Title:
Isaac Harvey MBE | Rise of a Disability Advocate
Subtitle:
East London Influencer, Entrepreneur and Content Creator
Transcript:
Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.
Let’s go.
Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I am Alycia Today’s guest is iconic in the disability advocacy space, and honestly, just in his own space and in the world, he’s incredible. I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve been following him as 45,000 or so other people do, on LinkedIn and this podcast we’re almost to our two year anniversary, and I’ve been wanting to ping him and say, would you come on the podcast? But I was afraid because I am a fan girl for sure. And anyways, I finally did a couple, few months ago and he said, yes, he’s a powerhouse of a human being, an entrepreneur, an advocate.
He is the president of Wheels and Wheelchairs, a disability inclusive advocate, a blogger, a podcast host coming soon, a LinkedIn influencer. He’s been on the disability powerlist multiple times. He’s won awards from King Charles. He lives in London and has been in London’s fashion shows.
The lists, go on and on of the achievements, but most of all, he’s just this bright light for our community and for the world on what is possible in living a life with a disability and also advocating for what you need loudly and what we deserve. And so Isaac Harvey, welcome to the show and I’m so happy I get to meet you.
Isaac Harvey MBE: I’m so glad we make it happen. So yeah, thanks for having me.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Isaac Harvey MBE: Thanks for those kind words.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah. I don’t know. I think if we can look back just a little bit and share a little bit for those that don’t know who you are a little bit about your disability growing up. How has all of this kind of shaped you to where you are today?
Can you, we look back in the rear view mirror for a little bit, to paint a beautiful picture of the human you are?
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yeah, there’s a lot of layers to it. There’s a lot of layers to my story as as you said in the introduction. To be honest, that’s only scratching the surface with the amount that I’ve got myself into. But yeah, so I, yeah, I was born in East London. A disability called limb pelvic hypoplasia which means I have no arms. I have short legs. A weak pelvis. I’m not able to walk, but I have a wheelchair that gets me around and that’s foot controlled. I have scoliosis, which is the curvature of the spine. And on top of all of that I have acid reflux. But with all of those parts of me I’ve had friends and family who have really encouraged me to be the best version of myself and really treated me like everyone else.
And that has really helped me. Life has come with its obstacles such as when growing up. Transport wasn’t accessible here in London where there were steps onto the buses and train stations weren’t as accessible as they are now. And I had to get taxis literally everywhere. And that kind of excluded me from the everyday life having to get taxi. Everyone else could get public transport. And then when public transport slowly started to get accessible I remember this very clear but went on the bus for the first time in my electric wheelchair and at the time the wheels didn’t have much, the material on the wheels was kinda like slippery, the bus was also slippery. And I remember getting on the bus and the bus started to move and my chair just slid all over the place. So I was like, Nope . And the rest of the family were like no, you have to keep doing it. So they kept, pushing me to keep doing it. And now, that’s helped me have that independence I have now, and I think it did. My mom especially has played a huge role in helping me become the person I am today and just getting out there and doing things
Alycia Anderson: How old were you when you were on the bus for your first time? Like when was that?
Isaac Harvey MBE: Oh, that’s a good question. Must have been seven, eight, perhaps.
Alycia Anderson: Wow. Moms are so important for that. That’s how my parents were too for me. And I think when we’re navigating those things at a young age and trying to figure out our disabilities and how we’re gonna navigate the world it, it can be pretty, taxing and complex. And so I love that your mom.
Has been such a powerhouse for you in your life and in helping you become who you are. Talk about accessibility a little bit in London. Like I, I know it’s different than in the US for sure. Like I lived in Europe for a little while. What’s the experiences like there?
Isaac Harvey MBE: It’s definitely a mixed bag. Because, London’s a very old city, and if we like it or not, there are some stations here that would never be accessible because of how old that they are and how deep they are when it goes on, like the underground. So that’s a challenge when people say, oh, everything should be accessible, but actually the reality is it’s never going to be accessible.
However, there are. Have been a lot of developments since the 2012. Games that really pushed for accessibility. And I think that was the big turning point by having the Olympics and Paralympics here that made London realize that actually we need to become more accessible. So a lot of stations from that point became more accessible and there’d been new stations open.
