Beck Heslop
@beckhistorian.bsky.social
🏳️🌈 they/them
🗃️ PhD in progress at CHSTM @ University of Manchester
♿️ History of white canes in twentieth century Britain 🧑🦯➡️ #DisHist
🌳 I have an egg called Dippy and we go on adventures together
🗃️ PhD in progress at CHSTM @ University of Manchester
♿️ History of white canes in twentieth century Britain 🧑🦯➡️ #DisHist
🌳 I have an egg called Dippy and we go on adventures together
Pinned
Beck Heslop
@beckhistorian.bsky.social
· Nov 11
Hello new followers! 🤗
I’m a disability historian currently doing my PhD at @manchstm.bsky.social which focuses on user experiences and contributions to blind mobility technologies (especially white canes!) in twentieth century Britain…
I’m a disability historian currently doing my PhD at @manchstm.bsky.social which focuses on user experiences and contributions to blind mobility technologies (especially white canes!) in twentieth century Britain…
Reposted by Beck Heslop
We need a film depicting the process where the historian uses Google Scholar, clicks on the desired article, finds that it is paywalled, goes to uni library website, logs in, goes back to article page again, downloads PDF into a folder with 500 other unread PDFs, and repeats the process for 120 min.
No film gets historians right, but that's only because no audience wants to watch someone quietly work their way through a cardboard box of old papers, in total silence, for eight straight hours.
an interesting subtopic! which shows/movies are beloved by the profession for Getting It Right! Lawyers famously love MY COUSIN VINNIE, doctors I believe love SCRUBS, apparently Aussie barristers are surprisingly fond of RAKE's depiction of some aspects of the law.
August 29, 2025 at 1:14 AM
We need a film depicting the process where the historian uses Google Scholar, clicks on the desired article, finds that it is paywalled, goes to uni library website, logs in, goes back to article page again, downloads PDF into a folder with 500 other unread PDFs, and repeats the process for 120 min.
Reposted by Beck Heslop
I'm not sure how many of my fellow historians are poker players, but that's a game that's tailor-made for us.
Sitting at a table for long hours, drawing out one disappointment after another and then finally getting a holy shit holy shit this is amazing and then another three hours of boredom ...
Sitting at a table for long hours, drawing out one disappointment after another and then finally getting a holy shit holy shit this is amazing and then another three hours of boredom ...
August 28, 2025 at 11:33 PM
I'm not sure how many of my fellow historians are poker players, but that's a game that's tailor-made for us.
Sitting at a table for long hours, drawing out one disappointment after another and then finally getting a holy shit holy shit this is amazing and then another three hours of boredom ...
Sitting at a table for long hours, drawing out one disappointment after another and then finally getting a holy shit holy shit this is amazing and then another three hours of boredom ...
Do any historians of Britain know whether there was a Highway Enigneering and Traffic Control Department in the Ministry of Transport during the 1960s?
I am trying to decipher the acronym HETCD ...
🗃️ #skystorians
I am trying to decipher the acronym HETCD ...
🗃️ #skystorians
August 27, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Do any historians of Britain know whether there was a Highway Enigneering and Traffic Control Department in the Ministry of Transport during the 1960s?
I am trying to decipher the acronym HETCD ...
🗃️ #skystorians
I am trying to decipher the acronym HETCD ...
🗃️ #skystorians
Screening of Frozen, when Hans is revealed to be a villain with the line “oh Ana, if only somebody loved you”
Shocked, a grown man whispers: “bastard”
Shocked, a grown man whispers: “bastard”
Got me thinking.. What's the strongest reaction you've seen an audience member have to a scene in a cinema?
During the birthday party scene in SIGNS I saw a whole row of young women literally throw their popcorn in the air like a cartoon.
During the birthday party scene in SIGNS I saw a whole row of young women literally throw their popcorn in the air like a cartoon.
Someone in my audience had a very audible negative reaction to the dog scene in TOGETHER. So that was fun!
August 3, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Screening of Frozen, when Hans is revealed to be a villain with the line “oh Ana, if only somebody loved you”
Shocked, a grown man whispers: “bastard”
Shocked, a grown man whispers: “bastard”
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Seeking contributors to a zine
to hand out at Labour Party conference,
about disability and current state of things.
120-350 words per topic.
to hand out at Labour Party conference,
about disability and current state of things.
120-350 words per topic.
July 31, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Seeking contributors to a zine
to hand out at Labour Party conference,
about disability and current state of things.
120-350 words per topic.
to hand out at Labour Party conference,
about disability and current state of things.
120-350 words per topic.
Reposted by Beck Heslop
It's #DigitalFriday ! This is my routine appeal to #skystorians and all other academics prepping for teaching to share any software, hardware, online resources (primary, secondary, teaching tools, blogs) tips and tricks that they've found useful this week! #AcademicSky 🗃️(pls boost to relevant feeds)
July 25, 2025 at 7:04 AM
It's #DigitalFriday ! This is my routine appeal to #skystorians and all other academics prepping for teaching to share any software, hardware, online resources (primary, secondary, teaching tools, blogs) tips and tricks that they've found useful this week! #AcademicSky 🗃️(pls boost to relevant feeds)
We wrote a thing! About a thing we did! 🗃️♿️
Neil Pemberton and Beck Heslop discuss their participation in Jo Longhurst’s installation, In Plain Sight? The graffiti installation uses images of bindweed to provoke questions about disability, belonging, and exclusion.
thepolyphony.org/2025/06/05/i...
thepolyphony.org/2025/06/05/i...
