Disabled staff in UK universities are delivering a clear and urgent message: inclusion is still too often an aspiration rather than a lived reality.
I self‑describe as deaf and disabled. At a recent EDI event on intersectionality, I felt excluded, frustrated, and unable to fully participate. I reflected that giving voice to my experiences could lead to change. (Jackie Carter)
Early findings from the first National Disabled Staff Survey (NDSS), completed by 837 disabled staff across 127 institutions in 2025, expose deep structural barriers that undermine wellbeing, career progression, and retention. RIDE Higher, a new initiative emerging from the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN), has led this research to ensure that disabled staff voices shape understanding and action across the sector.
This work comes at a pivotal moment. Alongside the NDSS, the launch of Advance HE’s Inclusive Institutions Framework gives universities a coherent structure for embedding inclusion across their organisations. Together, these developments represent a rare alignment of evidence, lived experience, and institutional infrastructure. They also reveal the gap between intentions and outcomes, and signal what must now change.
How collaboration between RIDE Higher and Advance HE took shape
The spark for this collaboration was lived experience: the recognition that stories like the opening quote are not isolated incidents, but part of a patterned, systemic problem across the sector. Colleagues within NADSN had long been aware that disability inclusion was often the “poorer cousin” of other protected characteristics, with no staff‑focused charter equivalent to Athena Swan or the Race Equality Charter. Data on staff experience was limited, and disabled staff were frequently expected to navigate systems not designed with them in mind.
In response, disabled staff came together to create RIDE Higher (Realising the Inclusion of Disabled Employees in Higher Education), a peer‑led initiative committed to collecting evidence, building capacity, and strengthening the voices of disabled staff. In parallel, Advance HE was developing a whole‑institution approach to EDI through its new Inclusive Institutions Framework, shaped primarily through extensive consultation with more than 450 stakeholders and situated within the wider sector landscape of inclusion research and practice. The shared desire to close the gap between rhetoric and reality created the foundation for partnership.
What disabled staff are telling us
The NDSS findings paint a stark picture of life for disabled colleagues working in UK higher education.
Some forty-four per cent of respondents have considered leaving their job because of poor disability inclusion, most within the past year. Nearly one‑third say disability has negatively influenced how colleagues perceive their career potential.
Across 120 institutions, staff report fragmented support services and unclear processes. And in 121, respondents rated their university’s responsibility for providing an inclusive working environment as poor.
Leadership visibility, transparency around available support, and the quality of disability‑inclusion training were consistently criticised – and a persistent gap between support for disabled students and disabled staff left many feeling undervalued or overlooked.
These findings sit against wider sector patterns. Although disability declaration rates have risen to 7.2 per cent, disabled staff remain underrepresented in senior roles. Only 7.1 per cent of disabled academic staff are professors, compared with ten to twelve per cent of non‑disabled peers. Many also undertake significant “hidden labour” to secure basic adjustments, labour that contributes to exhaustion, slower career progression, and feelings of exclusion.
Put simply: the barriers are not isolated incidents. They are structural.
What universities need to do next
The NDSS evidence points directly to the areas where institutions are falling short, and where meaningful action must begin.
Providers need to make accessibility the default. Disabled staff should not have to fight for adjustments or repeatedly navigate opaque systems. Accessibility must be embedded into HR processes, digital infrastructure, events, and estates management. Proactive inclusive design is cheaper, fairer, and more efficient than retrofitting.
There is a need to strengthen leadership and accountability. Many respondents did not know who held responsibility for disability inclusion. Universities should identify clear institutional leads, publish transparent support pathways, and track progress against measurable indicators, just as they do in other strategic areas.
We need to join up support for staff and students. The stark disparity between staff and student support signals a cultural problem. Integrated approaches reduce fragmentation, lessen administrative burdens, and reinforce that inclusion is a shared institutional value rather than a student‑only concern.
From chasing adjustments to educating colleagues, disabled staff spend disproportionate time on navigating systems. Universities must streamline processes, strengthen coordination across HR, estates, occupational health and IT, and ensure that line managers are trained and empowered to act – to reduce the amount of hidden labour required of disabled staff.
With the Inclusive Institutions Framework now available, institutions have a tool for proportionate, evidence‑informed action, even during financial constraints. Inclusion should be part of risk management, workload allocation, and strategic planning — not an optional add‑on.
A new model for systemic change
RIDE Higher is now positioning itself as a “go‑to” resource for disabled staff, managers, and EDI leads. It is building a community of practice, developing resources, and strengthening the evidence base that has long been lacking. Advance HE’s Inclusive Institutions Framework, in parallel, provides a structured way for universities to act on that evidence — holistically, sustainably, and with institutional buy‑in.
In March 2026, RIDE Higher and Advance HE will present together at the Advance HE EDI Conference, showcasing what becomes possible when lived experience expertise is paired with sector‑wide infrastructure and strategic commitment.
We believe this partnership is not only timely — it is essential. It demonstrates a model that the sector must now embrace: evidence plus lived experience plus institutional commitment will lead to meaningful change.
Whatever your role, you can act now to audit your accessibility using tools such as UCU’s event accessibility checklist, and fix what you find. You could use use Advance HE’s Inclusive Institutions Framework to identify priorities and take proportionate, sustainable steps
And you need to listen to disabled staff, perhaps by engaging with networks like NADSN or resources such as the Let’s Talk Disability podcast.
Disability inclusion is everyone’s responsibility, and today is the day to start. The question for each of us, and each institution, is simple: what will you do next?
The authors are grateful for the significant contributions of their colleagues Jackie Carter and Melanie Best to this article and to colleagues from RIDE Higher and Advance HE.