And where I live in East London, there’s a new line called the Elizabeth Line after Queen Elizabeth, go, goes from East London, straight to central, which is like now 10 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes to get into Central London. Whereas before I would have had to get a bus, which may have taken an hour, two hours sometimes depending on traffic. So accessibility has improved but it’s not perfect.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah, when I lived in Europe, I experienced similar things, but I also experienced, and you let me know if you have had the same experience. Like in the US things are pretty accessible here. It’s not perfect also, but definitely more accessible than like, when I was living in Belgium and navigating cities and cobblestones and steps, getting into every shop and just all of it, but I did notice when I lived in Europe that I felt like the community around me was more aware that we need to come together and I. Help with inclusion. Like literally people would lift me up onto a train while I was waiting for however long it would take for them to find the ramp and figure out how to get me on.
And they like, random men would just pop me up. Like I wouldn’t even, I wouldn’t know who they were behind me. They’re, and so I feel like, I don’t know if you’ve experienced that or not, but here because of Americans with Disabilities Act like I feel like. Our community many times is like walking around with just blinders on, not seeing where other people need help and because there’s more access inaccessibility, or at least there was when I was there.
It felt like there was more community around each other. Do you find that people wanna help, like help.
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yeah, I mean there have been instances where like for example, here in London, like the ramp may not work. For the bus and I’m not able to get off. And the amount of people who just come out of nowhere and just help me off and I have a very heavy chair and I do let them know, look, this is quite heavy, but, some people, people do come together actually and do support when it’s necessary. So it, yeah, it is nice when it does happen actually, that people just are keen to help.
Alycia Anderson: Can we talk about wheels and wheelchairs? I was reading, and I know you did this whole like, skating thing from Brighton to Paris. I think it was pre Paralympic games or something. Like you had this whole like, movement of riding or skating. Can you talk about that advocacy that you did with that initiative?
Isaac Harvey MBE: Sure. So for people who Dunno, wheels and Wheelchairs is an outdoor activity sports club where roller skaters push wheelchair users. And it’s been a group that’s formed in 2012. Again going back to the Olympics that happened in 2012 where a Paris group who were doing similar activities there telling themselves for an anniversary to skate from Paris to London. they ended up doing that challenge and contacting the skaters over here. And the skaters, when they hearing the concept about skating and pushing wheelchairs, they were like, I think you’re a bit crazy, but yeah, if you know what you’re doing, we’ll be happy to help. And yeah, they ended up finishing the challenge. That inspired skaters here to start a similar group. And that’s when Wheels and Wheelchairs was born. And it started off taking people from a hospice out and about in a local park. And then that grew to other people with disabilities skating. And then I first heard about the group in 2019. And I got, I really loved the concept because with everything else that I got up to, I would have to go abroad to do it being, it in London meant I could go much easier and it wouldn’t have to cost me a flight and all of that. All of those different things that would come to doing these sorts of activities. And I was just heavily involved and I really did. So the, I did so much in 2019 that at the end of the year they, Wilson Wiles has a committee and they have an annual general meeting, in that meeting they. Unfortunately, when I joined, lost their president who passed away due to unforeseen circumstances. But because of my involvement in the group, they asked me if I would like to take on the role as president of the organization. And I thought it was big shoes to fill because that same year I heard a lot about the previous president and what she brought to the table. But I also saw where this group could really go. So I did take on the role and then I became the president. first year unfortunately, was COVID, so I didn’t do much that year in 2020. But then it all started picking up again after Lockdowns were all finished. And then we had more regular wheelchair users come out we’ve been on television and being in news reports and we’ve definitely got a lot more buzz around what we’re doing and then at the beginning of 2024 one of the skaters was watching an old video that we did with the Paris Group and just before my time. And it just, those memories that come up on Facebook
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Isaac Harvey MBE: and you saw that video and he was like. I think we should try and do skate to Paris because it’s the Paris 2024 games. And that inspired a lot of people. And then, yeah, we managed to end up a lot of planning, a lot of logistics and trial run of the route, but it, we ended up having 35 skaters, five wheelchair users. And about nine volunteers on a five day skate from Brighton all the way to Paris.
