СŷÊÓƵ

To cite this work: Clark, Q. (2025). The Revolution of Disabled-Led Flexibility in the Workplace. Disability Dialogues. Sheffield: iHuman, СŷÊÓƵ of Sheffield. 

Quinn Clark is an author and poet based in Newcastle. Their work often focuses on disability, neurodivergence and trauma, and they have been published with Summersdale Publishing ('365 Days of Healing') and Unbound ('No One Talks About This Stuff'). Quinn works with a number of disabled-led charities (CRIPtic Arts, Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance, etc.) as well as Arts Council England, providing access support to disabled/neurodivergent artists. Currently they are working on their debut sci-fi novel, Out of Your Depth, about a man who grows octopus arms when his skin touches saltwater!

Coming to work for the Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My new role as Personal Assistant to then-CEO Jamie Hale was my first introduction to the neuromuscular community, and the start of my work within disabled-centric spaces. What I didn’t know at the time was that I wasn’t just starting work with a disabled-led charity; I was being introduced to an entirely new type of workplace culture.

Pathfinders is a disabled-led charity by and for individuals with neuromuscular conditions. The charity offers advice, support, volunteering and job opportunities, advocacy, and a number of other vital services to the wider neuromuscular community. But the big thing about Pathfinders is that it is almost entirely staffed by individuals who have muscle-weakening conditions—and those who don’t, identify themselves as existing under the disabled umbrella. This means that Pathfinders is made up not only of people who are accomplished and excellent at their jobs, but people who have first-hand experience of living with a muscle-weakening condition, other disabilities, and the ways the system fails others in terms of support. 

In this way, Pathfinders is unique.

To this day, I don’t know what convinced Jamie to hire me. Fresh off the back of a Master’s degree in English Literature and facing the looming uncertainty of employment in the pandemic, my knowledge of the charity sector and disabled-led organisations was negligible. I was burnt out in that way classic to undiagnosed neurodivergent people, jaded by negative healthcare experiences for my CPTSD, and newly-soaked in the realities of disability due to COVID-19. I don’t have a neuromuscular or a muscle-weakening condition, and my connections to the world of disability were small. It sounds ridiculous, but I couldn’t understand disability as a constant in anyone’s lives despite being disabled myself. I even cared for a close family member with a physical disability, but able-bodied attitudes coloured my view. Disability wasn’t to be accommodated: it was to be healed from, moved away from, and hidden from view at all costs.

Pathfinders changed my thinking forever, because Pathfinders don’t hire employees. They hire people.

From day one, Pathfinders blew every other working experience I’d had out of the water. Due to various access needs across the staff, we all work from home, interacting via Zoom/Google Meets and a shared online workspace. Whilst retaining traditional job roles with CEOs, managers and assistants, Pathfinders operates as a non-hierarchical structure where all voices, regardless of experience or role, are vital to the operation of the charity. At first, my work was mostly note-taking and administrative tasks: necessary work, but tedious and time-consuming for disabled individuals, especially if you had the pressure of running a charity. Yet as time went on, I was given more responsibilities. My co-workers discovered my love for research and fast typing-speed, and I graduated to the Research Team. Now, I help conduct and condense research on topics valuable to the neuromuscular community.

This workplace had done the unthinkable: it assessed me for my skills, needs, and wants, and helped me find the ideal role as a disabled individual. In the world of late-stage capitalism, this was a dream. 

Pathfinders functions much like a human body. Every person who works there is a separate organ: different functions, yet vital to the survival of the human body. As disabled people, we often have to find innovative ways to adapt to a society not built for us, and we end up with an unusual range of skills and experience no matter the field we find ourselves working in. In workspaces dominated by non-disabled people, each ‘organ’ (person) is expected to function roughly the same: to all be as ‘capable’ as each other, and to have the same skill-sets. But Pathfinders and other disabled-led organisations see the value in a person’s lived experience, as well as their own interests, skills and talents. Rather than keeping me in my administrative position, the Pathfinders team took advantage of my talents and interests for the benefit of the charity, whilst also helping me grow as a skilled access support practitioner.

Because Jamie (and in turn, Pathfinders) took a chance on me, I discovered my passion for working with fellow disabled/neurodivergent individuals on meaningful, engaging projects. I’m now a published author who writes about neurodivergence and disability, and an access support worker who has supported hundreds of disabled/neurodivergent artists in securing arts funding. I owe all of this to the accessible, skill-nurturing, people-oriented environment fostered by a disabled-led charity.

It is my hope that in the future, more organisations will adopt the Pathfinders model: valuing individuals not for their job titles, but for what they bring to the table.