Anti-ableist developments

Development
Leads: Dr Lauren White (SMI and iHuman), Dr Antonios Ktenidis (School of Education and iHuman) and Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole (School of Education and iHuman) 

Project Partners: Sheffield Voices and Speakup Self-advocacy, Rotherham
2.1. Access (Dr Antonios Ktenidis) 

Problem: Inaccessible research events are routinely held in universities that exclude disabled contributors.
Strategic plan: Devising guidelines for reviewing, revising, promoting and delivering accessible research and scholarship events via hybrid approaches across TUOS. We will normalise accessible events. Building on work undertaken by Wellcome on the experiences of minoritised groups at research conferences, we will revisit our previous work on accessibility guides and recommendations, co-creating this with disabled researchers and project partners and training will be provided to organisers of events e.g. the Public Engagement Team, and the guide will be implemented in the events to be hosted by TUOS, instead of enacting access retrospectively (or treating it as an afterthought). Accessibility will be situated as a disability justice matter; not an 'additional need' to be met.
Workplan: We will review 10 TUOS events in order to develop an accessibility guide - co-created with disabled researchers and project partners - which will provide training will be provided to organisers of events e.g. the Public Engagement Team, and the guide will be implemented in the events to be hosted by TUOS, instead of enacting access retrospectively (or treating it as an afterthought). Accessibility will be situated as a disability justice matter; not an 'additional need' to be met. We anticipate holding short focused semi-structured interviews with event convenors to assess questions of access (n =10).

2.2. Research Methods (Dr Lauren White) 
Problem: Insufficient institutional knowledge about inclusive research methods that involve disabled people as co-researchers. 
Strategic plan: A module entitled, ‘Inclusive Research Methods’ aimed at postgraduate taught/research students and Early Career Researchers delivered via hybrid methods. The module will be developed and delivered by the Sheffield Methods Institute (SMI) and our Research and HR Development Teams, hosted on TUOS My Development platform and will showcase existing participatory, inclusive and disability research in TUOS. The module will consider all research stages: project design, ethics, methods, analysis, dissemination, engagement and impact. Training will also include collaboration with professional services to develop good practice around paying disabled co-researchers, intellectual property and copyright in co-producing and co-disseminating open and inclusive research. We will explore the potential to open this training to external partner participants. The output will be the establishment and delivery of a new module. The evaluation will include assessment of the accessibility of TUOS events and participation by disabled individuals in them, as well as levels of participation in the new module and feedback from participants. 

Workplan: We expect to draw on publicly available examples of disability research, research literature and grey literature of NGOS and DPOs; in consultation with our disabled partners and disability researchers based in TUOS. We will seek feedback on module development via focus groups with Postgraduate Taught students (6 participants x 4 groups = 24).

Deliverables

• A set of Guidelines for hosting anti-ableist and inclusive hybrid research events.
• A new Inclusive Research Methods course for all researchers in TUOS.