloe Smith, on Increasing Disability Employment. Following that, Chloe asked me to have a private conversation about broader issues experienced through my journey into entrepreneurship and employment.

I was also really pleased to highlight some of the fantastic research and work that Leonard Cheshire has been doing with youth with disabilities, including their Crisis Talks report, which aimed to understand the impact of Covid on their access to employment, along with the benefits that programmes such as Change 100 hold for youth with disabilities. I found it fascinating to understand and share Leonard Cheshire’s programmes’ combined reach and impact in the UK and worldwide. To finish the conference, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to make recommendations to those attending COSP 15, including Member States, private sector organisations, UN agencies, development partners and NGOs from around the world. These were:

• Social protection systems should be designed not to exclude or make it difficult for persons with disabilities to enter entrepreneurship.

• Social protection systems must accommodate the additional costs faced by persons with disabilities who are employed, self-employed or entrepreneurs. However, governments in low-income countries may need support through, for example, leveraging technical and financial assistance from development partners and public-private initiatives.

• Focus on reaching the most marginalised people with policies that address the intersecting challenges faced by many persons with disabilities, such as gender, urban-rural locations, wealth and poverty, and those with multiple or complex disabilities.

• Join policy-making across different sectors, including education, health, and housing, and strive to create life-long social protection schemes.

• Commit to including persons with disabilities and their representative organisations in all policy and decision-making.

To share my lived experience and represent our country and the disabled community globally in entrepreneurship and employment was quite the experience – daunting but enriching!

Links: https://media.un.org/en/ asset/k14/k14m4mzzei

Speech: 42 minutes in - Josh’s Speech

Q&A: 01:41:00 - Josh’s responses to questions

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT JOSH…

Josh Wintersgill is a Trustee of Disabled Living, the charity behind the Kidz to Adultz Exhibitions and magazine.

Josh, is founder of the company Able Move and a regular exhibitor at the Kidz to Adultz Exhibitions. Able Move provides specialist slings and other devices to help wheelchair users explore new possibilities with safety, dignity and comfort. Josh, alongside his business has won many awards, including UK Disabled Entrepreneur and Great Britain’s Best Young Entrepreneur. In addition, he has successfully secured investment for Able Move from the Founder of easyJet, Sir Stelios HajiIoannou and his easy family of brands.

Aside from the entrepreneurial world, Josh actively campaigns to help improve air travel through accessibility advisory groups as well providing groundbreaking research on disabled passengers for the aviation industry at a global level. Josh is a lover of technology, where he spent 5 years working in Tech after graduating from University West of England in IT management and business and in 2019 I received an Honorary Masters in Technology. Last but not least, Josh an aspiring Paralympian for Great Britain in air-rifle.

Email: joshwintersgill@ ablemove.co.uk