About

Just Copy is a media company communicating disability. We use writing, copywriting and film to break the taboo around disability.

Celestine Fraser is a writer, copywriter and filmmaker. Her work has been programmed on the BBC, screened at the BFI and Barbican, and published in Metro, VICE and Little White Lies.

She also provides copywriting and consulting for charities, brands and businesses, to help them communicate disability to their own audiences.

Across her work is a single goal: to break the taboo and use art or media to start a conversation about how disability affects us all.

A little more about her later, but for now, let’s have her answer your burning question…

Why disability? 

Disabled people represent 20% of the UK population. That’s 14 million people—and one in five of us! And yet disabled people are critically under-represented in media and advertising. A recent survey found that a measly 4% of people featured in ads are disabled. 

This is not just an issue of representation: it has financial consequences, too. You might have heard of The Purple Pound, which refers to the spending power of disabled people and their families. It’s estimated that UK businesses lose approximately £2 billion a month due to poor accessibility and a lack of disability confidence in customer service.

It’s a staggering figure, but it doesn’t surprise me: as a disabled person, I know what it’s like to be neglected as a customer. Whether from a step at the entrance, a lack of alt-text or an insensitive attitude, disabled people are constantly made to feel unwanted: shut out of the shops and from public life.

And what do we do with this feeling? Well… We cut our losses and take our custom elsewhere.

Which would be no major loss to business if there were just a few of us!

But there aren’t just a few of us.

In the UK, every fifth person is disabled. And 75% of disabled customers say they’ve walked away from a UK business because they’ve felt neglected.

So it’s about time we included disabled people!

This is where I come in. 

Through my writing, copywriting, filmmaking and activism—as well as my first-hand experience as a disabled person—I’ve gained a good understanding of the issues that our community faces and how we might language and storytelling to confront them.

It’s always struck me that society’s ‘problem’ with disability is first and foremost a problem of communication. Disability makes people awkward and they don’t know how to talk about it. People are so scared of saying the ‘wrong’ thing that whenever the ‘d’ word arises, they go quiet.

For example: when I first started using a wheelchair, I’d go out on short circuits round the block to get used to this new way of moving through the world. Sometimes, I’d bump into a neighbour. And so often, the interaction would go like this…

Their seeing me in my wheelchair—when they had previously only seen me walking—was a shock. I don’t know if they found it sad, or just jarring, but certainly the simple sight of me in a wheelchair was enough to make them lose all capacity to make normal conversation. They’d be completely lost for words. I was in a wheelchair: how could they possibly react to that? What had happened? What should they say? What if they said the wrong thing and I burst into fits of uncontrollable sobbing?

So instead of talking to me (like a grown, adult woman!) they would smile at me benignly and speak instead to whoever I was with. It was like I’d been wrapped in an invisibility cloak. Like I suddenly had no agency, no personality and no desire to connect with my fellow humans. It was comical—but it hurt, as well—because the only thing that had actually changed about me was that I was sitting down!

Today, I’m grateful that those uncomfortable encounters inadvertently set me on a mission: to communicate disability.

I feel strongly that the taboo around disability hurts all of us, on every level—from our mental health to your bottom line! But I also believe that it doesn’t have to be this way: by writing sensitively about disability and by improving disabled representation, we can disrupt the ableist media, film, advertising and marketing moulds.

Together we can communicate clearly and meaningfully with the unheard and underserved disabled 20%.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s start the conversation…

So who’s Celestine?

Hello again! I’m Celestine Fraser, a freelance disabled writer, copywriter and filmmaker based in London, UK.

I suppose you’re wondering what experience I have…

Writing & Copywriting

I’ve had articles on disability published in VICE, Metro and Little White Lies, as well as in disability magazines like PosAbility and Dubble. I’ve covered everything from accessibility in airports to the Cripple Punk movement; from a learning disability film festival to a sign language café.

I also have screenwriting experience, with an Associate Writer credit on BETTER (2022), a BFI-funded narrative short film about ableism and sibling relationships.

I write copy and content for all sorts of clients, from a disability charity to an accessibility consultancy to a micromobility scooter. Recent clients have included Tilting the Lens, ParaPride, Celebrating Disability and ParaDance.

I have experience writing different kinds of copy, including blog posts, articles, case studies, website copy, sales pages, social media content, interviews, film treatments and loglines, brand names, tone-of-voice and press releases. I’ve covered varied and sensitive topics, from a case study showing the benefits of wheelchair dance for children in hospice care, to tone of voice for a charity advocating for LGBTQ+ disabled people.

Film & Activism

I’m also an award-winning film producer. Over the last few years I’ve produced a couple of short films about disability: ill, actually (2019), a BBC/ BFI short documentary about young disabled identity, and BETTER (2023), a BFI-funded short fiction film about ableism and sibling relationships. I’m also an Associate Writer on BETTER.

ill, actually (2019) was broadcast on the BBC, programmed at the BFI and Barbican, and screened at film festivals worldwide, including BAFTA-qualifying Superfest Disability Film Festival in San Francisco. The film was featured in The Times, Radio Times, UK Film Review, Enable Magazine and Director’s Notes. It won ‘Best First Film’ at Together! Disability Film Festival and earned me a nomination for ‘Best Producer’ at BAFTA-qualifying Underwire Film Festival. Director’s Notes called the film “a pertinent reminder of the wider need for empathy still missing in contemporary society.” 

BETTER (2023) was funded by the BFI, Goldfinch Films and a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised over £16,000. The film is now beginning its festival circuit. You can learn more about it on Instagram.

I have also been a member of the BFI Disability Screen Advisory Group and have twice been involved in the BFI’s Press Reset campaign, which works to improve disabled representation in film & TV.

I have media experience speaking about disability representation in interviews, on panels and on podcasts.

Education

I graduated from King’s College London with a First Class BA (Hons) in ‘English with Film Studies’. I subsequently received a Malorie Blackman Scholarship to develop my creative writing at City Lit.

I have certificates in ‘Introduction to Web Accessibility’ from edX and ‘Global Health and Disability’ from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

I have recently graduated from Pathways Academy, a year-long training in accessibility and inclusive design with the Centre for Accessible Environments.

I am bilingual in English and French and fluent in Italian.

My CV is available upon request.

Contact: hello@justcopy.co.uk.