Crip Life™: An Online Disability Magazine Aiming To Be The Most Inclusive And Accessible Digital Platform

A press release.

Crip Life™ is an online disability magazine dismantling disabling barriers one article at a time. Launched in May 2023, it was founded by Emma Purcell and Joanna Baker-Rogers, two former colleagues of a previous disability publication who both have personal experiences of living with a disability.

As Emma and Joanna are both passionate about writing, campaigning and raising awareness of disability, they wanted to continue this and create their own platform that would bring extraordinary content and grow an even bigger disabled community.

The mission at Crip Life™ is to raise awareness and educate what life is really like for people living with a disability and/or health condition, provide advice and support to disabled people and their families and create a disability community where people can share their thoughts, experiences and achievements.

In essence, Crip Life™ wants to banish the physical and social barriers that stop people with disabilities from living the life they want to lead.

This is being delivered by creating interesting, informative and exclusive disability-related content that is exciting, newsworthy and engaging. The team is not afraid to push the boundaries and publish content that may be controversial or difficult to read.

Why the name Crip Life™?

You are probably wondering why the name “Crip Life™” for the online publication. The co-founders understand the word “crip” or “cripple” is usually associated with being a negative or offensive word to describe disabled people.

However, in more modern times, the word “crip” and “cripple” appear in more popular culture, such as the documentary film Crip Camp, BBC short stories Crip Tales and book titles like CRIPPLE – A 21st Century Parable by Nick Maynard. Therefore, disabled communities are starting to use these terms to empower change and positivity.

There is also Crip Theory, which is defined as an intersectional identity politic stemming from critical disability studies, as well as queer studies (McRuer, 2006). It is a multifaceted approach to understanding culture in a manner that centres on the experiences and movements of disabled people. You can find out more in the article – Why (on earth) call it Crip Life™?

Crip Life™ success so far

Since launching almost six months ago, Crip Life™ has published over 50 articles, secured exclusive interviews and collaborated with a dozen companies. It has reached 3.2K visitors, a combined social media following of 950 followers and over 150 subscribers to the free monthly newsletter. Crip Life™ has had the privilege of interviewing famous people such as disabled actors Jack Carroll & Tommy Jessop, blind comedian Chris McCausland, deaf DJ Troi Lee, amputee footballer Shelbée Clarke and inclusive fashion designer Victoria Jenkins. Emma Purcell, who is Crip Life™’s feature writer and editor, has written several opinion pieces including a review of Rosie Jones’ ableism documentary and a piece discussing whether sports broadcasters are ableist towards disability sports.

Other content so far has included 11 TV Adverts Featuring Disabled People, 9 Disability Pride 2023 Events To Enjoy Across The UK, an LGBTQ+ Pride series, a variety of news content, plus much more.

The cost of running an online magazine

Running an online magazine does cost money with administrative costs such as hosting platforms, video conference platforms, SEO tools, accessibility tools, social media advertising fees, and much more.

Crip Life™ would like to grow the business by taking on more paid employees and freelancers and eventually get a decent income for its co-founders. But so far it has been on a tight budget and mostly self-funded.

Crip Life™ has currently got several ways in which it is trying to make money. Its main way is through its Pay What You Can (PWYC) advertising service, which is very different to most, if not all, online magazines.

PWYC is a business model that does not insist upon set prices for its goods or services. Instead, it asks clients to pay what they feel the product or service is worth to them. Crip Life has taken this one step further by adding what your organisation can afford to pay. Its rationale for adopting this version of PWYC is as follows:

● It makes advertising accessible to all

● Recognises that micro and SMEs and charities have small budgets

● Places potential clients at the heart of the advertising process

● Enables Crip Life™ to generate enough revenue to cover costs and perhaps, one day, to provide Joanna and Emma with a modest income and grow their team.

Crip Life™ wants to place advertising for a wide range of clients as possible. So, whatever your size of organisation, if you want to share a personal story or promote a product or service, get in touch.

Clients advertising with Crip Life™ Since launching, Crip Life™’s advertising manager Joanna Baker-Rogers has sold advertising to multiple organisations including Transport for London, Nimbus Disability, LanzAbility and the Southbank Centre. Crip Life™ is also offering students and academics the opportunity to publish their disability-related research papers and projects for an affordable fee. For those of you who know a little about doctoral studies and being disabled researchers, you may know how difficult and expensive it is to get your research published.

From submitting your paper to seeing it published, can take many months and revisions. The fee to do so can run into thousands of pounds.

If you have a research or conference paper, thesis, book, dissertation or documentary of relevance to the disabled community, please get in touch.

Crip Life™ has been and will continue to try and find other ways to secure more money through funding opportunities and grant schemes but it also has a donation page for any individuals who may be able to support its inclusive business venture, particularly in the short term.

A note from the founders

Emma Purcell, co-founder and editor at Crip Life™ said: “Launching our own online disability magazine has been both incredible and daunting. It’s great we have full control over what we publish and when and we’re able to work flexibly and at a time and pace that suits us. The challenging part is getting people to engage with our publication and companies to come on board and advertise with us. We understand getting our site noticed takes time and there are more financial pressures for everyone but that is why we have kept the access to our content completely free and our advertising services negotiable and affordable. Crip Life™ is an online disability magazine for anyone and everyone – whether you’re disabled yourself, know disabled people, work in the disability sector, study or educate in disability and/or are an ally of the disability community – you will find Crip Life™ a great resource for information, advice, entertainment and support.”

Joanna Baker-Rogers, co-founder and advertising manager at Crip Life™ said: “I’m delighted that Emma and I are continuing to work together to give the disabled community a voice. Our aim is to keep Crip Life™ free to read from anywhere in the world. In addition, we want every individual, organisation, or business to feel they can advertise with us. This ethos is firmly embedded in our PWYC advertising fee strategy. I am delighted with the range of clients, in terms of the services or products they sell, and the size of the organisations who have advertised with us. The first six months have been really busy and I look forward to what the remainder of the year will bring Crip Life™.”

You can find out more about Crip Life™ by visiting criplife.co.uk and following Crip Life™ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

-ENDS-

Notes to editor

For further information about Crip Life™, check out its Welcome Page and About Page.

This October, Crip Life™ is working with Transport for London to promote its taxi fares consulation. Find out more and complete the survey here.

Crip Life™ is also looking for participants in an upcoming article about the effects of fireworks on people with disabilities and mental health issues. Find out more here.

If you have any questions or enquiries, email editor@criplife.co.uk