As Disability History Month 2023 enters it’s fourth and penultimate week, we take a look at the remarkably varied career of Paralympic basketball champion, TV Presenter, author and disability advocate Ade Adepitan MBE.

Introducing Ade Adepitan

Born in Nigeria, Ade Adepitan contracted Polio at just 15 months old and consequently lost the use of both his legs. Adepitan moved with his family to East London as a child where he later developed a passion for wheelchair basketball. In 2004 he competed for Team GB at the Summer Paralympics winning Bronze. The following year Adepitan competed in the Paralympic World Cup where his team won Gold.

TV Career

Fast forward to the London 2012 Paralympic Games and Adeptan had taken on the role of Commentator for Channel 4. He went on to present various sports and travel programmes for the broadcaster, including tracing his own life story in a documentary on Polio in 2013. Adepitan also presented programmes for the BBC and had starred in the CBBC drama Desperados in 2007. You can watch many of the programmes featuring Adepitan on BBC’s Box of Broadcasts (BOB) streaming service- login with your CCCU account. More recently, Adepitan has been awarded the RTS Award for Best Sports Presenter for his work on the 2022 Winter Paralympics (Channel 4). This year, Adepitan co-presented Children in Need 2023 (BBC) which raised a spectacular £33,513,323 for children across the UK.

Children’s Author

From Children in Need to children’s literature, Adepitan has written four books based on stories from his childhood in East London. His ‘Cyborg Cat’ series follows a disabled superhero and explores themes of diversity, equality and friendship. Incredibly, 100% of the proceeds from the second book were donated to Children in Need. Print and digital copies of Cyborg Cat are available to borrow from Kent Libraries, or you can purchase copies through the University Bookshop.

Disability Advocate

Throughout his career Ade Adepitan has been a passionate advocate for disability sport as well as promoting the need for societal change around disability. Earlier this month, Adeptan was in the news for criticising accessibility and the lack of stair-free access on the London Underground.

“Don’t get me wrong, there have been things that can affect my disability. But I’d say that disability is a societal thing. It is a society that makes you feel like you have a disability, not your actual physical disability.”

Ade Adepitan On Wheelchair Basketball And Life With A Disability (disabilityhorizons.com)

Adepitan is a Patron of Go Kids Go, an association of wheelchair children and has also lent his support to the NSPCC, Wheelpower UK and is an Athlete Ambassador for Right to Play. In 2005, he was awarded a MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of his services to disability sport.

“I’d like many more disability sports clubs to spring up around the UK and lots more disabled people feeling confident about who they are.“

In Focus: Ade Adepitan (bbc.com)

Working with BBC Teach to inspire the next generation of disability athletes, Adepitan speaks about his own experience in this video for use by educators in classrooms.

YouTuber

Alongside his charity work, Adepitan and his wife, singer-songwriter Linda Adepitan (better known as Elle Exxe) have produced a series of YouTube content to share and break-down any misconceptions about interracial and inter-abled relationships.

Adepitan holds an impressive resume and through his strength of will has overcome many societal barriers, he is an inspiration.

“It doesn’t matter what you look like or if you have a disability. If you believe in yourself, anything is possible” – Adepitan on BBC Teach (link above).

Further Reading

• Books on Disability and Sport can be found at 796.087
• Books on the Paralympics and other Disability sporting events can be found at 796.0456
• Book chapters, documents, journal articles and videos can be found on the subscription database Disability in the Modern World. Login with your CCCU account at Disability in the Modern World | Alexander Street, part of Clarivate.
  
  Find out more about the Disability History Month awareness campaign at UK Disability History Month – 16 November – 16 December (ukdhm.org)

Links to our other Disability History Month 2023 posts below:

Frida Kahlo
Malala Yousafzai
Helen Keller