About URevolution: Changing the Narrative
Disability belongs in diversity.
URevolution is an independent disability-led media, lifestyle and e-commerce brand challenging how disability and chronic illness are represented.
We publish honest stories about disabled and chronically ill life, question the stereotypes that still shape how disability is seen, and create products that make inclusion visible.
Our starting point is simple: disability belongs in conversations about diversity. Not as an afterthought. Not as an inspirational side story. As part of ordinary human diversity.
If you can be anything, Be Inclusive.™
Our Story
URevolution was co-founded in 2018 by Brendan McDonald and Corinne Gray. What started as a conversation between two people with very personal reasons for questioning the way illness and disability are talked about has grown into a team, a Magazine, a shop and a wider community of contributors and readers.
Corinne has lived with clinical depression and, in 2023, was diagnosed with ADHD and autism.
Brendan lives with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), chronic heart disease, peripheral neuropathy and osteoarthritis. In October 2023, he underwent open-heart surgery to replace his aortic valve and repair an aortic aneurysm. The period that followed included three transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs, sometimes called mini-strokes), with cerebral microbleeds identified in the frontal and temporal lobes.
Those experiences are part of URevolution's story, but the point was never to turn illness or disability into inspiration. We wanted somewhere people could talk about this stuff honestly: the difficult parts, the funny parts, the frustrating parts, and everything that doesn't fit neatly into the usual disability narratives.
Where It All Began
We started with a question: what if we weren't ashamed of disability or chronic illness?
Living with conditions that other people don't always understand can make everyday situations unnecessarily complicated. It can also teach you very quickly how uncomfortable people still are talking about illness, disability and bodies that don't behave according to plan.
So we started asking questions.
- What if we didn't have to hide our differences or constantly prove ourselves by “overcoming” them?
- What if we could talk openly about disability and chronic illness without shame?
- What would disability representation look like if disabled people had more control over the story?
The more we looked, the more obvious the problem became. Disabled people appeared in media, but too often through the same narrow set of stories: tragedy, bravery, inspiration, cure.
In spring 2018, we launched URevolution as a lifestyle magazine for people living with chronic illness and disability.
The idea was to make room for something messier and much more interesting: real disabled lives.
Since then, URevolution has grown beyond the Magazine. We create clothing, accessories and everyday products built around disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence and inclusion, while continuing to publish lived experiences and commentary from people who know these subjects from the inside.
What We're Here For
We want disability to be part of how people think about diversity, representation and inclusion from the beginning.
That means making space for invisible disability. Talking about chronic illness without reducing people to a diagnosis. Recognising that disability intersects with race, gender, sexuality, mental health and neurodivergence. And calling out the strange habit society has of celebrating diversity while quietly leaving disability out of the picture.
Our products give people another way to say those things out loud.
Some are serious. Some are funny. Some are deliberately uncomfortable.
That's rather the point.
If you embrace diversity but ignore disability, you're doing it wrong.
The Magazine
URevolution Magazine publishes lived experience, commentary and useful information about disability, chronic illness and the many parts of life they touch.
You'll find stories about invisible disability, healthcare, work, relationships, neurodivergence, accessibility, identity, mental health and the everyday realities that rarely make it into polished awareness campaigns.
We don't expect one disabled person to speak for everyone. There isn't a single disabled experience.
If you have something worth saying about disability, chronic illness or a closely connected experience, we'd like to hear it.
Stay in the Know
We're a small team, and we're always working on something: a new Magazine story, a design we're not quite finished arguing about, or another product idea that seemed sensible at the time.
If you'd like to hear about new stories, products and occasional URevolution mischief, stay in touch.
If you're an artist or creator living with disability or chronic illness and you're interested in working with us, we'd also love to hear from you.
Have a practical question about ordering, shipping or the shop? Visit our FAQ.
