Society as a whole has got better with different disabilities, but we still have a long way to go

PARALYMPIAN ELLIE SIMMONDS CHATS ABOUT HER DOCUMENTARY, WHICH EXPLORES PARENTS' FEARS AND WORRIES ON LEARNING THEIR CHILD WILL BE BORN WITH A DISABILITY. BY YOLANTHE FAWEHINMI

- BY YOLANTHE FAWEHINMI

WHEN British Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds' mother was told that her daughter had dwarfism, she gave her up for adoption just a few days later.

Now Ellie is 30 - the age she believes most people start to think about having a family - and she is curious to know why parents become fearful when they find out their child has a disability.

In her new ITV documentary, Ellie Simmonds: Should I Have Children?, she asks herself that very question, knowing what the potential outcome could be, as a woman living with a disability.

Ellie, who won five Paralympic gold medals for Great Britain, unpacks the fears and worries that expectant parents might have when faced with the news that their child could be born disabled.

She speaks with doctors, frontline counsellors, geneticists and expectant families about having to make difficult decisions, including those she meets at one of the UK's leading fetal medicine units (FMUs).

She also addresses some of the misconceptions that expectant parents may have about life as a disabled person, and whether the growing representation of disabled people in the public eye has made a difference.

Following on from her BAFTA-winning documentary, Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family, she also explores some of the choices around prenatal testing.

She also looks at how it can impact the decisions parents make, and whether the societal perception of disability has evolved over the last few decades.