Annual Disability Lecture 2025
Building an Environment for All
Catch up on the Annual Disability Lecture 2025 given by Professor Sam Howison
Sam is a brilliant scholar and his lecture was inspiring and informative. I hope my own institution will have lectures like this in future.
Disability Lecture Audience member
The Staff Disability Advisory Group organised the event which was held at the Blavatnik School of Government and online on 15 May. They were supported by the Equality and Diversity Unit.
The Vice Chancellor opened the lecture, introducing Professor Sam Howison and saying, “The University does not consider compliance with regulations as sufficient. Oxford’s Accessibility Design Philosophy Document goes beyond Government regulations, aiming for an inclusive environment where all can independently access and use facilities. The key word here is ‘independently’. Maximising independent access for disabled people is at the heart of inclusive design.”
Through his lecture, Professor Howison proposed that inclusive, accessible design can benefit everyone. He began by illustrating the variety and variance of human anatomy through an investigation of a human eye and ear. He then presented a “day-in-the-life” experience within the context of Oxford, drawing on his own lived experience of independent access.
Reflecting on the Lecture, Mathematics student Sofia Medina said:
“We moved with Professor Howison to the doors of his office building. He reflected on keypads, staircases, ambient noise, illumination, and induction loops. As a DPhil student in mathematics myself, it was striking to perceive the same building that I have experienced for the past four years with a fresh perspective. I was reminded of my own experiences following my hip surgeries, the days of missing lectures due to broken lifts and summoning the courage to ask unsuspecting passers-by to open heavy doors without automatic access controls. Impediments to my education and barriers to me that did not cross the minds of those who had yet to experience them.”
“While the challenges of accessibility vary from person to person, the lecture left the audience with universal questions: How are we approaching the world in the sense that it can account for our natural variability? How do we design a world that works not just for the average, but for everyone?”
Elizabeth Frood, Associate Professor of Egyptology at Oxford, closed the lecture saying, “I feel very privileged to be in this space, to thank Sam for articulating such a powerful call to arms for the University, which placed the individual body at the centre, and I loved that.”
An audio and video recording of the lecture, with full transcript and slides available to download, can be found on the University’s Podcast website.
