About Disability Debrief

A disability lens on world news

Disability Debrief curates news and resources from around the world in a uniquely global coverage of 160+ countries. And we commission original pieces to give you stories ignored by mainstream media and that you won't read anywhere else.

Our disability lens is all about telling disability stories in new ways, by combining lived experience, research, and original reporting. And we use creative approaches in language, art, and even poetry to give a fresh view.

The weekly newsletter is read and relied upon by government and UN officials, the non-profit sector, journalists and disabled people themselves. Readers say it empowers them to fight for change in their personal or professional lives. 

What readers say

“A beautiful insight into our global community.”
Katie Pennick, researcher and campaigner

“I can't work without it.”
Catherine Hyde Townsend, Ford Foundation

“I'm in awe of how comprehensive, thoughtful and readable Peter's newsletter is! I wish it were in my life sooner.”
Jen Bokoff, Disability Rights Fund

“Disability Debrief provides a perspective from a world I'm re-learning to navigate, one that's incredibly well-researched and makes me hope for a better future.”
Jodi Ettenberg, Curious about Everything

“Disability Debrief filled a gap in our sector. It pulls together everything that's going on and does so in an easily-digestible way.”
Penny Innes, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

See more quotes from happy readers.

About the Editor

Hi, I'm Peter Torres Fremlin (he/him). I became a journalist by writing Disability Debrief, after a career working on disability rights around the world.

I grew up as a disabled person in the UK. For a decade I worked to advise international organisations on disability inclusion. A passion to get to know new places and people took me to study, work and live in Brazil, Bangladesh and Egypt.

But as a disabled person I knew that the way we speak about disability in policy or activism didn't match my own experiences. I feel the need for new stories that can connect lived experience with the policies and activism we use to make a better world.

The Debrief comes out of my belief that disability gives us new ways to understand the world around us. I'm proud to make a project that connects a global community, and love working with others to share stories in their own words.

Who helps make the Debrief?

Peter works with friends, contributors, and mentors all over the world. Regular collaborators include:

• Áine Kelly-Costello (they/them) is a proudly disabled story-teller, researcher, and advocate, based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. As well as leading our climate reporting they regularly advise and provide editorial support to the Debrief.
• Celestine Fraser (she/her) is a writer and filmmaker communicating disability, from London, UK. She works with Peter as an editor and copywriter. She has also written her own Debrief essay on disability media.
• Kinanty Andini (she/her) is an artist, graphic designer and psychosocial disability activist from Jakarta, Indonesia. She designed the Debrief logo and has regularly illustrated our newsletters since 2024.
• Sonaksha (they/them) is a queer disabled South Asian illustrator, writer and graphic recorder and designer from Bengaluru, India. They have regularly illustrated our newsletters since 2023.
• Tan Kuan Aw (he/him) was an artist and activist based in Penang, Malaysia. His portrait of Peter is on the homepage, and his watercolours illustrated the Debrief from 2022-24. He sadly passed in 2025.

If you'd like to be involved, get in touch.

How is the Debrief funded?

Disability Debrief is entirely open access. The Debrief is read by policy professionals as well as by grassroots activists. It is important that there is no financial barrier to the information.

The Debrief is funded through a pay-what-you-can model. This is a model that allows us to make the Debrief as a public resource. It does not rely on selling consultancy services.

A diversity of funding sources allows an independent view. We maintain editorial independence from the organisations and readers that support this work. Since we started, we have been supported by over 200 readers and 20 different organisations.

Partners subscribing at higher levels are:

• Center for Inclusive Policy, a non-profit advisory service on inclusive policies and programmes. Special thanks to CIP for support since 2020!
• Sightsavers, an international development organisation working on disability rights.
• Ford Foundation, a private foundation supporting human welfare.
• K. Li, an old friend and generous donor.
• ADD International, who support the global disability justice movement.
• CBM Global, who work alongside people with disabilities in the world's poorest places.
• Disability Rights Fund, a grant-making collaborative.

Other organisations providing support. The Debrief has a backer in Light for the World and subscriptions from Disability Policy Solutions, Disability Rights International, GIZ, the Disability Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, Into Inclusion, Impel Consultancy, Minority Rights, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Tilting the Lens, USAID, and Women Enabled. It also has support from two organisations that prefer not to be named here: one UN agency and one private foundation.

For more financial information, see the Debrief accounts.

A note on language

On the Debrief we use the terms “person with disability” and “disabled person” interchangeably. Contributors are encouraged to use the term that they prefer.

For more on this, see how Peter makes editorial choices about language on disability. In short: a diverse community needs diverse language.

About this website

We work to make this website an accessible experience, but didn't manage to fix everything. See the accessibility statement and please let us know what we can improve.

Thanks to Cathy Sarisky of Spectral Web Services for extensive work modifying and maintaining the website theme.

The newsletter and website is powered by Ghost, an open-source publishing host.