Episode Details

Accessibility Isn’t a Favour: Ellie Rowlands on Ableism in Everyday Life

When we talk about disability, we often focus on the big moments: discrimination cases, inspirational stories, fundraising campaigns, or medical diagnoses.

But what if inequality lives somewhere much quieter?

In this episode of The C-Word, Catharine sits down with disability advocate, public speaker, and creative business owner Ellie Rowlands to talk about the everyday realities of navigating a world that isn’t always designed with disabled people in mind.

Born with spina bifida and living in regional New South Wales, Ellie shares what ableism actually looks like in practice: inaccessible buildings, limited accessible bathrooms, assumptions from strangers, planning every outing around access, and the constant exhaustion of having to advocate for yourself.

Together, Catharine and Ellie explore ~ 

• What ableism is and why it often goes unnoticed
 • Why accessibility isn’t a favour, it’s participation
 • The hidden labour of planning daily life with a disability
 • Living, working, and running a business while managing disability and chronic illness
 • Regional Australia’s accessibility challenges
 • The importance of self-advocacy
 • Community, belonging, and finding joy

Ellie also shares her journey from spending years bedridden with a serious pressure injury to building a successful design business, becoming a disability advocate, and being recognised as Mudgee’s Young Citizen of the Year.

This is a conversation about dignity, access, community, and a simple but powerful truth:

Nobody is “in the way” simply because they exist.

CONNECT WITH ELLIE

Instagram: @byellecreative

Website: https://byellecreative.com.au

Ellie Rowlands is the founder of By Elle Creative, a graphic design studio specialising in wedding stationery, branding, and design for creative businesses.

Based in Mudgee, New South Wales, Ellie works with clients across Australia and beyond, offering her services online to couples, entrepreneurs, and businesses wherever they are located.

Alongside her creative work, Ellie is a disability advocate, lived-experience speaker, and the recipient of Mudgee’s Young Citizen of the Year Award.

🎙️👀 What worked? What dragged? What made you mutter “Jesus Christ, Catharine”? Tell me.

Content Note ~
This podcast gets into bodies, panic attacks, trauma, sexism, mental health, and the occasional emotional sinkhole. Please look after yourself only listen when you feel safe to engage with potentially triggering material. 
Also, I swear.

Support ~ 
These aren’t here as a formality. I’ve used some of these myself.

Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7)
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (ages 5–25)
1800RESPECT 1800 737 732
Emergency 000

Outside Australia, local crisis services are available. ~

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Credits
Recorded on the lands of the Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri peoples.
Sovereignty never ceded.

Recorded & edited at Ridley Farm Studio by Luke Ridley
https://ridleyfarmstudio.com...<