Q&A with Peter Torres Fremlin, Disability Debrief editor

👋 What inspired you to start Disability Debrief, and how did the project come to life?

I was a freelance consultant working in the sector of international disability rights. There was quite a momentum with lots of new initiatives and research coming out.

Disability Debrief started simply as a way that I gathered links together and shared them with colleagues, as a coping strategy for myself more than anything else!

After a while I made it into a newsletter, which I intended as an unpaid project on the side of the desk. It quickly became very consuming.

The organisations that had been my clients for consultancy work became my readers, and then started funding me to do the newsletter independently.

Within a few years of starting it, it became my full time job.

❓️What have you learned from running Disability Debrief?

I get to learn so many things, it's a huge pleasure for me of the project. I've learned about web design, making a business, and defamation law. Not to mention all the many different topics I've written about, from ancient Egypt to how AI will change the world of work.

One of the most important things I've learned is how to ask for money. I was getting resentful that I was doing a project for free that others benefitted from. But it's important to ask for money without that energy coming into it. I learned to make it a positive proposition and say more clearly how people could be part of helping it. 

💡 Why commission internationally? How do you decide which stories to commission with a limited budget?

The Debrief is an international publication and it's keen to bring in voices from around the world, especially from places where they are heard less.

I very much work across relationships - I get to know people and based on the connections we find I pursue a story or other type of collaboration.

And in terms of stories, it has to catch my interest in being something I haven't seen before, and be something that makes sense in terms of being doable. With a limited budget we have to be opportunistic about finding the collaborations that are a good fit.

🔍 How do you find freelancers to work with?

I had a good network before I started the newsletter and it's grown a lot since then. People put me in touch with folk and also people who read the newsletter then reach out to me.

Sometimes on, say, a technical issue – like web design or legal advice – I then need to actively search for who can support.

💻 What advice would you give to freelancers who want to work with you?

When I was a freelancer looking for assignments I would spend time building relationships and getting to know what people were about and what they might need. I hope others can do the same. And it's easier with me than many other clients as I am writing a newsletter every week saying what I think.

👀 Are you looking to work with freelancers right now? Please share a little about what you’re looking for.

I'm always interested in connecting with people who can put a new angle on disability stories, particularly if they're from the Global South.

📚️ How can readers support Disability Debrief?

Do sign-up to get the newsletter each week. It's for the disability community and disability curious. 

As for further help, the main challenges of a project like this are visibility and funding.

Please share it with others. And if you're able to, support financially. It's made on a pay-what-you-can basis so that there is no paywall to people discovering it.

✨ Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Many years ago I became a freelancer not out of choice but because that's what was available.

I quickly realised that being a freelancer is also a chance to think about a career in terms of values and putting our energies into what interests us, whether it's the paid assignments or volunteer things we do.

That journey has led me to a project I can now do on my own terms, and I find very fulfilling. It is an immense privilege to be supported to create something that I give away for free.