Disability History Month 2025

For Disability History Month 2025 we caught up with Jude Aston from Aston Villa Disabled Supporters’ Association (DSA) to hear more about his experiences and thoughts following Villa home and away. You can follow Jude on Instagram or X/Twitter. 

The FSA: Hi Jude, thanks for your time, first of all we can’t let this pass without comment… Jude Aston. How many fans share the name of their club?!

Jude: Sharing the name Aston is a coincidence haha, it was meant to be!!

The FSA: Can you walk us through your typical experience on a matchday – what are the biggest non-obvious barriers that people often overlook?

Jude: My matchday often starts in the days leading up to it, 90% of the time I travel via public transport. As a disabled supporter the ability to plan ahead is so important, and can be pivotal to a smooth matchday experience. The first non-obvious barrier is to book my wheelchair assistance at my departing and arriving train station. 

When it comes to arriving in the ground, this is all about communication – liaising with stakeholders at different clubs and supporters is important, navigating through the busy crowds can be difficult and departing the ground often means waiting for the crowds to clear. Communication and planning ahead is important.

The FSA: You’ve travelled with Villa domestically and in Europe. How would you compare the accessibility and overall experience for a disabled fan at home or away?

Jude: Villa Park has become a routine now. I avoid Aston train station and always go to Witton and wait for the crowds to clear. Away days in the Premier League are decent, you are with your fans and get a good view and experience.

The contrast is in Europe, I never really know what to expect when I travel away, this is because there are so many people and organisations that Aston Villa have to communicate with to put access requirements in place. Aston Villa’s access team are great, the communication sometimes breaks down with the  authorities and stakeholders in the host country. It’s a different experience and whilst Aston Villa’s access team will always put measures in place, sometimes decisions change, communication is different and supporters have to adapt.

In countries such as Holland and Germany, away fan wheelchair users are positioned with home fans, often meaning we cannot celebrate with the Villa fans, being on the opposite side of the stadium. This is incredibly frustrating when you travel all over Europe as an avid fan of your club. European clubs must do better to accommodate away supporters.

The FSA: How vital are DSAs for you?

Jude: They’re an important part of improving disabled fans’ experiences – it allows our voices to be heard and communicate with the club. I believe honest conversations provide better understanding and can highlight lived experience. DSAs are part of a multi-team effort to improve fan services across football. Aston Villa are great at listening and collaborating with different supporter groups. I think highlighting different supporter groups matchday experiences is important, every supporter has their own journey – visibility helps create lasting change.

The FSA: As someone who advocates and blogs about disability awareness, what does a successful awareness campaign look like to you?

Jude: Disability History Month is successful when we bring together people of different backgrounds to highlight and raise awareness of disability. Visibility is the first step to creating long lasting change – awareness months should be a moment to reflect and discuss how we can improve disability awareness all year around, not just in the month of disability history month.

The FSA: How can clubs ensure their advocacy in this area feels authentic?

Jude: The awareness is growing amongst football clubs and sport, to create lasting change in sport, clubs must tap in to the knowledge and lived experience of their supporters to represent their fans base successfully. I enjoy seeing clubs give recognition to their para football teams because it’s a step towards seeing para sport represented more in mainstream media.

The FSA: How do you feel football influences broader societal attitudes towards disability? Do you see the representation and inclusion work done by clubs translating into positive change?

Jude: Football has an international platform to make change, representation is growing, and clubs are dedicating departments and roles to accessibility which enables fans to have a voice. The English game has done a good job at highlighting these issues, we must see this translating across the world and into positive change outside the sport.

A big thanks to Jude for his time – you can read more about Aston Villa DSA here or contact Level Playing Field if you want to find out about DSAs in your area or even set one up. We’d love any supporters or DSAs reading this who aren’t already members to join the FSA too.