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The Disability Matters team are committed to supporting the career development of disabled and disability-positive researchers around the world. 

We help curate Disability Dialogues which showcases emerging scholarship and support initiatives such as the White Rose Disability Network, a collective of Post-Graduate and early career researchers, activists, and advocates based across the White Rose Universities. We are committed to building a positive and inclusive research culture. 

The Inclusion Leadership Research Interest Group hosted an event on Thursday 19th June 2025, entitled â€˜The Depathologising º£½ÇÉçÇø’. The RIG’s Co-Convenors, Dr Beth Holmes, Dr Wendy Conrad and Dr Donnie Adams, were joined by guest speaker, Professor Dan Goodley, Professor of Disability Studies and Education in the º£½ÇÉçÇø of Sheffield’s School of Education, who discussed his work in the field of Critical Disability Studies, and the ways in which academics, researchers and research professional colleagues are depathologising the disablist and ableist university.

We will be organising an International Exchange which will facilitate collaboration across universities. In 2025 we will be sharing a call to Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers about the details this international exchange.  We are also involved in a number of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Institutes which bring together doctoral researchers and early career researchers to showcase their work. Thus far, these have included:

Winter Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2024 - To trial arrangements around the institute and summer school, the Disability Matters team have teamed up with Aarhus º£½ÇÉçÇø to deliver an  We will be exploring different materials, pedagogy and access arrangements.

Spring Institute in Toronto, Canada, May 2025  - we built on the work in Copenhagen and our Co-Investigator Professor Tanya Titchkosky and the Doing Disability Differently team in OISE, º£½ÇÉçÇø of Toronto put together a hybrid event focused on ways of perceiving and interpretivist disability approaches in research. 

All of this feeds into our new Global Leaders in Disability and Health Research Mentoring Programme  which will work with 10 disabled researchers from across the world.  In years 5 and 6, we will draw on our transformative knowledge to support five grant applications led by our PDRAs, working in collaboration with disabled people. And we will hold weekly meeting with these new scholars.

Theorising Disability, Researching Disability and Engaging Publics Online Courses (lectures, blogs, workshops) will introduce contemporary developments in disability and health research. The PI and CoIs of Disability Matters - along with their host universities - have signed up to a Mandate for Researcher Development and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Towards Supportive Research Environments that commits us to: 

• An inclusive recruitment process for the Research Associates /early career researchers and Programme Manager that actively seeks applications from individuals with lived experience of disability and those from black, neurodiverse and LGBTQ+ backgrounds (from job advertisement to recruitment processes – and in line with HR practices);
• Provide PDRAs/Project Manager with bespoke Research/Career Mentors;
  Ensure PDRAs are given leadership opportunities in relation to scholarship, empirical work, analysis and dissemination which are reviewed through annual review processes; Ensure the Programme Manager is given opportunities for career development including shadowing and mentoring;
• Develop a new Global Leaders in Disability and Health Research Mentoring Programme that builds on our mentoring of our Co-investigator, Singh, the PDRAs and the Programme Manager and open to 10 additional disabled researchers from across the world.
• Support PDRAs to lead their own grant applications in years 5 and 6;
• Adopt an inclusive approach to participant recruitment to ensure that our research captures the perspectives of disabled people from some of the most marginalised communities;
• Enhance the involvement of disabled people and their organisations in health research through our International Research Advisory Board;
• Support the concurrent commitments of the Universities involved in this project to EDI (including disability, race, gender, sexuality) by sharing our good practice with senior colleagues through committees/working groups;
• Promote literacy in relation to research integrity (Open Access, Open Data/Management).

We are working with our PDRAs and Programme Manager on a bespoke programme of career development activities that have equality, diversity and inclusion as a central concern. At the start of each year and in subsequent annual reviews, at least 10 days of development activities will be agreed with colleagues to avail themselves of specific support from our universities. 

Our aspirations are clear; Disability Matters seeks to interrogate and embody Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in health and science. We are committed to the creation of anti-ableist research cultures wherein disabled researcher and research professionals can thrive and flourish.