There’s a question that doesn’t get asked enough: when do disabled people — or people living with long-term conditions, chronic illness, or neurodivergence — actually get to rest?
Not just sleep. Not just stopping. But genuinely restful, meaningful free time. Time that belongs to them. Time that isn’t shaped by medical appointments, care schedules, bureaucratic demands, or the quiet but persistent pressure to justify their existence by being productive.
A researcher at the University of Glasgow is asking exactly that question — and she’s looking for people to share their experiences.
About the Research
Ioana Cerasella Chis is an Early Career Fellow in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Glasgow. Her project — Bread and Roses: Rest, Free Time and Disability — is exploring the politics of rest and free time for disabled people in the UK.
The project title itself says a lot. “Bread and Roses” is a phrase rooted in labour history — the idea that people don’t just need survival, they need dignity. They need beauty, meaning, and joy. The research takes that principle seriously and asks: what does it look like when disabled people are denied not just bread, but roses?
Through questionnaires and, later, group discussions, the project aims to gather real stories and evidence from disabled people across the UK. It’s looking at things like:
- What meaningful rest and free time actually looks like for disabled people
- What barriers — social, financial, structural — get in the way
- What needs to change so that rest is genuinely accessible, not just theoretically available
- How societal pressures around productivity and employment create guilt, exclusion, and burnout for disabled people
The end goal is a Manifesto for Rest and Free Time, written from a disability politics perspective. This will be shared with Disabled People’s Organisations, local authority decision-makers, and other groups with the power to make change happen. It’s the kind of research that starts with real voices and ends with real influence.
Why This Matters
We talk a lot, in health and social care circles, about wellbeing. About quality of life. About meaningful activity. But there’s a gap between the language we use and the reality many disabled people live with.
Rest is often treated as something you have to earn. In a culture that prizes productivity — paid work, visible contribution, busyness — people who can’t participate in those things on the same terms as everyone else can find themselves in an uncomfortable position. Either they push through, at real cost to their health and wellbeing, or they rest and risk being seen as passive, dependent, or a burden.
That’s not a personal failing. That’s a structural problem.
And it’s one that shows up in all kinds of ways. Limited access to transport means free time is spent at home by default, not by choice. Financial pressures mean that leisure and recreation feel like luxuries. Care responsibilities — which often fall disproportionately on disabled people and those around them — eat into any time that might otherwise be genuinely free. And the sheer administrative weight of navigating benefits, services, and support systems can make rest feel like something that always has to wait.
This research is trying to name all of that, and to build an evidence base for why things need to change.
Who Can Take Part
The questionnaire is open to anyone in the UK who self-identifies as:
- Disabled
- Chronically ill
- Learning disabled
- d/Deaf
- Neurodivergent
- Living with impairments
- Experiencing mental distress
That’s deliberately broad — because the barriers to rest and free time don’t only affect one group, and the research is richer for including a wide range of experiences.
You don’t need to use any particular label or have a formal diagnosis. If the themes resonate with your life, your voice belongs in this research.
How to Take Part
The questionnaire is available online and can be completed in your own time — you don’t have to do it all in one sitting. If you close the link and come back within two weeks, your previous responses should still be there.
If you’d prefer not to fill in an online form, there’s also a downloadable Word document version. You can complete that and email it directly to Ioana at ioana.chis@glasgow.ac.uk.
There’s also an option to submit audio recordings if typing isn’t your preferred way of responding — another small but meaningful detail that shows the project is trying to be as accessible as possible.
The questionnaire is open until approximately the end of November 2026.
👉 Take part in the questionnaire here
👉 Download the Word Document version
👉 Find out more about the project at breadrosesdisability.uk
Why We’re Sharing This
At Hand in Hand Activities, so much of what we do is rooted in the belief that meaningful activity, connection, and rest aren’t extras — they’re fundamental. They matter for everyone, regardless of age, ability, or diagnosis.
We share this research because it’s asking questions that matter to the people we work with and the broader communities we’re part of. If you or someone you know has something to say about what rest and free time really look like — or what gets in the way — this is a genuine opportunity to have that experience heard and used.
Research like this doesn’t change things on its own. But it’s a starting point. And every voice that contributes makes the evidence stronger and the manifesto more powerful.
If you’d like to follow the project as it develops, you can find it on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.
Hand in Hand Activities CIC is a community interest company. We are not affiliated with the University of Glasgow or this research project — we’re simply sharing it because we believe it’s worthwhile.
