What is disability?  Ask me at any time of day, and I’ll probably give you any one of a range of answers.  Though most will be of the theme “it’s a bloody nuisance, but I’m not letting it stop me”.

A few of you will have met me over the last few years, some will have seen me on Zoom or Teams, or as a name in a list of contacts, but to many I will be just another face in the crowd.  Though, of late, that has been a low-down face seen only as a body in a wheelchair.

My name is Matt, and I have already lived enough for two lifetimes.  So, I really don’t care one way or another about what the remainder of this lifetime brings.  What do I mean by that?  Let me tell you.

After I graduated from university in the early 1990s, I started a career as a surveyor in the offshore oil and gas industry.  For over twenty-five years I worked all over the world, mainly at sea but often ashore.  I worked my way up from surveying to project management and then senior management in some large construction and infrastructure projects.  I met colleagues from any number of countries and worked on every continent except Antarctica – and we even got close to there!  I could tell stories of parties in Singapore, hijacking in West Africa, or pirates in the South China Sea, but I’ll save those for my memoirs…. However, suffice to say, on a massive range of projects and in a variety of roles I garnered enough rich experiences to keep my mind occupied for years to come.

“Ah, but, what about disability?” you ask.  That came about in the daftest of ways.  At home for once, and with friends staying over, we had a power-cut early one winter morning.  Not wanting anyone to fall on the stairs, I went down to get torch.  And what did I do?  I fell and broke my neck.  Fortunately, not fatal, but definitely life changing.  And definitely a limiting injury.  The residual nerve damage in my neck and back continues, to this day, to impact upon what I can and cannot do.

I was very fortunate to have an amazing surgeon.  He rebuilt the shattered bones in my neck and gave me artificial disks between several vertebrae.  And, oh so slowly, I got my mobility back.  To this day, I cannot walk far, climb stairs, or stand for more than a few moments.  But I don’t let that stop me.  I already have enough amazing memories that my life feels full, so in that spirit I look on life now as being “well, it’s all good so far, let’s welcome the new day and see what it brings”.  And that, to me, will probably explain my earlier answer.

For me, disability is a physical thing.  It is not a state of mind.  Nor is it a preventative factor.  I may not enjoy the same career or lifestyle that I had before my accident, but I live a full and active life now and will continue to do so for many years.  And, when the time comes, and my body finally gives up, I will be content that I have lived many more than one lifetimes and I won’t be afraid to look forward to whatever happens next.

Matthew Sanderson – Research Associate, Planning, Property, and Environmental Management (PPEM), Faculty of Humanities.

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