Join our Disability History Month speakers this November

As part of this year’s UK Disability History Month (UKDHM), which takes place from Wednesday 16 November to Friday 16 December 2022 with a theme of Disability, Health and Wellbeing, the University has organised a series of online events for staff and students.

The online talks – which take place on 24 November at 11am and 15 December at 2pm – will cover issues of how race, disability and wellbeing intersect, and disability as a visual language. You can find full details of the events below; please join the Disability History Month Teams group to take part – everyone is welcome.

The Equality and Diversity team also invites colleagues and students to host their own sessions. UKDHM is an opportunity for people from around the University to hear from a range of voices, learn from one another and share knowledge. If you would like to host a session, please contact Bill Acharjee who will assist you in arranging this.

Disability History Month events

2022 events are listed below – join the Teams group to find more information and to take part.

24 November 2022, 11am​​​​​​​ – Disability as a Visual Language: Research in Progress

Juanrie Strydom, Solent University Postgraduate Research Student

Juanrie Strydom is a creative practitioner predominantly working with photography, digital and mixed-media approaches. As a current Postgraduate Research Student in Art and Design at Solent University, she is passionate about her research project, which takes on autobiographical and autoethnographic approaches. Her practice research currently explores themes of disability and technology, aiming to construct a new visual language for disability and pain.

Juanrie considers new innovative practical concepts, focusing on how, as an individual with Cerebral Palsy Spastic Quadriplegia, the use of technology supports, challenges, and limits the process of communication and accessibility in everyday experiences to producing practice. Her research, therefore, continues to draw on the significance of the relationship between the body, disability, and technology.

15 December 2022, 2pm – The Unseen Wellbeing Crisis: the Experience of Disabled Employees in Higher Education and the Public Sector in General

Dr Ossie Stuart, Academic Researcher and Independent Equalities Consultant

Dr Stuart has been a lecturer and researcher at the universities of Oxford, York and Surrey, where he developed his expertise in equality and diversity. Today, as an independent equality and diversity consultant, he still works closely with universities and other public sector organisations, helping them to find the best support for all staff and students, and especially those from diverse backgrounds, including disability.

Indeed, as a disabled person as well, it is Dr Stuart’s unique experience of the workplace that led him to create the Calibre programme in 2012. This is a unique programme, specifically for disabled staff and postgraduate students working and studying at university. Since then, it has been adopted by the NHS and, today, more than 1,000 disabled people have benefited from the programme. Indeed, the support from universities such as Brunel and Imperial College, to name a few, has been vital for the programme’s success.

It is Dr Stuart’s mission is to make every disabled member of staff and student in higher education aware that their skills and abilities are equal to everyone else’s, and that they should never have to apologise for being who they are.

Why celebrate UKDHM?

People with disabilities in the UK have long faced inequalities in terms of education, employment, housing, well-being and experiences of crime. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a further example of this hidden discrimination.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, all disabled people faced a significantly greater risk of death compared with non-disabled people throughout all three waves of the pandemic – with the death rate for young people with learning disabilities a shocking 30 times higher than in the general population.

This year’s UKDHM aims to raise these issues in schools, colleges and workplaces across the country, challenging disablism by exploring the history of the struggle for equality and human rights, while promoting the rights of people who have disabilities, as well as hidden disabilities.

You can find out what events are going on around the UK and near you, and access further resources, at the UKDHM website.

The organisation will also be holding an online launch event on the evening of Thursday 17 November 2022. To join, email your interest to callumrussell@crconsultancy.org and you will be sent the Zoom link 24 hours before the event. Please include your name, telephone number, and any relevant organisation you are from.