How do we - the university - support disabled researchers in the university?
Dan Goodley and Rebecca Lawthom
Paper presented at Disabled Researchers Network Celebration Event, 24th September 2025, Liverpool John Moores University.
Summary of the paper presented
We have had the privilege of working with a number of disabled researchers across a number of externally funded projects. In this brief paper we want to share some provocations, annoyances, frustrations, small wins that feel like big wins and urgent reminders: that we are the university and we collectively have a lot to do together to make sure that disabled researchers are a central part of our communities. Some ideas shared today will include:
- Has disability arrived in the university?
- How are disabled researchers inclusively recruited in the university?
- What challenges exist in relation to support mechanisms from Access to Work to daily work experiences?
- What bureaucratic, policy and administration challenges do we face in the research work we do?
- What responsibilities do senior academics and project PIs have in relation to mentoring and capacity building disabled researchers?
- How do we confront neoliberal constitutions of the individual researcher when we need to be thinking more collectively?
- How can universities work better with key members of their communities: especially disabled people’s organisations
A full working paper in progress is available email d.goodley@sheffield.ac.uk; r.lawthom@sheffield.ac.uk
Projects and references
Humanising Healthcare
Economic and Social Research Council
Humanising the Healthcare of People with Learning Disabilities and/or Autism funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/W003406/1)Disability Matters
Wellcome Discretionary Award
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ihuman/disability-mattersWellcome Anti-ableist Research Culture
A Wellcome Trust Institutional Funding for Research Culture Award
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ihuman/wellcome-anti-ableist-research-culture-waarcGoodley, D. (2024). Depathologising the university. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 33(3), 1001–1018. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2316007
Goodley, D., Liddiard, K. and Lawthom, R. (2025) ‘The Depathologising University’, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 27(1), p. 120–133. https://sjdr.se/articles/10.16993/sjdr.1240
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.