Liverpool John Moore University’s Dis-Ability Staff Network warmly invites you to our third International Day of Persons with Disabilities event. This year we are keen to explore disclosure and how we create more inclusive work environments for higher education staff with disabilities. We will be joined by three presenters exploring these themes.

If you have any questions please email Lucie Matthews-Jones, the Network’s Events Officer [email protected]

Speakers and schedule

1.30-1.40 Welcome from the Dis-Ability Staff Network

1.40-2.00 From statistics we know that disclosure rates amongst academic staff and postgraduate research students are much lower than in the general population or amongst undergraduate students. However, there is no evidence that invisible disabilities are less prevalent in higher education. In this presentation, Dr Nicole Brown draws on her extensive research into the lived experience of ableism in academia to explore disclosure. Nicole commences with a brief introduction to the Embodied Inquiry employing creative research methods for data collection. She then discusses how individuals are struggling to reconcile working and studying in what appears to be an inclusive academia with the realities of negotiating structural barriers, attitudinal challenges and managing symptoms of their conditions. Nicole concludes with some suggestions on what we can do as individuals to improve practices within academia and thereby support those with disabilities, chronic illnesses and/or neurodivergences.

2.00-2.20 Professor Kate Sang will be sharing the outcomes of an EPSRC funded Inclusion Matter project; Disability Inclusive Science Careers. Kate will present the findings of interviews with disabled academics, line managers, human resource practitioners and trade union representative, revealing the continued exclusion of disabled academics. The presentation will conclude with suggestions for creating more disability inclusive research cultures.

2.20-2.40 We will be joined by a representative of Disabled Students UK, a grassroots organization of current and former disabled students. They have been shortlisted for the Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100, the 100 most influential disabled people and organizations. There paper will discuss disclosure.

2.40-3.00 Questions and Answers Session

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