BBC - Ouch! Disability Magazine

By Brian Smith

I recently came across Ouch! - the online disability magazine from the BBC. This isn't specifically focused on belonging, yet has a unique and, in my opinion, really sophisticated approach to our belonging movement. Here's how they describe themselves:

Ouch is a website from the BBC. Its aim is to reflect the lives of disabled people right here and now in the third millennium.

It's not a help and support site. If we were to give it a label, it would probably be closest to lifestyle. We pride ourselves on not being a resource for useful information, though I'm sure you'll find most things you're looking for here. There are many help and support sites out there that do a fantastic job, far better than we could, so we in the BBC's Learning & Interacitve department felt it would be good to do something completely different.

We're about personal stuff, minutiae of everyday life and that fantastic dark sense of humour and inevitable cynicism that we disabled people tend to have. Oh, and we don't shy away from subjects that other people might be a bit wary of.
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Ouch! is establishing quite a following and, in doing so, building a readership moreover community of savvy people who are aware of the issues, interested in moving forward and yet focused on change at a personal level. Here are links to some of their sections that I thought were a good read:


The Life Files Section ... This section of Ouch is the home of our lifestyle content - from holidays and travel, through to food, motoring, student life and parenting.

The TV & Radio Section ... This section of Ouch provides information and links to BBC TV and radio programmes with a disability angle. You can also find other BBC disability-related info from here.

Ouch's News Section is updated three times a week, though we also add breaking stories as and when they occur. If you spot a newsworthy item that they haven't covered, email them with the details: ouch@bbc.co.uk.