In Plain Sight?: Invisible Disabilities and Bindweed Entanglements
Neil Pemberton and Beck Heslop discuss their participation in Jo Longhurst’s installation, In Plain Sight? Commissioned by the SMS Belonging Project at the University of Manchester, the graffiti in…
thepolyphony.org
June 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM
We wrote a thing! About a thing we did! 🗃️♿️
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Disabled Leaders - Part One: 34,000 BC - 1185 AD
FREE HERE:
libcom.org/article/disa...
Subscribe or see more here : linktr.ee/disabilityark
FREE HERE:
libcom.org/article/disa...
Subscribe or see more here : linktr.ee/disabilityark
April 19, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Disabled Leaders - Part One: 34,000 BC - 1185 AD
FREE HERE:
libcom.org/article/disa...
Subscribe or see more here : linktr.ee/disabilityark
FREE HERE:
libcom.org/article/disa...
Subscribe or see more here : linktr.ee/disabilityark
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Once I got the DIRTIEST look during a conference panel when a facilities manager asked me if technology gave me hope for the future. I said ramps are older than old and we still can’t get those put in, so no, it doesn’t.
Tech is only as good as the people doling it out.
Tech is only as good as the people doling it out.
I really need people to stop acting like technology is gonna solve disability.
I have a pretty technologically advanced wheelchair. It still doesn’t make my back not broken, and it sure as shit doesn’t make ableds build more ramps.
I have a pretty technologically advanced wheelchair. It still doesn’t make my back not broken, and it sure as shit doesn’t make ableds build more ramps.
March 20, 2025 at 3:53 AM
Once I got the DIRTIEST look during a conference panel when a facilities manager asked me if technology gave me hope for the future. I said ramps are older than old and we still can’t get those put in, so no, it doesn’t.
Tech is only as good as the people doling it out.
Tech is only as good as the people doling it out.
As someone who generally does not watch football, I have spent the evening with my heart in my mouth and am legitimately tearing up at this win 🖤⚪️
March 16, 2025 at 6:41 PM
As someone who generally does not watch football, I have spent the evening with my heart in my mouth and am legitimately tearing up at this win 🖤⚪️
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Read this and the world will seem a better place. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Blind date: ‘I was hoping to meet a total babe. She was a total babe’
Gráinne, 31, a software engineer and musician, meets Alexander, 34, a civil servant
www.theguardian.com
February 22, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Read this and the world will seem a better place. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Waiting for breakfast. Photo from my collection, 1961.
February 22, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Waiting for breakfast. Photo from my collection, 1961.
Reposted by Beck Heslop
he's in your zoom meeting and he is about to say the dumbest thing you've ever heard
February 14, 2025 at 12:08 AM
he's in your zoom meeting and he is about to say the dumbest thing you've ever heard
Reposted by Beck Heslop
I promised you guys more of these. Here is one that I find particularly great.
Materials: plastic, metal, wiring, and human tears. (See ALT text for full transcript of the sign).
Materials: plastic, metal, wiring, and human tears. (See ALT text for full transcript of the sign).
January 21, 2025 at 2:16 PM
I promised you guys more of these. Here is one that I find particularly great.
Materials: plastic, metal, wiring, and human tears. (See ALT text for full transcript of the sign).
Materials: plastic, metal, wiring, and human tears. (See ALT text for full transcript of the sign).
Have I shown off Chip’s new t-shirt yet?
February 10, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Have I shown off Chip’s new t-shirt yet?
Reposted by Beck Heslop
in general: when are we allowed to treat the smoke (the increasing rise of pro-autism eugenicists, the us v themification of disability justice, the self-tokenization of disabled or ND fascists and simultaneous denial of their existence) as evidence of a five-alarm fire in disability spaces?
this one’s real bad, not only for the way it’s going to continue to associate autism with being an asshole but also the way people are insisting it must be fake because they believe autistic people *can’t * be assholes and even a few strays at the expense of bipolar disorders and PDs in the comments
February 9, 2025 at 12:34 AM
in general: when are we allowed to treat the smoke (the increasing rise of pro-autism eugenicists, the us v themification of disability justice, the self-tokenization of disabled or ND fascists and simultaneous denial of their existence) as evidence of a five-alarm fire in disability spaces?
Lots of exciting books finding their way onto my to read list this year! #skystorians 🗃️
Inheriting the Family: Object, Identities and Emotions. Now available open access as a free PDF (though much easier to access from the OAPEN website than from Bloomsbury's, ahem): library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...
