External Disability News

Contributions by University staff/student reps:

Feb 2021:

The Shaw Trust Power 100 - annual publication containing the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK (NASDN article).

Dec 2020:

Am I disabled? With my pen hovering over a form, there is no easy answer: better to provoke stigma with support, or resist classification? (Aeon article).

Nov 2020:

25 years ago the DDA was passed, a landmark piece of legislation which ensured, for the first time, that disabled people had civil rights (BBC article).

Oct 2020:

Ableism in Academia: Theorising Experiences of Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in Higher Education.

Words Matter, And It’s Time To Explore The Meaning Of “Ableism.” (artilce in the Forbes magazine).

Feb 2020:

Disabled staff can add “different cognitive skills” to your team (article in HR Review).

Dec 2019:

The Royal Society Celebrating scientists with disabilities.

Aug 2017:

Without accessible conferences, we lose the voices of disabled academics (article in The Guardian).

Man down: why do so many suffer depression in silence? (article in The Guardian).

July 2017:

As a deaf student, I'm used to being excluded. Universities must do better. What is it like being deaf at university? There’s no universal experience – but institutions need to do more to accommodate us (article in The Guardian).

June 2017:

From Syria to St Andrews (20 Jun 2017)

Haian Dhukan left Syria in 2012 to study his PhD in International Relations at the University. Since then the ISIS takeover of Palmyra forced his family to flee – eventually reaching Southern Turkey with a caravan of refugees. Today Haian graduated with his PhD following a thesis entitled: Syrian Regime and Arab Tribes: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns in Contemporary Syria. He was joined by his son, who was born in the UK while Haian was studying.

Haian said: “My St Andrews experience has been amazing. When I came to do my PhD I didn’t expect that I would be graduating with my son here at the same time as well.  

A wheelchair user since childhood due to a physical disability, Haian has also used his time in St Andrews to highlight access issues faced by disabled people. He set up The St Andrews Access Group (SAAG), which has worked with the University’s equality and diversity officer to create a webpage called ‘Reporting accessibility difficulties across Fife’. Haian commented: “The University has made good progress in making many of their buildings accessible".

April 2016: