Tonight’s the night things get going in Rio. Forget the Olympics, for people like me, the paralympics are the main event. Tonight, for once, disability takes centre stage. So often, disabled people are forgotten about: we are relegated to the back of the queue while the needs of others take precedence. The paralympics changes that focus. For once, the world’s attention is upon us, allowing not just disability sport but disability culture in general to take centre stage, not just where the paralympics is being held but globally too. Thus we have a great opportunity right now to say what ‘we’ want to say, show others what ‘we’ are capable of, and draw attention to the problems we face.

I’m really looking forward to tonight. I can’t wait to see what the Brazillians do for their paralympic opening ceremony. Frankly, I’m itching to see whether they have created their own paraorchestra, although given we saved ours for the closing ceremony, they might do the same. It’ll be great to see their take on disability culture, and how they present it to the world. This, for me then, is the one that counts.