As we come to the end of Disability History Month, we would like to thank the Disability and Mental Health Staff Network, and its chair Professor Anica Zeyen, for organising such incredible events over the past month.
We kicked off the month with a sighted guide training session ran by Guide Dogs for the Blind. It was a fantastic session focused on a people-centred approach to support and guidance. The session was so popular that we will be running another two sessions in 2024!
Our next event focused on this year’s theme for Disability History Month – Childhood and Youth. Two guest speakers, Dr Amy Kavanagh and Pippa Stacey came to talk to us alongside the Students' Union’s Disabled Students’ Community Officer, Alana Penney. The speakers covered topics such as disabled joy, the need for community, and self-advocacy. You can learn more about Alana and her role in our recent get to know interview.
Our final event of the month was organised in collaboration with De Montfort University and the Women in Academia Support Network. As a University we funded British sign language interpretation for this panel event, and our own Professor Anica Zeyen took part. The panel was incredibly insightful and fantastic to watch.
Not only have we been busy organising events, but we have been working on increasing and continuing support for our disabled and neurodiverse community. In light of this, we are very pleased to announce that Royal Holloway has been accredited as a Disability Confident Leader. This means that we play a leading role in changing attitudes towards disability. We are committed to continuing to recruit, retain, and support disabled students and staff.
We are also very proud to launch a new video on Disability Awareness at Royal Holloway, featuring some of the disabled members of our community talking about our culture around accessibility, the obstacles they commonly face, and what non-disabled community members can do to be better allies. This video was produced alongside another which aims to provide prospective students and staff with information around support for access needs. Both were produced by our own Media Arts students, and we thank them and all participants for supporting this project.
Finally, we would like highlight the Disability and Neurodiversity Service. The team are there to support all students who have disclosed a disability, long standing medical condition, specific learning difficulty or mental health condition. The advisers can help co-ordinate the right support for each individual student, including liaising with academic departments, external providers or specialist support services. They run a fantastic service, so if you think you may benefit from their support, please do get in touch.
Thank you for all your support throughout Disability History Month 2023 and your attendence at our events.
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team