Professor Sam Howison explores how an institution like Oxford University can build accessible environments, highlighting the complexities, evolving needs, and broad benefits of inclusive design. The experience of our students and staff as they study and work is wholly bound up with the environment – physical and technical as well as social and cultural – in which we all do these things. The range of capabilities in interacting with our work environment is enormous and multidimensional. Individuals change over time. The whole question is very far from being answerable in a binary way: A has a certain disability, B does not.

At this year’s Annual Disability lecture, Professor Sam Howison will consider how an institution like Oxford University might think about these issues as it maintains, refurbishes and rebuilds its workplace. He will explore some of the challenges, complexities and compromises involved, starting from the premise that the beneficiaries of ‘accessible by design’, are far greater in number than simple regulatory compliance would suggest.

British Sign Language interpretation is provided for the lecture, but is not available for the final Vote of Thanks.

About the speaker:

Professor Sam Howison is an applied mathematician with a deep interest in using mathematics to help understand the world around us. His research interests are in mathematical modelling and applications of differential equations in a wide variety of topics; recent projects include models of heat transfer in electrochemical furnaces, melting of Arctic sea ice, and the microstructure of Bitcoin markets. Professor Howison has served as Head of the Mathematical Institute and, more recently, as Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences division at Oxford University, as well as serving in several national organisations, including the new Academy of Mathematical Sciences. He is currently enjoying a return to teaching at Christ Church and in the Mathematical Institute.

Professor Howison said: “I am delighted to have been invited to give this year’s Disability Lecture. I had the great good fortune to be Head of the Mathematical Institute during the construction of the wonderful Andrew Wiles Building and this kindled an interest in the user-facing aspects of design, which are critical for those of all abilities. I look forward to sharing this interest at the lecture.”

Additional content:

- There is a transcript available to download including selected graphics from the slides.

- Also, Professor Howison's full slides are available to download.

- If you are using a podcasts service like Apple Podcasts or Spotify and wish to download these files, please visit the episode page on the Oxford University Podcasts website and use the links there: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/2025-disability-lecture-building-environment-all

Oxford and Harvard alumna Beth Kume-Holland shares her personal journey from Oxford undergraduate and researcher to award-winning CEO and international disability rights advocate. Disabled people make up 24% of the UK population and 1.85 billion people globally, but all too often disability and accessibility are afterthoughts across institutions, business and society. Beth Kume-Holland will delve into some of the key issues around disability and accessibility, why it matters and crucially, how we can each play our part to make institutions and society more accessible, with some practical tips that we can all implement immediately. 

Please note the BSL signing mentioned is not available on this video.

About Beth:

Named one of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK by the Shaw Trust, Beth is an award-winning social entrepreneur and passionate advocate for disability inclusion. She is the founder of Patchwork Hub, a disabled-led social enterprise providing an accessible jobs board, bespoke recruitment services and training and consultancy for employers. A graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and a Harvard University Kennedy Scholar, Beth has previously worked for Scope, Oxford University and Citibank, is a co-founder of the Disabled Entrepreneurs Network and was recently announced as a Commissioner on the UK's Independent Commission on Healthier Working Lives. 

Beth's website: https://www.bethkh.com/

Patchwork Hub website: https://patchworkhub.org/

Dr Jessica Boland shares her experiences as a hard-of-hearing/deaf academic in science and technology, and her passion for improving accessibility in higher education. Oxford University Annual Disability Lecture 2023

'Terahertz, Topology and Telecoil Loops: Going beyond standards’

Dr Jessica Boland (https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/jessica.boland) is an award-winning Lecturer and UKRI Future Leader Fellow in electrical engineering at the University of Manchester. She is passionate about improving accessibility in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). An active member of Tigers in STEMM (https://www.tigerinstemm.org/home), she features in the Royal Society’s series Celebrating scientists with disabilities (https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/scientists-with-disabilities/).

