Disabled staff networks driving action
The National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN) celebrated its tenth birthday in 2024.
It was founded through a groundbreaking one-day national conference in 2014. Although primarily aimed at universities, the network also includes a wide range of public sector organisations, including NHS Trusts. NADSN aims to connect and represent disabled staff networks in organisations across the UK and is also expanding to include organisations outside the UK. It continues to be a strong grassroots voice for disabled staff organising in their workplaces.
NADSN has a STEMM Action Group which is a group of disabled scientists and disabled people in STEMM. It has developed a problem statement about the inaccessibility of science in terms of attitudes, environment, funding and inflexibility in higher education and science. The problem statement has been shared with funders including the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society and others. NADSN is now developing and disseminating recommendations via a White Paper, aiming to catalyse funders and institutions into action about disability-inclusion and accessibility in science, so that equity of opportunity enables anyone to participate fully in science. The recommendations cover three broad themes:
- Enabling inclusive cultures and practices;
- Enhancing accessible physical and digital environments; and
- Accessible and proactive funding.
Why should we be stopping young people, whether they're disabled or not, from coming into science if they have that passion, if they have that curiosity, why are those barriers in their way? What great discoveries they could make! We are denying the world the great things that those young people could do. It's about bringing those opportunities into practice and into reality鈥� That's what we're campaigning for, but nothing's going to happen if we don't get support from the funding bodies and from learned societies and others who can really influence this.