Alycia Anderson: That’s incredible. I would love to do that. How. Oh my God. How beautiful number. Every time I’m over there it’s like eye candy everywhere. Like Europe is just so beautiful anyways, but what a cool thing. And I’m sure the advocacy like, tell me about some of the people that you saw on the way, like how did seeing this movement impact them?
Just like the random people watching you all come through.
Isaac Harvey MBE: What was really nice about what we were doing is that we were going through like small towns around France and for some of the locals who were living there, would be out and it to see what we’re doing and it. Cool. So it. Local people rather than just the city people. We like to seeing what’s possible. But also, we also had an opportunity to to a, like an old people retirement home who knew what we were doing and it was for me, the whole out, the whole trip. This was probably one of my favorite and memorable days ’cause we went to this retirement home they knew we were coming, but they prepared the whole house to be paralympic themed.
And they had the flags and they had a welcoming party and they had biscuits and people made things, all these elderly people doing stuff. it was quite a special moment. And actually that kind of made the trip for me to be able to share that moment with retired, elderly people who may not be able to see things as much now.
So yeah, that was a very special moment of the whole thing for me.
Alycia Anderson: I love it. We need to be doing more stuff like that as a disabled community and in, and advocacy that’s a really cool trip and yeah, I, we don’t see that type of stuff enough, like it’s so awesome. And I’m sure going through those small towns was extremely impactful because you’re right, like smaller towns don’t have as much, I would assume, exposure onto, different diverse lived experiences or whatever.
And. I was just at a dinner last night for a wheelchair tennis group that I’m involved in and we were playing at a tennis club that there’s a bunch of able-bodied, there’s a able-bodied tournament happening there, and they were walking up to us and they, it’s like they had never seen this thing in their entire lives and they were.
Isaac Harvey MBE: Awe, like in awe, so that type of representation is so important. It change literally changes lives and perspectives, so that’s really awesome. For me, also what, what also added to the trip was when we, so we arrived the same day as the Paralympics had started.
So we literally arrived on the day of and then we were invited onto a show here in the UK called The Last Leg. And all the presenters have a disability. And we were invited as audience members and we had a bit of a shoutout of what we had just achieved. But knowing I was gonna be in Paris, I thought, I would really want to experience the paralympics ’cause in 2012, unfortunately I never got an opportunity to watch any of the games. But yeah I, getting to see it in person was like, wow, this is what I’ve been missing.
I’ve seen it on tv, but actually seeing it in person was like, yeah, this is very cool. And has inspired me to be in LA for 2028. I’m
Alycia Anderson: okay. We’re gonna meet then for sure. And I, we went to, how long were you in Paris for the games?
Isaac Harvey MBE: I was there for about three, four days.
Alycia Anderson: Okay. We flew in the last leg, so we were there like the last five days. And I’m with you. It was one of the most incredible experiences to see some of the games just like the marketing alone on these beautiful buildings. You were like, where am I? And then just the talent and the, the community.
Every person needs to experience that, but like from being a disabled person, like being in that, like if you felt so much community and so much power was incredible. So I’m with you. That’s awesome. I’m so happy you got to do that. Wow. And you had your like own stamp on it, that’s amazing. Ah.
Isaac Harvey MBE: It was nice because one thing, I, it was a lot of buildup to the, what we were doing and it was just very overwhelming and a lot of promotion for the crowdfund and everything like that. And it consumed a lot of my time and I wish I had. I did more and I was like, oh, we haven’t got much tv knowing what we’re doing and all of that. And I was little, I slightly disappointed in that aspect, but actually the day before we had arrived, the Paralympics actually caught wind of what we were doing. And yeah, they did a video on us and we got on the official YouTube channel, which was very cool. So I was like, alright. It all worked out in the end.
Alycia Anderson: Come to California. Let’s do one from like San Francisco to LA. Oh, it’s pretty far, but let’s do it again. I would love
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yeah, sure. Okay. Okay. Yeah, sure.
Alycia Anderson: So cool. Can we talk about some of your advocacy like you are, so I know that you’ve been awarded by King Charles MBE Award for your work in the community, and you’re just.
Constantly putting out content that is real raw, authentic, loud, and making really a lot of headway in just like your own advocacy and educating your community about the tough stuff. Like you’re really good at sharing your journey. Can you talk a little bit about that? Can you share, I.
Whatever you’re comfortable with about your amazing, powerful voice of advocacy that you have.
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yeah, the funny bit of the story is that I never thought I would be doing what I’m doing now. And it’s just with time I. It’s asked about what I’m doing in the advocacy space. It’s just I don’t know how this really happened. Yeah, because I’ve always. Creatively in different ways. After finishing school and doing media studies, thought, yeah, I don’t wanna do the nine to five. I just wanna create content. And I just wanna express that in ways that I can and. First of all, that was through video and I would be vlogging my journeys and the skiing and the skydiving and the tour ship sailing, like all of this.
I would just be filming and even our showing what I was doing with a disability. I never explicitly, spoke about disability in the videos, and friends and family who were seeing this content kept saying to me, oh, you should really talk about disability a bit more because you can help, people see what’s available to them or what can be done if you put your mind to it. And I thought, why do I have to do that for, it didn’t really make any sense to me like, why should I be talking about disability for I just wanna be creative. so they kept telling me, and I kept on ignoring them until was given an opportunity to do a public speaking engagement up north of London. I, they wanted me to talk about the obstacles I face, such as logistical planning and pain levels and having the right support and when ramps don’t come at train stations and all of the different things that can come as obstacles, but how life can also be quite fulfilling with the different things that I am able to do. When I’d finished that talk, woman came up to me and said in my legs and I’m always complaining about life. But after hearing your story, it’s really changed my perspective on things. And that was the first time I realized the impact I was making by sharing my story. So I guess, yeah, that, that was like the turning point for me to start talking about disability more through my videos, and I know a lot of people were taken a lot from that, and I guess the real advocacy started when I joined LinkedIn and primarily starting off to share about wheels and wheelchairs to get seen for more professional people. then it was when I found out about disability pride month, a month I didn’t know much about and I wrote about it, what it meant to me, and I post ended up going semi viral and that’s when I really realized that people really wanted to hear my story, and I’ve always been good at sharing stories of I’m not better than anyone else, but also I can relate to things like mental health challenges and pain levels and obstacles. So I try and keep it human. My approach to stories, but I, and I just love writing stories and sometimes even now I forget the reach. I’m get, I’m reaching to people, I’m getting with my stories.
Alycia Anderson: ’cause at the end of the day, I’m just writing stories. But it’s nice when people comment or reach out and say, actually, you really did help me understand this part of me that I didn’t know. Yeah, I, me too. I’m with you. Like from an advocacy standpoint, I actually personally avoided it for a really long time. I was like, oh no, I’m not that’s not but you find your way into it and the impact is so important on community, but also, and you can tell me if you feel this way.
I think you do. ’cause you just said it, but the more I get into it and the more I create friends like you and meet new people and build this community around me, like the stronger I’ve become with my own disability and my own like advocacy and just like being, an entrepreneur and like making stuff happen.
And there’s power in our numbers coming together and doing the work and like supporting each other, I think too.
Isaac Harvey MBE: Because it, for me, I, I know my own lived experience and I knew of a couple of friends with disabilities, when I really got into advocacy, I felt I’d been living under a rock. I didn’t really know much about disability and the different people and how they experience life. So actually being in this space, I’ve learned so much that I feel like I’ve become a better ally to others within my own community.
Alycia Anderson: I love that so much. And it’s fascinating that you’re just a creative, not just like you wanted to be, you’re a creative, like you wanted to just blog and write and create and do videos and all of these things. And like the disability wasn’t even oh, like why would I talk about disability and I’ve been like that too.
I dunno if that’s because we both grew up with our disability and it’s just like who we are. It’s just like how we navigate life and it’s definitely different. But I’ve always been like who would be even be interested in this? Like, why would they, I have, but you do so good at it, all of our community, you need to go to LinkedIn and follow your stories are so incredible. And they lift me up. I’m like, who is this guy when I first saw you? So you’re in Incredible, you’re, it’s just really good. It’s really good. Yeah. So what’s in the hopper right now? What are you working on?
What are your dreams, what are your goals? What are you shooting for right now?
