Maintaining friendships

Having a social life and making friends can sometimes be challenging.

Accessibility barriers can make it difficult to join in with activities or stay included in your friendship group. These barriers could be social, physical or sensory. They could be other people’s attitudes or the activity itself.

But going to new places and having different experiences can help you find out what you can do, the support you need and what’s accessible. It can also help you learn how to deal with different social situations and challenges.

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Getting involved when you feel excluded
Making new friends
Talking about your needs
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Getting involved when you feel excluded

Sometimes friends make assumptions about what you can and cannot do. They may think you’ll be too tired or not interested in coming to an activity when really it's because of accessibility barriers. This could be anything from bowling or a funfair to a country walk or going to the pub.

Some friends may decide not to invite you because they think:

you cannot join in, and this will make you feel bad
they will need to look after you
that supporting you will affect their experience
that it will be more work to organise an accessible activity or venue

Getting asked to go out

Sometimes being unable to go to an activity or outing can be a little upsetting. If you have to keep saying no to invites, you may worry the invites will stop. You might be anxious that you’re not getting invited to things already.

You might want your friends to ask you to everything, regardless of accessibility. Try saying that you would like to be invited. You could explain that you want a choice, and it makes you feel excluded when you’re not asked. You can also say that getting invited gives you a chance to suggest something else for a different day.

Some people do not want to be invited to activities they cannot do. You could try telling your friends which activities you want to do. This will help your friends know what you can do and include you.

Be part of the conversation

When you feel excluded from activities or you’re not invited, try setting up group chats. This can keep conversations going with your friends, even when you’re not together in person. You could try using social media or messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

You could create a group dedicated to meeting up and use it to set up your next meeting. You’ll also be able to see all the plans made in your group. This will give you time to plan what you need or check the venue’s access.

You can also ask to change plans to an accessible alternative if you want to go. This could be anything, like suggesting a different time, venue or activity.

If it’s easier or more accessible for you to talk on the phone, you could try having group phone calls instead. This could be on Zoom or FaceTime.

There will be times when you cannot go to something but do not want friends to miss out. When this happens, try to suggest meeting up on another day and then organise something accessible to you. This helps you stay included even when you cannot come.

Help organise

Try helping to organise activities to make sure they’re accessible to you. This will share the responsibility of organising with your friends as well as making sure you can take part.

Checking the accessibility of an event or venue

This can be harder if there’s a last-minute plan. But sometimes suggesting an alternative, like a restaurant or pub that you know has access, can help. You could keep a list of your favourite accessible venues on your phone so you always have something ready to suggest.

Going out with friends can include days out or holidays. Knowing what is accessible can help you plan the trip.

Days out for disabled people

Planning an accessible holiday abroad

Making new friends

Being friends with different groups of people can be a great way to spend time with others who share your interests. You might have different things in common with people you’ve met through school, hobbies, sports or other groups.

You may also meet people through your impairment or condition. This could be through disability websites, charities, local groups or forums.

Some disabled people have found having friends with a condition or impairment is useful for sharing experiences and advice:

"It’s helpful to speak to or be friends with people who have the same condition. Knowing how they get around things and how they choose to explain their disability helped me. They can help support you with your non-disabled friends."

"Even if there’s no solution you can come to, knowing it’s not just you is really nice. It’s not you that’s the problem."

You can try finding more friends by searching for local activities and social groups online.

Meeting new people and making friends

Talking about disability with new people

Talking about your needs

It can be difficult to talk to friends about your impairment or feeling excluded. You may not want to confront them. You may worry bringing it up might make things worse. Everyone is different and will do things in their own way.

Inviting friends over

If you’re feeling down, you may think that nobody wants to see you. But often friends will like getting an invitation to spend time with you.

It can help you feel less lonely if you plan the week or month ahead and have some social activities to look forward to. This can also allow you to schedule events to help manage your energy levels and, if needed, give you time to recover afterwards.

Open conversations about feeling left out

Whether you decide to talk about feeling excluded will often depend on how close you are to your friends. You may prefer to suggest future plans instead of talking about being excluded.

If this is having an impact on your mental health, support is available.

Managing mental health

Being honest with friends can be hard. You may feel that you should be included. You might also feel bad because you think finding ways around barriers is not a friend’s responsibility.

Try to avoid blame. Emotions can be high, especially as being left out can be upsetting, so aim to stay as calm as possible. Try to talk about how it feels when you’re excluded. Tell your friends what would help you. For example, choosing accessible restaurants or going to cinema viewings with subtitles.

Explain that there is usually a way around access issues. Try to help your friends see disability as part of your life. If they do not want to help or they make you feel bad about your access needs, that’s not a reflection on you.

You could tell them about the social model of disability.