Mark Henderson

 I am a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in media, public and human rights law, and have acted in many leading cases over the last 25 years. Clients have included the Leader of the Opposition, NGO Migrants Organise, and leading on disability issues for bereaved and survivors in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. I am a former Legal Aid Barrister of the Year.

In 2018, I sustained a complete spinal cord injury and a skull fracture in an accident, and I now live with complete paralysis from the waist, deafness on one side and a hearing impairment on the other, and a traumatic brain injury. 

Returning to practice as a full-time wheelchair user has shaped my understanding of the structural obstacles and systemic discrimination faced by disabled workers. I now sit on Bar Council, Bar Standards Board, and HM Court Service working parties to make the Bar and court system more accessible to lawyers and the public, as well as chairing Doughty Street’s Disability Working Group..

I am an elected Board Trustee of the Spinal Injuries Association, the leading disabled people’s organisation for 50,000 people living with paralysis. As Senior Vice Chair from 2021-2023, I led oversight of SIA’s services, advocacy, and campaigning on paralysis issues and disability rights. I highlighted intersectional discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in the care system.

As a newly disabled person after discharge from the rehab unit in 2019, I found that much of the life I had led previously in the LGBTQ+ community was now closed off to me. ParaPride’s launch event at the RVT in 2019 was the first time I had felt completely at home on the LGBTQ+ scene as a visibly disabled man. I am passionate about improving access to LGBTQ+ venues and promoting and celebrating our LGBTQ+ disabled community.