As part of the Midlands Research Culture Webinar series, we are pleased to share details of the next session:
Accessibility in the workplace with Dr Katherine Deane | 2nd December 2026 | Online MS Teams | 11:00-12:00
We know disability access in workplaces (and particularly laboratories) is poor, but it can feel daunting to address this problem. Where do you start? How much will it cost? Does it really make that much difference? Dr Katherine Deane will provide an enthusiastic call to action drawing on her many years of disability access advocacy and research. She will offer a brief outline of the theories informing this work, and then progress into practical advice on how you can implement these ideals in practice and drive the access agenda forward in your institution.
Dr Katherine Deane is Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich and is also a wheelchair user with a variety of long-term conditions. She conducts research on the co-created management of long-term conditions and disabilities. She is also the University’s Access Ambassador and has improved the accessibility of their campus substantially in the last 12 years. She has provided access advice to a wide variety of institutions, funders, manufacturers, and event organisers. She conducted a survey of lab access in 2023 and created a suite of lab access guidelines. She is currently working on a range of research projects worth £9.5 million evaluating how to implement and evidence EDI best practice in research.
We hope you can join us for this practical and thought-provoking session. Please do share with colleagues who may be interested in the topic.
