WAARC Events

Future WAARC events

To find out or book onto our future events go to our iHuman events page

Ongoing WAARC events

Dreaming up a Disability Inclusive Workplace webinars and workshops

October 2025 - March 2026

We're pleased to present a series of webinars and workshops on the theme of 'Dreaming up a Disability Inclusive Workplace' hosted by the Wellcome Anti-Ableist Research Culture (WAARC) project at the University of Sheffield. These will run monthly between October 2025 and March 2026. Topics were chosen by surveying members of the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN) and we've curated workshops and talks from disabled professionals from a variety of backgrounds and industries.

The topics so far have included

• Organisational accountability and accessibility in the workplace (Wednesday 28th January 2026)

  This session was facilitated by Deepa Shastri , with guest speaker Faye Stewart, on how to hold our organisations accountable when it comes to disability access towards staff. 

• Complicated Pride: Disability, Neurodiversity and Ambivalence (Wednesday 26th November 2025)
  • This 90 session explored the complexities of disability pride, and gave participants some space to rest, breathe and explore what pride means to them. Led by disabled practitioners Amelia Lander-Cavallo and tobi adebajo, we began with a discussion of what pride is and what care means to us as disabled people. Participants were then led through some light exercises and provocations where they could take some time to reflect or just rest. 
• Intersecting Identities and Disabled Joy (Wednesday 29th October 2025)
  • This session was about exploring disability joy. Amelia, co-founder of Quiplash CIC, an LGBTQ+ disability led not-for-profit,  discussed how they find ways to create joy in their work, because it’s fun and also because it is an act of resistance. 
  • In this 90 minute session, Amelia presented some definitions and understanding of disabled joy, showed some case studies of how their creative work with Quiplash exemplifies and creates space for disabled joy, and gave participants some light exercises and provocations in order for individuals to think about where their own disabled joy lies. There was ample space for discussion and questions. 
• Our next webinar will be held on Wednesday 25th February - see the iHuman events page for more details.

Past WAARC Events

Humanising the System and Manifesto 

3rd December 2025, Millennium Galleries Sheffield

• WAARC is seeking to curate accessible events. To mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we held a creative event exploring how we can make systems more caring and human. 
• This event was for community members, practitioners, local authority staff, and people working in health, education, and social care services – anyone who wants to be part of making things better. Whether we call it "the system" or "the services" — it’s the web of relationships, rules, and routines that shape people’s everyday lives. Together, we explored how to bring more compassion, care, and connection back into that web. 
• We heard from Sheffield Voices and Speakup Self-advocacy Rotherham — groups led by people with learning disabilities, including those who are neurodivergent. Their work will continue to help us reflect on what humanising really means and what it might look like in practice.  
• During the event Sheffield Voices and Speakup launched the "Reclaiming the Human in Healthcare Manifesto"
• Click this link to download a pdf of the Reclaiming the Human in Healthcare Manifesto (PDF, 4.39 MB) 

Brian Mosley (from Love Sheffield) wrote about the event in the LoveSheffield newsletter in December 2025.

Cripping the Concordat 

• A 'Creatively Cripping the Researcher Concordat' event was held in October 2025 with Postgraduate, and Early Career Researchers, co-hosted by the Critical Disability Studies Research Cluster and the Wellcome Anti-Ableist Research Cultures Project. 
• This event encouraged participants and attendees to consider what the frameworks are for researcher development and how we might reimagine these through the lens of disability inclusion. 
• We did this via creative activities and considered what aspirations, statements and commitments we have for the careers of disabled researchers within higher education. 
• Find out more about our work on 'Cripping the Concordat'

Beyond EDI: Disability, Culture, and Access Practices (Launch event 2024)

Tuesday 3rd December, The Edge, University of Sheffield

• The WAARC team hosted an afternoon of audio-described drag, community reflections on anti-ableist research practices, and a panel on creative methods and disability culture. 
• This event opened with a performance of "Unsightly Drag", a creation of Quiplash featuring these amazing queer and disabled drag performers:  Tito Bone, Romeo De La Cruz, Midgitte Bardot
• We also moderated a panel on "Disability, Culture, and Access" with these wonderful humans: Kirsty Liddiard, Daniel Jones, Kelsie Acton

We've been lucky enough to work with one of our DPOs - Sheffield Voices - to produce an Easy Read write up of our launch event which you can download from the link below:

Download the Easy Read write up of our WAARC launch event in December 2024 (PDF, 2.45 MB)