Episode Three: A World Without Ableism

Elham Youssefian imagines what becomes possible when difference is no longer treated as a barrier, but as a foundation for how we design our world.

The Parallel Effect Podcast’s host Daz Chandler with many worlds traveller, human rights lawyer and disability rights advocate, Elham Youssefian.

In this episode of The Parallel Effect Podcast, blind, human rights lawyer, and disability rights advocate, Elham Youssefian, returns from a parallel world where ableism has been dismantled and human difference is no longer treated as a measure of someone’s worth, or a barrier to participation and belonging.

Elham shows us what becomes possible when the systems that shape our lives are built around the full diversity of human experience from the very beginning.

Governance, technology, education, gender, borders and our relationship with the natural world are all transformed.

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^{If you prefer to read along, access the full episode transcript here.}

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Artist Rachel Shugg Responds to a Parallel World Without Ableism

Rachel Shugg is an interdisciplinary fashion designer and researcher whose work seeks to disrupt the way the fashion industry operates, particularly its approaches to designing for disabled people.

In this short documentary, Rachel reflects on how her lived experience informs her creative practice, and how Elham Youssefian’s parallel world opened up new possibilities for thinking about fashion, disability and the relationship between bodies, clothing and ephemerality.

Elham’s parallel world prompts Rachel to question what happens when difference is no longer something we design around, but the starting point for design itself:

The work I’m developing at the moment is quite sculptural. It’s thinking about form and adornment and is interested in the way something can wrap around or extend from the body. So rather than imposing a shape onto the body, it comes out of the body. I think this connects to what Elham’s world is about because it’s less about a direct response and more about a shared set of questions: What does it mean to design from the body outwards, rather than imposing shape onto it? What happens when we stop treating certain bodies as the exception and start designing for all of them?

What I’m also sitting with is this idea of impermanence. Bodies change, and nothing really stays fixed. Abilities are always shifting, and I find that quite generative rather than limiting or frightening. It makes me think about what is built to last and what we allow to be temporary, and whether those choices say something about whose world we live in and whose needs we consider worth designing for.

Rachel Shugg Untitled 2026. Overall view. Armature wire, glass seed beads, acrylic beads, beading wire, cotton, polyfill. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Rachel Shugg Untitled 2026. Detail. Photo courtesy of the artist. Armature wire, glass beads, sculpting wire, polyfill.

Rachel Shugg Untitled 2026. Detail. Cotton, cotton thread, acrylic beads, copper beading wire.

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Thanks for travelling with us into this world without ableism. Very curious to know what stayed with you? Was there something in Elham’s imagining or Rachel’s thinking that surprised you or made you see our own world differently? We’d love to hear your thoughts - please leave them in the comments.

We’ll be back next week with more adventures through the wardrobe. Until then, may you question who systems are built for, notice where they exclude by design, and look for opportunities to centre fairness and inclusion in the choices you make each day.