“People would Tweet: ‘I’m sure Briony had a hand last week,’” said Great British Bake-Off semi-finalist Briony Williams on the BBC podcast Ouch. Williams has what she calls a little hand—a birth defect that affected the development of her left hand. Williams did not want to make a big deal about her disability, and it was not mentioned during the course of the show. She explained on Ouch that her mother always encouraged her “find a way around” obstacles. For example, when she had to construct a biscuit chandelier, rather than ask for help to tie the hanging structure together, Williams used a stapler to secure pink and purple ribbons to her teardrop- and diamond-shaped biscuits. She explained a few other kitchen hacks, like using a heavy marble rolling pin to roll out pastry and a blender or food processor to mix flour and butter together for shortcrust. These are hardly special accommodations—all can be easily purchased for a modern kitchen—but Williams’ suggestions are useful for home cooks of all abilities.

In honoring Williams’ wishes, GBBO avoided a trope used by many reality television shows when featuring a contestant with a disability: inspiration porn. As William Cheng wrote, some reality television producers exploit the heartwarming stories of contestants with impairments for profit. “Narratives of overcoming disability are prone to sliding from good-natured celebration into patronizing lionization,” Cheng said. And this narrative can work to devalue and dehumanize people with disabilities, as if everyone should have some reality-TV worthy superpower to offset their difference.

Williams’ achievement and talent as a baker is unquestioned. But by not mentioning her disability, was Williams, as Tobin Siebers wrote, passing? Is there a place of comfort where disability can be acknowledged, addressed, and celebrated without being exploitative? “I would have liked to have felt solidarity with her from the very beginning,” wrote Rasia Hassan, “instead of it being treated like a minor detail.”