Disability Matters Together: International Conference 2026
An international event that took place in Singapore from Monday 28th September to Thursday 1st October 2026.
Disability Matters is a major pan-national programme of disability, health and science research, funded by a Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award (2023 - 2029).
The Disability Matters Together: International Conference 2026 is the first major conference for Disability Matters. The conference was attended by researchers, delegates from partner Disabled People's Organisations, and colleagues from the UK, India, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.
The purpose of this conference is to to bring together our international programme team across multiple days to build connections, community, care and joy.
We have some aims and values for the conference that will underpin and influence all the activities involved.
These are:
To allow our community to come together and connect with one another
To explore capacity building through mutual support, sharing knowledge and best practice
Prioritise reciprocity and asking ourselves, what can this mean?
A focus on international perspectives
Fostering meaningful relationships
To present our research so far and welcome feedback and reflections
To reflect on the programme as a whole, asking "where are we now and where are we going?"
To embed a sense of belonging as a programme community
To reimagine what a "conference" event can be through a disability lens
Below are some keywords that have influenced our planning and embody the overall feel of the event.
Each day of our conference will be defined by a overall theme. These themes have been influenced by our aims and keywords, as outlined above.
These themes are:
Welcome
Sharing our Contexts
Sharing and Connecting
Aspirations and Access / Celebration
Our venue
The conference took place in Singapore at Enabling Village, an inclusive integrated community space with barrier-free universal design and technologies to enable independent mobility and meaningful participation for all. We are grateful for Enabling Village and Ms Lee May Gee, CEO of SG Enable, for their generous support for the conference. Read more about Enabling Village and universal design here.
Our Approach to Access
Within Disability Matters, we often refer to access as an “experiment in failure”, in that we are open to different perspectives and trying new approaches and, if something doesn't work, trying something else next time.
Our sessions were supported by live note takers, provided by The Singapore Association For The Deaf (SADeaf). Automatic livecaptioning was also available on mobile devices during small group discussions.
Craft materials including play-doh, origami paper, pens, and stickers were available for delegates to express themselves in different ways. As part of our commitment to comfort and care, delegates were free to move around, fidget, go in and out of sessions throughout the conference. Delegates were welcome to use the calm room and breakout space for rest any time during the conference.
Day 1 - Monday 28th September: Welcome
Welcome
On the first day of the conference, we were joined by Ms Lee May Gee, CEO of SG Enable, who was our Guest of Honour and gave a speech on Enabling Village and its history.
Principal Investigator Prof Dan Goodley and Co-Investigator Prof Wong Meng Ee formally opened the gathering with reflections on the Disability Matters programme's journey so far and reminders of the purpose of the conference to come together-together to share and hold in dialogue with one another.
Delegates introduced themselves to each other through sharing something that represented them, their work, or a place that is meaningful to them. This included:
- an object
- a postcard
- a photograph
- a piece of fabric
- a poem or short text
- a small artwork or craft item
- a souvenir
- a memory of something meaningful
Connection bingo
In the latter half of the day, the delegates took part in "Connection Bingo", a light, informal activity using prompt questions to help people meet each other across roles, contexts, and experiences.
Day 2 - Tuesday 29th September: Sharing our Contexts
On the second day of the conference, delegates from Disabled People's Organisations and researchers from partner institutions gave presentations on their current work and research.
The third day of the conference focused on sharing and connecting.
Storytelling
In the "Storytelling" session, delegates were invited to share stories, reflections, or experiences around three themes: Health and disability; Research and advocacy; Emotional labour and sustaining ourselves. DPOs and researchers exchanged perspectives from their own contexts and stories were shared in spoken, written, creative, or multimodal forms.
Health and disability
- What health challenges matter most in your context?
- What barriers do disabled people experience in accessing healthcare?
- What changes would make the greatest difference?
Research and advocacy
- How could disability research better support advocacy?
- What kinds of partnerships have worked well?
- What would meaningful collaboration look like?
Emotional labour and sustaining ourselves
- What keeps us going in this work?
- How do we sustain ourselves and one another?
- Where do we find joy, care, or hope?
Creative exchange
In the "Creative exchange" session, delegates participated in small-group creative work responding to themes of:
- joy
- love
- care
- friendship
- humour
- wellbeing
Using prompts to guide discussions, delegates shared:
- Care looks like…
- Wellbeing is…
- Love sometimes means…
- Joy is experienced when…
- Humour feels like…
- Friendship…
Day 4 - Thursday 1st October: Aspirations & Access
The fourth and last day of the conference focused on Aspirations and Access.
Letter-writing
In the "Letter-writing" session, delegates were invited to write letters collectively reflecting on:
- experiences of working across national contexts
- challenges and tensions
- moments of care, solidarity, and learning
- hopes for the future of disability work and this programme
1. Hiccups letter (reflecting on the journey)
In the Hiccups letters, delegates were asked to reflect on:
- What have we learned that we did not expect?
- Where have things been difficult or unclear?
- Where have we experienced tension or friction?
- What has been hard about working across contexts, disciplines, or ways of knowing?
- What have we learned from these moments?
- What helped us stay in relationship with each other?
- What forms of care, solidarity, or patience carried us through?
- What do we not want to forget?
2. Hopes letter (looking forward)
In the Hopes letter, delegates reflected on:
- what you hope this work becomes in the future
- what meaningful impact might look like
- what relationships or ways of working you want to grow
- what needs to change or shift
- what you want to say to your future selves or future collaborators
The letters were written collectively and circulated between groups for completion. They were then read out and shared with the whole room.
Recipes for access
In this session, groups created a shared “recipe” for access and inclusion. We use the idea of a “recipe” to think about access and inclusion as something made, shared, adapted, and contextual; this is metaphorical, playful, and reflective. We do not want to think of access as necessarily a technicist or bureaucratic exercise but as an engagement with relationships and place.
Using the format of a recipe, delegates were invited to reflect on:
- what access has meant in your context
- what has worked well in inclusive practice
- where access has failed or been limited
- what care, repair or imagination looks like in access work
Prompts for the recipe included:
- Recipe title (What is your recipe called?)
- Serves (Who is this recipe for? A community? A setting? A moment? A system?)
- Ingredients (What makes access possible in your context? E.g. relationships, time, institutional support, etc)
- Method (How is access made in practice? Think about processes, negotiations, adaptations, informal practices)
- Things to avoid (What blocks access or inclusion?)
- Cooking tips (What makes it work better in real life?)
- Optional ingredients (What could improve or deepen access if available?)
- Best shared with (Who should this recipe reach?)
- Chef’s note (Any reflection, story, or message you want to leave?)
Closing circle
Dan Goodley and Rebecca Lawthorn formally closed the conference with a shared reflection on the acheivements of the past few days, thanked the note-takers for supporting the event, and acknowledged the work of the organising committee in bringing the conference together. They gave thanks to Prof Meng Ee Wong and Kerri Heng, NIE and Enabling Village for co-hosting the conference.
The conference concluded with a celebration dinner where delegates enjoyed time together before parting.
Outputs and resources
Films and photography
Coming soon.
Creative prompts
Prompts used to facilitate creative sessions can be found here:
- Connection bingo
- Storytelling
- Creative exchange
- Letter-writing (hiccups)
- Letter-writing (hopes)
- Recipes for access
Publications
Coming soon.
iHuman
How we understand being ‘human’ differs between disciplines and has changed radically over time. We are living in an age marked by rapid growth in knowledge about the human body and brain, and new technologies with the potential to change them.