February 6, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Lots of exciting books finding their way onto my to read list this year! #skystorians 🗃️
Reposted by Beck Heslop
I can think of quite a few other subjects, institutional types etc etc that also perceive systematic disadvantages in REF (restricting 'longer-form Outputs to merely double-weighting to name just one, disadvantaging many SHAPE disciplines). Form an orderly queue here... 1/2
REF reform needed to end ‘disadvantages’ for medics - Research Professional News
Research assessment exercise identified as “systematic driver” of decline in clinical researchers in UK
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
February 3, 2025 at 8:39 AM
I can think of quite a few other subjects, institutional types etc etc that also perceive systematic disadvantages in REF (restricting 'longer-form Outputs to merely double-weighting to name just one, disadvantaging many SHAPE disciplines). Form an orderly queue here... 1/2
Reposted by Beck Heslop
New collections today!
• J.J. Barlow Papers
• Paul Robeson Collection
• Cartazes da Revolução Portuguesa (Posters from the Portuguese Revolution)
• MOVE Organisation collection
• South Asian Organizations in North America Collection
• The Art of Protest poster collection
• J.J. Barlow Papers
• Paul Robeson Collection
• Cartazes da Revolução Portuguesa (Posters from the Portuguese Revolution)
• MOVE Organisation collection
• South Asian Organizations in North America Collection
• The Art of Protest poster collection
New collections part 1
• Emma Goldman papers (Duke University)
• Tribune photograph negative collection (CPA newspaper)
• Political Trials of the 1950s (Czech National Archives)
• Sahiyar’s Grassroots Feminist Political Posters in India
hatfulofhistory.wordpress.com/radical-onli...
• Emma Goldman papers (Duke University)
• Tribune photograph negative collection (CPA newspaper)
• Political Trials of the 1950s (Czech National Archives)
• Sahiyar’s Grassroots Feminist Political Posters in India
hatfulofhistory.wordpress.com/radical-onli...
radical online collections and archives
I am very interested in the growing amount of radical literature from around the world that is being scanned and digitised. As there are so many and from many different places, I thought it would b…
hatfulofhistory.wordpress.com
February 2, 2025 at 8:53 AM
New collections today!
• J.J. Barlow Papers
• Paul Robeson Collection
• Cartazes da Revolução Portuguesa (Posters from the Portuguese Revolution)
• MOVE Organisation collection
• South Asian Organizations in North America Collection
• The Art of Protest poster collection
• J.J. Barlow Papers
• Paul Robeson Collection
• Cartazes da Revolução Portuguesa (Posters from the Portuguese Revolution)
• MOVE Organisation collection
• South Asian Organizations in North America Collection
• The Art of Protest poster collection
How does one work on disability inclusion without becoming despondent at the enormity of the task and one’s own inability to make meaningful difference? ♿️
Asking for a friend
Asking for a friend
January 28, 2025 at 8:28 PM
How does one work on disability inclusion without becoming despondent at the enormity of the task and one’s own inability to make meaningful difference? ♿️
Asking for a friend
Asking for a friend
Sobering report, especially in regards to how sanctions are applied
Excited to share our new @citizensadvice.bsky.social report on work coach relationships with claimants. A lack of resources and too much focus on claimant compliance means that even the best work coaches struggle to provide effective employment support. Urgent reform is needed 👇
tiny.cc/3or6001
tiny.cc/3or6001
Found anything yet? Exploring the relationship between Universal Credit claimants and their work coaches
This report examines the relationships between Universal Credit (UC) claimants and their work coaches. It makes recommendations on employment support and conditionality, complementing the government’s...
www.citizensadvice.org.uk
January 21, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Sobering report, especially in regards to how sanctions are applied
Reposted by Beck Heslop
Yes, this is what some people told me defensively, and its the most ridiculous thing ever. No, the AI industry's environmental toll is not something we can look past. And no, we shouldn't be allowing our students to train the machines for trillionaire techbros instead of getting an education.
Detecting a shift in the higher-ed dicourse on GenAI; an emergent line of argument seems to be "we already use a lot of other tools with shitty data privacy, and AI isn't the only thing w energy concerns, so choosing not to use it is basically meaningless." Which feels like "oberying in advance" tbh
January 17, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Yes, this is what some people told me defensively, and its the most ridiculous thing ever. No, the AI industry's environmental toll is not something we can look past. And no, we shouldn't be allowing our students to train the machines for trillionaire techbros instead of getting an education.
Reposted by Beck Heslop
who called it final fantasy xvi and not fantasyfinal_final_final2_finalfinalfinal_V5_v6_ffsthisisthefinalone_master_finalapproval_revised__rerevised_finalnomorechanges_FINAL_iquitifthisisnttheFINAL_finalsendtoprinters_v16.pdf
January 18, 2025 at 7:26 AM
who called it final fantasy xvi and not fantasyfinal_final_final2_finalfinalfinal_V5_v6_ffsthisisthefinalone_master_finalapproval_revised__rerevised_finalnomorechanges_FINAL_iquitifthisisnttheFINAL_finalsendtoprinters_v16.pdf
Big shout out to the legend who just stood between the closing doors of a tram to make sure I wouldn’t miss it
Humans can be awesome
Humans can be awesome
January 16, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Big shout out to the legend who just stood between the closing doors of a tram to make sure I wouldn’t miss it
Humans can be awesome
Humans can be awesome