As a disabled Welshman who has spent decades inside the systems I am now reforming, I know what slow services cost. Waiting years for a chair that fits. Fighting for equipment that works. Watching independence rise or fall on a single clinical decision made by someone who has never sat in the seat. That experience shapes how I chair The Wheelchair Collective.

Under my chairmanship, The Wheelchair Collective is a national table where wheelchair users hold the pen. The mission is straightforward: better chairs with dignity built in. Services designed with disabled people, not for them. A system that listens before it spends.

Outside of The Wheelchair Collective I am co-chief executive of Bridgeman Community Foundation, a pan-Wales cooperative I lead with my husband Paul. I also serve on the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee at the Department for Transport and on the Independent Disability Advisory Panel at the Department for Work and Pensions.

I also advise Welsh Government on disability equality and housing policy, and I am a five-year named research partner with Cardiff University.

Since my injury, I have worked in public service, disability advocacy and peer support, including supporting serving personnel, veterans and disabled people to rebuild confidence, independence and control after major injury or illness. I now lead Peer Advice Services UK, a charity providing practical support, advocacy and mental health help across the UK.

I joined The Wheelchair Collective because wheelchair users need to be heard by the people shaping services, policy and access. I hope The Wheelchair Collective can help turn lived experience into practical change, so wheelchair users have fairer, faster and more consistent support wherever they live.

The reason I joined The Wheelchair Collective was in order to ensure all voices are heard across the region and bring them to a space where real change can happen.

I’m looking forward to working to achieve better access and a less stressful process to accessing the appropriate equipment.

In my free time, I volunteer for EDS UK and enjoy spending time exploring nature across the region.

I have been a wheelchair user for five years, becoming a more full time user in 2023 following a stroke and decline in my health conditions and overall mobility.

I am both humbled and proud to be able to be a part of The Wheelchair Collective and I'm excited to be part of a group that puts wheelchair users, their needs and opinions front and centre. I got involved because I believe real change comes from lived experience and I’m passionate about making sure the voices of wheelchair users are heard where it matters most, and that this equates to positive and real change for people.

I look forward to increasing the reach of The Wheelchair Collective network and can’t wait to start engaging and speaking with more people. There is always a solution to a problem, and if the right voices are at the table then positive change can occur.

Outside of The Wheelchair Collective, I work full time as an Environmental Health Officer in Local Government, based in central London. I founded and chair our staff disability network and am vice chair, disability and H&S officer for my local Unison Branch.

I got involved with The Wheelchair Collective because I believe real change comes from lived experience – and I'm proud to be part of a group that puts that front and centre.

Outside of The Wheelchair Collective, I have been a mentor to people with severe disabilities learning to gain more freedom and independence, founding member of Warrington wolves wheelchair team and worked with and against local councils and councillors.

I'm also part of a monthly think-tank of heads of disability foundations and charities, disability access warrior and a global traveller.

I joined The Wheelchair Collective because lived experience is the qualification – and change built with us is the change that is worth building.

Outside of The Wheelchair Collective, I am a postdoctoral researcher, trainee family therapist and auntie to the best six kids in the world!

I am a powered wheelchair user with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and multiple associated chronic conditions, which give me lived experience of the barriers disabled people face every day.

I joined The Wheelchair Collective to connect with others who share the same passion for change, to learn from their experiences, and to bring my own lived experience and advocacy work to the group. I hope The Wheelchair Collective can help create a more accessible future by amplifying disabled voices and driving meaningful change across the UK.

Outside of The Wheelchair Collective, I founded a local disability awareness group in my town, which has led to achievements including helping secure a Changing Places facility and challenging local decisions that would have negatively impacted wheelchair users. I also contribute to access panels covering transport, television, and local health services.

I’m Gina Perryman and I represent the South East on The Wheelchair Collective.

The reason I joined The Wheelchair Collective was because I believe meaningful, lasting change is driven by those with direct experience, alongside the sharing of best practices to achieve the best possible outcomes for wheelchair users.

I am proud to contribute to a group that places lived experience at the heart of its work.

Alongside this role, I work with HIVE Portsmouth, a local charity supporting the community. There, I am involved in a Disability Advisory Group led by disabled people, which focuses on addressing everyday challenges, with particular attention to improving wheelchair services and accessible transport.

As a wheelchair user of five years, I have used this perspective and lived experience to contribute to a range of advocacy work. Alongside The Wheelchair Collective, I work with Swansea University to provide lived experience to medical students and founded an Accessibility Working Group for Health Volunteers. I also use my role in Swansea Disability Forum to support and advocate for disabled people in South Wales.

I relish all engagement and advocacy opportunities, with a particular interest in accessible transport and the live music and events industry.

I look forward to collaborating with other regional representatives to amplify the voice of wheelchair users across the UK!

Living in Edinburgh in a manual wheelchair for the last six years has been a challenge, to say the least – the city's cobbles, hills and horrendous pavement infrastructure are a crash course in wheelie-hostile environment. Which is why attitude is so important.

I wanted to work with The Wheelchair Collective because I’m very concerned about the current trajectory of access rights for disabled people in the UK and the negative narrative around us that's being created. If we want to keep our hard-won rights, we have to stay visible and stay in the room, even if there’s a massive flight of stairs leading up to it! I hope The Wheelchair Collective is the lift that gets us into that room.

I’m passionate, but also human and work part time as well as volunteering with The Wheelchair Collective, so please be patient if I am slow to reply to your query.

I became involved with The Wheelchair Collective because I believe real change comes from lived experience – and I'm proud to make changes, assist those that need it and share acquired knowledge from personal experience and previous occupations.

Outside of The Wheelchair Collective, I spend a lot of time with my large breed dogs, enjoy spending much time with my grandparents and also enjoy creating, using a sewing machine.