Closing the gap between disability rights and disability reality
Why does dpan exist?
Disability rights in the UK, as we know them today, have real legal foundations — thanks to the disability rights movement and decades of activism that turned exclusion into legal protection. The Equality Act protects the right to reasonable adjustments, to access, to fair treatment at work and in education.
But there's often a gap between what the law promises and what happens day to day, and that gap is where disabled people feel the difference most.
Closing it isn't simple. National organisations work on policy and legislation. Charities provide vital direct support. But the space in between — helping organisations turn good intentions into consistent practice, and helping disabled people understand and use the rights they already have — is where the work often falls through the cracks.
how we close the gap
Free toolkits and resources for Disabled People.
Practical guidance for disabled people — starting with employment and education, the two areas where the gap between rights and reality is felt most. Built to be used, not just read.
A stronger network
Campaigns and connections that bring disabled people together within the wider disabled people's movement — through advocacy, community, and disabled history and culture — because navigating rights and access shouldn't be something anyone does alone.
Implementation consultancy
Practical support for organisations — employers, institutions, trade unions — to turn inclusion commitments into everyday practice. Not policies that sit in a drawer. Working practice that's easy to run and consistently effective.
WHO DO WE WORK WITH?
Grant givers
We exist to close a specific gap: the space between national policy work and ground-level charity delivery, where rights on paper don't always translate into everyday access. We're actively seeking and applying for funding to build innovative, digital-first solutions that close it.
businesses
Getting inclusion right protects you from risk and gets the best out of your people. We help you turn inclusion commitments into everyday practice: practical, evidence-based, and built to last.
Charities, DPOs & Non-profits.
We are stronger together. We aim to complement the existing sector's work and collaborate to innovate new, sustainable ideas.
Let’s close the gap together…
meet the TEAM
Sophie Braithwaite
Founder and Executive Director
Built from lived understanding and professional grounding
DPAN is led by Sophie Braithwaite, a disabled Occupational Therapist and MSc candidate in Disability Studies, working directly at the intersection of practice and policy.
DPAN exists because that gap between the two — between what's theoretically right and what actually happens — is where the real work is.
Sophie is the founder and executive director of DPAN.
Cath Bacon | Non-Executive Director
Cath brings over a decade of governance experience across housing, finance, local government and the voluntary sector, with a consistent focus on making sure the people most affected by a decision have a genuine voice in making it.
Cath brings extensive governance experience across housing, local government and the voluntary sector. She is a Board Member of ACIS Housing Group (Member Responsible for Complaints, Tenant Experience Committee) and a Brand Ambassador for Manningham Housing Association after ten years' involvement, including seven as a Board Member, where she chairs three resident-voice forums. She has also served as a District Councillor for Bradford (Anti-Poverty Champion, overseeing nine social supermarkets), Vice Chair of Bradford District Credit Union, and sits on the Housing Ombudsman Service Resident Panel. This year she became Chair of Nextgen Keighley, a mental health charity for women across the Bradford District.
Alongside her formal roles, Cath draws on her own lived experience of disability to voluntarily support other disabled people in navigating the DWP system — helping people understand the process and find their own way through it.
At DPAN, Cath's experience in governance, accountability and embedding lived experience at Board level directly supports our work closing the gap between disability policy and practice.
Su Crossland | Non-Executive Director
Su has been a tireless ally to the Disabled people’s community across her professional career and within her personal life. Su is the founder of MESH Movement, a dance school for people of all ages and abilities, with our youngest dancers being around 12 months and our oldest in their late 70s. She has been teaching dance for over 30 years, and teach children with a range of physical and learning disabilities for the charity We Can Dance, a charity providing dance education to special schools in the North East and North Yorkshire.
She is a retired Occupational Therapist with over 20 years experience in a range of specialisms, particularly wheelchairs and specialist seating, and neuro rehabilitation. My work with We Can Dance combines my passion for both dance and supporting people to achieve their goals to the best of their abilities.
Having been raised in Birmingham, Su now lives on the North Yorkshire Coast with her husband and youngest daughter, along with their cat, guinea pigs and tortoise – that they refer to as “the petting zoo”!
