Project updates

March 2025 
10 month update

As we enter month 10 of WAARC we reflect below on some of the progress of our specific priority areas and cross-cutting themes. Since we last reported we have held our launch event in December 2024 which was a wonderful success and opportunity to not only introduce the project but reflect on the challenges of promoting anti-ableist practices in the university sector. 

On the day that we write this update we are reflecting on the very real concerns that many disabled people, across the UK, are expressing in response to changes to UK benefits. As a team we are not only responding to these material changes in our own lives - and those of friends, family and colleagues - but also are in communication with disabled people and their families who will feel the brunt of these changes. Universities are always impacted by social, cultural and economic change and disabled people who work or study in the university are feeling especially precarious in these uncertain and dangerous times. 

WAARC might be read as a reflection of the cultural turn towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within university, research and funding sectors. As Goodley, Lawthom and Liddiard (in press) have recently argued: research funders continue to place a premium on high quality discovery research but also emphasise the need to promote diverse research cultures and proactively develop the careers of researchers and professional services colleagues. 
 

What this means in terms of practice, however, is often unclear, with some commentators worrying that universities remain rhetorically responsive rather than pragmatically engaged. Furthermore, EDI and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as it is framed in North America) face a major contemporary backlash. We want to acknowledge the fear and distress that many of our disabled colleagues are experiencing within the university (Goodley, Lawthom and Liddiard, in press)

As WAARC progresses we are proud of our achievements. But we are constantly minded of the disabling barriers and ableist practices that continue to occupy our daily lives in and outside of the University.

Priority Area 1
Environment 
Armineh Soorenian 

The Wellcome Anti-Ableist Research Culture (WAARC) project aims to promote an Anti-Ableist Research environment. This means that we will rethink our practices by promoting a culture that welcomes disability in research theory and practice. WAARC is a large project that aims to create actionable steps towards a more inclusive, accessible institution. Armineh Soorenian is leading the Environment strand of the project, which consists of the following: 

• In Priority Area 1.1 Recruitment, we aim to address the under-recruitment of Disabled researchers and professional services staff as a result of structural barriers. Our project responds to this by rethinking recruitment processes that centre Disabled people’s experiences in recruitment. 
• In Priority Area 1.2 Employment, we aim to address attracting and retaining of Disabled researchers and professional services staff as employees, and what we can do as a collective to ensure this happens. Our project responds to this by ensuring we have supportive and inclusive employment practices and cultures for Disabled employees. 

Following on from receiving approval for our ethics application in November 2024, I developed Discussion Topics and Research Questions documents for both priority areas. These documents were then shared with our partner organisation for this strand of the project, Pathfinders, and relevant WAARC team members. On receiving feedback, I revised and finalised the documents. at the same time, I prepared a ‘Call for Participants’ document and with help from WAARC colleagues shared it on different university platforms and with our partner organisations.

As a result, I have been able to recruit appropriate numbers of participants for each priority area, participants are a mixture of Disabled researchers and professional services staff. While the recruitment was taking place, I was corresponding with interested people, responding to their questions, and sending them the Participant Information Sheets and Consent forms. I was also recording participants’ availability for interviews and their access needs. As I am facing access barriers myself, our project co-ordinator, Liz Dew and I have been meeting regularly for the last few weeks, checking the practicalities of interview arrangements and planning interview details. 

The fieldwork began on Tuesday 4^th of March and will continue throughout March and April. Through 75-minute interviews, I am learning about participants’ recruitment experiences, as well as their aspirations, recommendations, and priorities for inclusive practices. Prior to the interviews, I share with participants, the Discussion Topics, and Research Questions documents, giving them a chance to decide on the topics most relevant to their experiences and to process the questions. The interviews conducted so far have been insightful, and interesting themes are emerging. Participants are discussing a range of barriers and ableist practices they have encountered in their professional life; they also reflect on what an ideal inclusive recruitment experience would be. 

