“Disability is not a bad thing to be hidden,” she wrote in her thread. “It exists alongside success and joy.”
Frances also stressed the vital importance of disability visibility, and the positive impact of seeing disabled bodies on stage and the importance of normalising such conditions.
“The issue isn’t his disability but that the media hasn’t normalised seeing disability symptoms in high profile jobs,” she wrote. “Imagine if we saw disabled bodies on stage every week.”
The fan support when it came to Lewis Capaldi’s difficulties on Saturday shows that how we react to situations like this matters, and is something that we should be considering with every encounter with any individual’s disability. To show compassion and support.
“Their instinct was empathy and support, not cruelty or pity,” Frances wrote. “This is not the reaction many disabled people get day-to-day! The public are more than capable of embracing disability.”
What we saw on a large scale at Glastonbury Festival during Lewis’ set is arguably something we can all practice in our day to day lives, as part of a mission to normalise disability and show compassion, instead of shame or ignorance, towards such conditions.
Lewis added that he will be taking a break from performing, and we hope he will be taking care of himself in that time: “I feel like I’ll be taking another wee break over the next couple of weeks. So you probably won’t see much of me for the rest of the year, maybe even,” he said while on stage.
“But when I do come back and when I do see you, I hope you’re still up for watching us.”
Rest up, Lewis. We hope to see you soon.