Environments
How does the presence of disability enable more inclusive health research environments?
Environments Knowledge Exchange
Collaborations and partnerships
Leads: Meng Ee Wong and Kerri Heng (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Introduction
Environments Fieldwork
Manuscripts in progress
The team is currently working on three desktop research manuscripts in the following order: (1) How disability, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are reflected on the websites of Singapore's six autonomous universities, (2) How disability and DEI are reflected on the job advertisements posted on the websites of Singapore's six autonomous universities, and (3) A critical literature review of Singapore's disability and health research landscape. Data collection (documentation of webpages and job advertisements) for the two DEI manuscripts was completed between May and August 2025. The team is currently in the analysis and manuscript writing stages for these two papers, with the manuscript on DEI as reflected on local autonomous university websites being actively written and targeted for submission to a journal with a focus on diversity or disability in higher education. Concurrently, they are reading journal articles and academic books for the Critical Literature Review and planning to organise the paper according to the models of disability adopted by various papers and books in the literature discussing disability and health in Singapore.
Ethics Application and Data Collection Plans
On top of working on the three aforementioned manuscripts, the team submitted the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and gained approval for starting in-depth interviews in answer to the research question for Phase 4 on Environments; with in-depth interviews commencing in January 2026. The study adopts qualitative methods including interviews with (a) academic or non-academic staff working in universities and (b) researchers with disabilities working in academia or the community and Knowledge Exchange workshops where Singaporean colleagues share good practice within their country context.
Environments Knowledge Exchange
Running in parallel to the fieldwork, a series of Knowledge Exchange activities invite Singaporean disability researchers and other colleagues from Singaporean universities to explore the productive impact of disability in the university context. The first, Disability Matters Singapore Spring Institute 2026, boasted nine original paper presentations and a workshop that captured examples of anti-ableist practice in Singaporean universities from 24 participants.
The second, Disability Matters Together Singapore 2026 (28th September to 2nd October), is an international event that brings together disability studies researchers and disabled people's organisations from Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK team will be in Singapore in September/October to explore connection, community, care and joy: all key aspects of an inclusive environment. As core members of the conference committee team, Prof Wong and Kerri have pushed us to showcase and capture inclusive philosophies and practices. The event will be held at the Enabling Village Singapore.
The third, Disability Matters Singapore Spring Institute 2027, will bring together researchers and practitioners to further share and disseminate research pertaining to inclusive research environments.
Conference Presentations
The team has maintained an active presence at national and international conferences in the second half of 2025. Prof Wong delivered keynote addresses and presentations at multiple venues including:
- Vision Rehabilitation Conference 2025 organized by the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped in August on the topic: Stigma Against the Blind and how to Overcome it.
- Re: Define Success Conference 2025 co-organized by the Singapore University of Social Sciences and University of Leeds in September on the topic: Rethinking Merit through the Lens of Disabled Persons Navigating VUCA Environments
- Education Exchange Series organized by the National Library Board and National Institute of Education in November on the topic: No Learner Left Behind: Growing an Inclusive Singapore Together.
- NUS SSR-TOUCH Conference on Sustained Well-Being in Future-Ready Communities in November with the topic: Layering Technology to Reframe Merit: A Disability-Inclusive Vision for Future-Ready Communities.
- Moderated public forum entitled: Tech Talks: Using Technology to Create Inclusive Spaces at the Singapore Writer's Festival in conjunction with Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology.
In October, together with Singapore disability scholar Assistant Professor Rachel Chen from Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Kerri presented at the Singapore Health & Biomedical Congress 2025. This presentation, titled "Communicating with Patients with Disabilities," was part of the NTU Medical Humanities Satellite Conference and received positive audience engagement. In September and October, Kerri also gave guest lectures at an NTU Sociology Deviance and Society module, and the National University of Singapore’s Master’s in Urban Planning (NUS MUP) module Qualitative Research for Urban Planning. In these guest lectures, she shared about her Bachelor’s and Master’s research on disability, identity, employment, and education, and also offered insights into improving NUS MUP students’ final research projects on urban planning and Singapore society.
The Disability Matters Singapore team presented National Institute of Education Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference in July 2026.
Prof Wong and Kerri will be giving a presentation at the NTU Medical Humanities conference on 23 October 2026. Kerri will also be attending a fireside chat as part of the same conference, happening in the second week of October 2026.
Collaborations and Partnerships
The project benefits from extensive collaborative networks both locally and internationally. Prof Wong is collaborating with Prof Victor Zhuang and colleagues on research examining the visually impaired community in Singapore, with data collection scheduled to begin in 2026, as well as on understanding disability through Singapore census data analysis. Kerri is working with the Disability Matters Research Associates and Sandeep Singh on a joint position paper on disability and Open Data – she will be writing about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Open Data. Kerri is also working with disability scholars Rachel Chen from Singapore and Oriane Pierres from Switzerland on research and contributions to Disability Dialogues.
The team has held a productive meeting with Max Soh from the Disabled People's Association (DPA) and will explore opportunities for deeper collaborations.
Future collaborations under consideration include Prof Wong potentially working to publish two book chapters with Rainbow Centre Singapore on vocational preparation for persons with developmental disabilities as well as with Prof Mika Kataoka from the University of Kagoshima on self-advocacy training for students with developmental disabilities.
Prof Wong was recently appointed as Special Educational Needs-Accessibility Coordinator at NIE, NTU. He will oversee the needs of students with SEN.
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.