Katie Ball

Katie Ball was a proud and defiant activist in the 1990s. Katie and a band of wheelchair users and others with mobility impairments staged several protests about the inaccessibility of public transport. Katie would thumb cuff herself to a tram disrupting the entire network, she would then complain because the police refused to arrest her. Katie believed in disability pride and declared that “We need to be proud of who we are and I’d even like to see us have our own Mardi Gras.” (Untold Desires 1994). Katie died of breast cancer in 2003 leaving a husband, two children and a community who remembered her as a great agitator for change for disabled people.