I have also dedicated my time to the following:

• Recruiting a suitable AtW Support Worker, which has been much difficult than expected because of university policies, the specialised skill set I need support with and AtW inflexible procedures. Not having a Support Worker has meant that, at times, the fieldwork has been inaccessible, and I needed to work with Liz to address various barriers, for example, accessing the shared drive while using a screen-reader.
• Setting up a Network by/for Researchers with Speech Impairments/Differences for peer support and for producing academic output. As the network is being established, we have met three times on Google-meet so far.
• Writing about my experiences of working on an anti-ableist project. 

Priority Area 2
Developments
Daniel Jones  

Our ongoing project dedicated to advancing inclusive research methods and accessible academic events has seen remarkable progress in the past year, thanks to the tireless efforts of our team and collaborations with key stakeholders.

In collaboration with The University Library, we have launched an open-access WAARC reading list. This initiative is part of our commitment to open research and inclusive ways of conducting research, teaching, and scholarship. The reading list is open to collaboration and participation from all interested parties, further promoting the values of inclusivity and accessibility. The Ableism and Academia Reading Group, now with over 120 members on its mailing list, continues to meet monthly, fostering a space for academics, professional staff, and students to discuss ableism in higher education. 

We have received a lot of interest in contributing to workshops and interviews around inclusive research methods and accessible events at the University of Sheffield. We are currently preparing for upcoming creative workshops and interviews in the accessible events and inclusive research methods strands.

Our partnership with Speakup Self Advocacy continues to thrive as we network across the institution, aiming to critique and dismantle ableist structures within the university. We collaborated with SpeakUp Self Advocacy to host a creative workshop focused on inclusive catering provision. We devised plans to create an embroidered tablecloth as a creative output of our conversations and are currently seeking local artists to bring this vision to life.

Our team has taken the lead in creating the 'Anti-Ableist University' zine, working alongside critical disability studies colleagues both within WAARC and the broader iHuman team to envision the future of anti-ableist universities. These efforts culminated in the acceptance of our zine for publication on the GeoZone zine archive, which will soon be featured on the WAARC web page. We also have physical copies which we will disseminate at WAARC and Wellcome Events in the near future!  

Our work as a Priority Area also extends to the WAARC podcast, where we have started recording episodes on inclusive and creative methodological approaches to research and accessible academic event organization with esteemed guests.

Overall, our project aims to foster a more inclusive research culture by addressing ableism and promoting accessibility in academia. We are committed to continuing our efforts to create a more inclusive and equitable academic environment for all.

Priority Area 3
Collaboration
Sophie Phillips

Collaborative Research Projects: Recently we led an internal research call to fund four research projects centred around disability in the university. Projects had to be co-produced with a Disabled People's Organisation. In order to make the research call accessible to researchers who may not have existing links to Disabled People's Organisations and to organisations who are not already involved in research, we offered a ‘matchmaking’ service. This meant researchers and Disabled People's Organisations could apply to be matched together to create a research proposal. In addition, we committed to ensuring one project was led by postgraduate researchers. 

We received several applications and have funded four research projects from our recent call. These projects focus on disability in relation to access of academic literature and energy bills. Through this process so far we have considered the bureaucracy in creating research. 

We are going to support these projects by providing bi-monthly catch ups. Sheffield Voices (a local Disabled People's Organisation self-advocacy group for people with Learning Disabilities) representatives will be at each of these meetings and projects will need to provide updates to them. In addition, Sheffield Voices are going to offer mentoring to the four DPOs that are involved. 

Cripping the Concordat: We are developing how we are going to achieve this area of the work package. We have met with university representatives about what the university is looking to do to ensure that researchers and managers are able to follow the Research Concordat as closely as possible. We are working with university-led committees such as the Early Career Researcher Committee to gauge ideas on how managers could be best supported to support disabled researchers.

