Jul 6, 2026 · 55 min · 10 segments
In this episode, I am joined by James Watson-O’Neill, CEO of Sense, for a conversation about what it really means to create a world where disabled people are connected and included. Sense supports…
James Watson-O'NeillGuest
Dhivya O'ConnorHost
Uh, let's start off by hearing about your organization, Sense, where you are the chief executive.
Of course, I'm, I'm biased, but, uh, I've been in post for coming up to eighteen months, and I fall in love with the organization more and more.
Um, and I'm just still new enough to, to see it as something that I admire as an outsider almost in terms of its history.
I'm beginning to have an impact, of course, as, as all of us are at Sense, but I admire it very, very much.
Sense was founded by two amazing women, by Peggy and Margaret in nineteen fifty-five.
Both Peggy and Margaret had children, babies who were deaf-blind, and they were introduced by chance, apparently, in a medical setting in Central London.
And they understood together that there was very little support available for deaf-blind children and for parents of deaf-blind children.
And so they set about creating a network of parents of deaf-blind children, and Sense was born.
And in our building in Birmingham, we have framed the first newsletter sent out to their new network by, uh, Peggy, which talks very humbly about her and Margaret's aspirations for, uh, what would become Sense.
And so from the very beginning of the organization, there was this incredible connection between the practical needs for families of disabled children and a sense of organizing, a sense of bringing people together.
Peggy and Margaret didn't get the help they needed and then just went home and did, you know, and, and looked after themselves.
They, they were committed to connecting people together and really thinking about the bigger difference they could make.
So this network was begun and, and, and has become, uh, Sense over the years.
But the-- that commitment to social change has always been part of the organization's history.
And there's a wonderful photograph in the eighties of disabled people from disabled people's organizations and also colleagues from Sense trying to influence the government at the time.
And it really holds together our current vision for Sense, which is this combination of providing extraordinary services directly to disabled people with complex needs and their families, uh, and also campaigning for, for social change.
We have five thousand people at Sense, so three thousand colleagues, two thousand volunteers.
We have about two hundred locations, including a hundred and eight charity shops.
Uh, let's start off by hearing about your organization, Sense, where you are the chief executive.
Of course, I'm, I'm biased, but, uh, I've been in post for coming up to eighteen months, and I fall in love with the organization more and more.
Um, and I'm just still new enough to, to see it as something that I admire as an outsider almost in terms of its history.
I'm beginning to have an impact, of course, as, as all of us are at Sense, but I admire it very, very much.
Sense was founded by two amazing women, by Peggy and Margaret in nineteen fifty-five.
Both Peggy and Margaret had children, babies who were deaf-blind, and they were introduced by chance, apparently, in a medical setting in Central London.
And they understood together that there was very little support available for deaf-blind children and for parents of deaf-blind children.
And so they set about creating a network of parents of deaf-blind children, and Sense was born.
And in our building in Birmingham, we have framed the first newsletter sent out to their new network by, uh, Peggy, which talks very humbly about her and Margaret's aspirations for, uh, what would become Sense.
And so from the very beginning of the organization, there was this incredible connection between the practical needs for families of disabled children and a sense of organizing, a sense of bringing people together.
Peggy and Margaret didn't get the help they needed and then just went home and did, you know, and, and looked after themselves.
They, they were committed to connecting people together and really thinking about the bigger difference they could make.
So this network was begun and, and, and has become, uh, Sense over the years.
But the-- that commitment to social change has always been part of the organization's history.
And there's a wonderful photograph in the eighties of disabled people from disabled people's organizations and also colleagues from Sense trying to influence the government at the time.
And it really holds together our current vision for Sense, which is this combination of providing extraordinary services directly to disabled people with complex needs and their families, uh, and also campaigning for, for social change.
We have five thousand people at Sense, so three thousand colleagues, two thousand volunteers.
We have about two hundred locations, including a hundred and eight charity shops.
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