Dr Boland details her career journey from a physics undergraduate to an electrical engineering lecturer at the University of Manchester. She shares her experiences as a hard-of-hearing/deaf academic working in STEMM. She discusses pushing beyond standards – both in her research, where she is exploring new topological quantum materials for technology, and in her everyday working life, striving for accessibility in higher education.

To download a transcript of the 2023 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2023-06-14-admin-2023-disability-boland-TRANSCRIPT.pdf

Transcript - Microsoft Word version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2023-06-14-admin-2023-disability-boland-TRANSCRIPT.docx

Dr Amy Kavanagh delivers the 2022 Annual Disability Lecture 2022 Disability Lecture

Dr Amy Kavanagh - Hands Off: Navigating unwanted touch, consent and disability

From Dr Kavanagh's introduction:

"So this lecture today is going to be an exploration of the disabled experience of unwanted touch, forced help and consent. I'm drawing on my lived experience as a blind activist, but I am also grateful to the hundreds of disabled people who have shared their stories, reflections and thoughts about their own experiences with me over the years. This lecture draws on the themes and consistent tropes surrounding unwanted touch and forced help. In doing so, I'd hope to draw some parallels between some of the wider challenges of also navigating cultural, social and economic disableism."

To download a transcript of the 2022 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download)

Transcript - Microsoft Word version (download)

Dr Hamied Haroon explores the intersections of disability, science and academia. All views expressed in the lecture are the speaker’s own. To download a transcript of the 2021 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download)

Dr Kate West, a neurodivergent student-turned-academic, reflects on the neurotypical University. To download a transcript of the 2020 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2020-05-27_kate_west_annual_transcript.pdf

Dr Kate West, a neurodivergent student-turned-academic, reflects on the neurotypical University. To download a transcript of the 2020 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download) https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/admin/disability/2020-05-27_kate_west_annual_transcript.pdf

Jay Abdullahi and Kym Oliver, a team of two black disabled women, reclaim the word ‘cripple’ in their fight against three layers of discrimination. This year’s University of Oxford Disability Lecturers are Jay Abdullahi and Kym Oliver, a team of two black disabled women determined to reclaim the word ‘cripple’ in their fight against three layers of discrimination. Jay is a 29 year old Nigerian Londoner with polio and scoliosis, and Kym is a 32 year old African and Caribbean Black woman who lives in London and has multiple sclerosis. Jay and Kym, The Triple Cripples, aim to increase the visibility and highlight the narratives of women, femmes and non-binary people of colour living with disabilities. Expect hard truths and lots of laughter in a wide-ranging discussion of unconscious bias, racism, and the lived experience of physical disabilities.

The Equality and Diversity Unit and TORCH are delighted to announce that Gwyneth Lewis will give the 2018 Disability Lecture. From Gwyneth Lewis's introduction to her lecture:

"All good education should cause what feels like an intellectual nervous breakdown in the student. Otherwise, the institution isn’t doing its job of challenging them to abandon old ideas and to grow. For the vast majority of students, this is a benign crisis, somewhat stressful, but which can, nevertheless, can be negotiated. What you don’t want is an actual breakdown. Then it is the duty of the university and the NHS to catch the bodies as they fall."

To download a transcript of the 2018 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download)

 

Professor Linda Gask had a successful career as psychiatrist and academic, despite living with depression and anxiety. She speaks with candour about her experiences of periods of mental ill-health. From Professor Gask's introduction to her lecture:

"I’ve always had an interest in people with common mental health problems – with depression, anxiety, eating problems – rather than more severe mental health problems such as schizophrenia. My interest has been in the people who don’t or do get help in primary care. Only about 10% or less of people with mental health problems are treated in the mental health services, although many of my younger colleagues find it very hard to believe that GPS treat the majority of people with mental health problems. So that’s been my interest and I taught medical students, I taught junior doctors, all of the things that one would expect, but as well as that I’ve been a patient and I’ve been a patient in terms of my mental health ever since I was in medical school."

To download a transcript of the 2016 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):

Transcript - PDF version (download)