Layla Blackwell
Layla is a writer and disability advocate who lives in the West of Scotland. She was born with Cerebral Palsy and has used a wheelchair for most of her life. Layla leverages the realities of living with a disability in the hope of educating her readers and lessening the daily stigma faced by the disabled community.
Layla’s professional writing career began in 2008 when she joined her first writers’ group. She has volunteered with several local literary events and magazines. Over the years, her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, blogs and magazines. Layla is currently working on larger pieces of work that she hopes one day will be published.
Outside of writing, Layla studied Social Care and has volunteered with several disability charities to help develop useful communication skills.
Layla played wheelchair basketball for the Scottish Woman Warriors for five years, where she learned how to work in a team and push her personal boundaries. The experience further ignited her interest in Disability Advocacy; as Layla saw first-hand, that with the right support, living with a disability doesn’t mean living a life without possibility.
“I have been lucky in life and had the support of wonderful people to find and use my voice as a disabled person. For many years now, it’s been my focus to use my writing to highlight the realities of living with a long- term disability and use that experience to help others. I am hopeful that working with The Taskforce will be another way to make positive change for the disabled community.”