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yeah, I, because in some ways I love the stories and the advocacy and being an entrepreneur now, it’s like really focusing on trying to build that and the business side things. But I feel like in some ways able to use my creativity, but I’ve lost that in my self because of in the future, bring back my own content again and video making, but still doing the advocacy and highlighting good accessibility in that. So it’s like bringing back where it all began. I am continuing to push myself out of my comfort zone, such as being a new co-host of a podcast called The Disability Tangent. Co-host, we’re taking in a slightly new direction where we are planning on getting, the real stories like we’re having. it’s very fascinating what’s been done in different countries, so we want to highlight that. And for me I, I’ve, over time I’ve grown a lot of confidence in the different things that I do, but I think to push out of my comfort zone is really going to help me grow and become a better advocate by having these real conversations.
Alycia Anderson: I love that. And you also do speaking and are, is that something that you do regularly as well?
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yeah, so I do public speaking engagements. And yeah, that’s technically what we’re doing now, but also touching upon things like artificial intelligence and how that’s benefiting the community and content creation and. Like I said, there’s a lot of layers to my life, but yeah, if the opportunity comes up and I know about it, I’m happy to talk about it.
Alycia Anderson: I like it. So companies out there
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yes,
Alycia Anderson: call,
Isaac Harvey MBE: Yes. My LinkedIn now.
Alycia Anderson: everybody knows your LinkedIn. Don’t worry about it. But yeah, and we’re gonna leave all of your information in the show notes so people can easily click and follow and get in touch and book and all of those things support you and did we miss anything?
Isaac Harvey MBE: There’s so much work I could do speak about, but I think it’s just yeah, the advocacy is really, great, and I’m very grateful for the platform that I have the followers that have supported me. ’cause, without the support and my network, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today.
I’m very grateful for that and then being able to use my voice for those who may not have the platform and the challenges that, that people face. I’m glad I’m able to express that through my own storytelling to share that with the wider community and realizing, yeah, there’s, it’s not just me going through this.
There’s many others going through this. So it’s been a, it’s been an interesting journey, let’s just say that.
Alycia Anderson: What do you tell the younger ones especially, and I’m gonna bring it back to the ones that are growing up with congenital disabilities right now that are like maybe a little bit insecure. Dunno how they’re gonna find their way. Look to you for somebody to be a guidepost, like what’s the advice that you could give to them to navigate the tough stuff to get to where you are?
Isaac Harvey MBE: Whenever, you were saying that, it’s like, what would I have said to
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Isaac Harvey MBE: my younger self?
Alycia Anderson: There’s the question. Yeah.
Isaac Harvey MBE: I think, for me back, there was times where I felt a bit lost and really relied on external factors for internal experiences, but actually I should have just taken time to really process who I am and really appreciate that and not really have to feel as if I have to fit into society. I’m my own person. And you are unique and you’ve got to do things the way that works for you really, and do it on your own terms. So yeah, I would say that to the younger generation that you just got to do it on your own terms and sometimes you’ve gotta break the rules to get things going. So yeah, you just gotta do what you gotta do. And there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.
Oh there’s always a light end of the tunnel. That was a kind of a pushing forward moment. Do you have, do you, what is your pushing forward mantra of today? Do you have something to share with us? Yeah. There’s a lot I could say, but I feel it’s, I think it’s the simple one of, it’s okay not to be, okay. I know a lot of people do say that, but I think it’s not really taken as, as serious. I don’t feel, there was times, navigating my mental health where I thought that, if I’m not feeling right, then there’s something completely wrong with me and it’s only me who’s going through it, and it would really bother me and I wouldn’t talk to anyone about it. And it would just be a very vicious cycle. So I feel like, yeah, had that feeling back then I think I would’ve been a lot more calm and not really being harmful emotionally to myself. I could have been a bit nicer be like, actually, it’s okay.
You can talk to people. You’re not alone. yeah, it’s okay not to be okay.
I love that and I agree with you, and I think we need to sit with that stuff sometimes to navigate through it, instead of pretending like it’s not there. That’s powerful. Isaac, thank you so much. No, of course. Thank you.
Alycia Anderson: Thank you for being a guiding light for a lot of us.
Yes. No, thank you so much and thank you for giving me the platform to speak to your network and audience. I think, we’ve got to lift each other up, which is the most important thing. So thank you for what you do for the community as well. A hundred percent. All right, and thanks to our community for showing up again, this has been another bucket list episode of Pushing Forward with Alycia. That is literally how Isaac and I roll. We will see you next time.