Cross-cutting Themes
Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril

The overview from the vantage point of Cross-cutting Themes at this stage is: do not underestimate the importance of attending to crip practicalities. By this I mean both that pragmatic things like getting access to toilets, assistive software, and livable workspaces is important, and that doing this work takes up an important amount of time. We must also remember that these efforts are happening during a time of great stress and uncertainty in our university (and indeed in the sector as a whole). As WAARC’s empirical work gets underway and the cross-cutting project podcast, Cripping Research Culture, starts production, I am reflecting on attending to crip practicalities as crip praxis; that is, as navigation practices that employ and generate theory. Here are two examples of of how crip practicalities were deployed so far as part of Cross-cutting Themes in response to ableist and disableist barriers:

Access Bags: Refusing to categorise access needs as “wasteful”
When we organized the Beyond EDI events last year, it was important to us to make the physical space accessible to as many people as possible. We had the budget to provide each guest with an ‘access bag’ that included: an FFP3 face mask, a silent fidget, and ear plugs. However, we were told that these qualified as “wasteful gifts” and that university policy stated that we should only provide access materials to named individuals who requested them. This kind of policy is an example of the individualisation of disability, which places the onus on the disabled person to constantly have to advocate for themselves. Had the items been branded with the university’s logo, the spending would have been justified, so it comes down to how access is framed and (de)valued. In the end, we branded the bags and agreed to save any leftovers for future events (which was already our intention). Hopefully, this will count as precedent and solidify the claim that access is a good worth investing in on par with marketing.

“Hacking” Data Management
University policy has not caught up with industry standards when it comes to podcasting. Although the University of Sheffield has an excellent Creative Media Centre where staff and students can use equipment and studios for free, no guidelines exist surrounding the production of a podcast for public circulation. In this case, Cripping Research Culture is a knowledge exchange and public engagement output and is not counted as research. This means, for example, that guests can choose to use their given names and share other identifying information. While this is standard practice in podcasting, we came up against university regulations around data management when we tried to use a third-party virtual studio to make production more accessible and streamlined. After navigating multiple layers of bureaucracy, we eventually had to compromise with a Zoom account.

Crip practicalities involved in building an anti-ableist university involve bending bureaucracy and challenging received ideas about disabled people’s presence in the workplace and as knowers. Beyond addressing ableist behaviour, we are trying to dismantle ableist and disableist systems brick by brick.

Reference

Goodley, D., Liddiard, K. and Lawthom, R. (in press). The depathologising university. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research.

October 2024 - six month update

WAARC Priority Area 1: Environments

Over the last 6 months, we have:

• Worked on producing two ethics packs for the Priority Area 1.1 – Recruitment and Priority Area 1.2 - Employment. We have included documents such as Participant Information Sheet, Participant Consent Form, Confidentiality Agreement (for Transcribers and Support Workers), Distress Protocol and Risk Assessment in the ethics packs. We collaborated with the WAARC team in the production of these documents and took everyone's feedback on-board. We submitted the ethics packs and have so far received positive and constructive feedback on Priority Area 1.1 with minor revisions. We intend to amend the documents and resubmit the pack next week.
• Worked collaboratively with another RA on responses to accessible events and accessible recruitment practices, producing a document for the former and a recording and the accompanying transcript for the latter.
• Written a piece on ‘What is the Ableist University?’
• Conducted a literature review based on Access to Work policy evaluation reports and thematically organised the first draft of the document.
• Contributed a summary of our Priority Area to be included in the presentation for Leeds Disability Studies conference in September 2024.
• We will be meeting with our partner organisation, Pathfinders tomorrow to start our partnership work. 

These activities have been taking place in the context of the RA not having appropriate support in place and having to apply to Access to Work. The process has included the following:

• Completing the Access to Work application form,
• Being assessed for access needs,
• Recruiting a Support Worker on a casual basis (writing a JD, advertising the role, short-listing the candidates and interviews) and induction and training. 

To recruit a Support Worker  on a long-term basis, the RA has been introduced to a specialist agency to go through the recruitment process again. The RA has written a reflective piece about her experiences of AtW, listing a number of recommendations. This article and the recommendations were discussed in a meeting with a member of the senior research management team. In addition, the RA experienced many access issues when working on the ethics packs ranging from the inaccessibility of google docs to the inaccessibility of the ethics system.

WAARC Priority Area 2: Developments

Over the last 6 months, we have been very busy as a Priority Area. We have developed 2 detailed ethics applications surrounding inclusive research methods and accessible events, which are currently under review. This was done in direct conversation with key stakeholders at the University of Sheffield such as the Head of Public Engagement and the Directors of Knowledge Exchange, and in collaboration with disabled partner organisation Speakup Self Advocacy. As a part of work surrounding accessible academic events, have set up a successful international-scaled Ableism & Academia Reading Group, with 100+ people on the mailing list, with average attendance of 22 since its inception in September 2024. Similarly, we have set up an open access WAARC reading list in collaboration with The University Library that is open to collaboration and participation as part of our commitment to open research and inclusive ways of doing research, teaching and scholarship. We have also led on the ongoing creation of an ‘Anti-Ableist University’ zine by critical disability studies colleagues both within WAARC and more broadly within the department, and have subsequently been invited to host a university wide postgraduate researcher wellbeing zine-making session for disabled PGRs. We have collaborated with the WAARC team beyond the priority area also, such as through publishing collaborative response letters to Levinovitz’s article on Higher Education accessibility accommodations (Jones & Gauthier-Mamaril, 2024), and planning a Spoon Theory and Alt Text workshop that we hope to bring to PGRs and employed researchers around the region, particularly within the White Rose Consortium group. We continue to establish our partnership with Speakup Self Advocacy, and to network across the institution whilst seeking to further criticise the ableist university.  

Network for Researchers with Speech Impairments or Differences  

Dr Armineh Soorenian, one of the Research Associates on the Wellcome Anti-Ableist Research Cultures in iHuman is setting up a network for researchers with speech impairments or differences to address the exclusion of researchers with communication difficulties from disability research and academia in general. So far ten researchers with a range of international backgrounds have expressed interest in the network. Together, we are discussing the scope of the network and sharing our aspirations for the group. Interesting ideas are developing both in terms of peer support and discussion topics. Encouragingly, our vision for the network appears to be very similar and aligns with anti-ableist values. The next steps would be to introduce the network members to each other and arrange a meeting that is accessible for everyone.

WAARC Priority Area 3: Collaborations

Over the last six months, in collaboration with our partners, Sheffield Voices and the Participatory Research Network at the University of Sheffield, we have developed and launched a funded research call, inviting postgraduate researchers and staff at the university to apply for up to £5000 to conduct a small-scale research or innovation project. Each project needs to be formulated and carried out in partnership with a disabled people’s organisation. We have constructed the research call to enable both people at the university with and without established partnerships to apply. In addition, disabled people’s organisations who want to be matched with a postgraduate researcher or university staff are also welcomed. This call was launched at an event led by the Participatory Research Network and then circulated widely.  

We have collaborated both with the WAARC team beyond the priority area and with the wider university community, for example through being part of the organising team of an internal conference for disabled postgraduate researchers and staff who work with them. 

WAARC Cross-cutting Themes

Over the past six months, we have focused on developing Cross-cutting Theme 1: Institutional engagement. This has taken the form of liaising with existing EDI networks and stakeholders in the University of Sheffield, including the Disabled Staff Network, the Emotionally Demanding Research Network, and the LGBTQ+ Staff Network, to promote the WAARC project. We also continue to develop our relationship with the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN), our stream collaborator. We are gearing up for three launch events for the University of Sheffield community and our partnered disabled people's organisations in November and December 2024. To this end, we have received Access First Work training from Quiplash, a local disability access consultancy firm.The first is an art exhibit of arts and crafts by current disabled staff members to be displayed both in a high-traffic university building and on the WAARC website. The aim of this exhibit is to showcase existing disability culture within the university and to present disability through a creative lens to staff and students. The second event will be held in person on the 3rd of December. In collaboration with Quiplash we have developed a programme that includes invited disabled drag artists, a community discussion around the aims of WAARC, and a panel on disability, culture, and access. This event will be followed by a virtual twin where audio-described drag will meet online discussions.

In addition to organising these institution-focused events, we have also collaborated with the wider WAARC team to address timely sector-wide debates around disability accommodations in higher education by authoring an open-access response to Alan Levinovitz’s essay in the Higher Education Chronicle (Jones and Gauthier-Mamaril 2024). Planning is underway for a spoon theory and alt text workshop that aims to engage university staff to practise concrete access by using a theoretical framework that comes from disability culture as well as for a WAARC podcast.