Why we all benefit from disability inclusion

Facilitated by Jackie Carter

24% of the working-age population are disabled (Labour Force Survey, 2025). It is estimated that 80% of disabilities or long-term conditions are hidden.

In the webinar ‘Why we all benefit from disability inclusion” Jackie will speak about her own struggles being a disabled women, how she has worked to demystify disability at the University of Manchester, and offer a provocation for why we need to all improve our efforts in this space. She will draw on her Let’s Talk Disability podcast, her lived experience and the work she has led on to hold those in positions of influence and power to account. It will be an open and honest conversation – and comes with a strong trigger warning – but the aim is to go beyond paying lip service to disability inclusion and give it the attention it deserves in the EDI space. She will also draw on findings from her latest book “Practitioner, Professor, Researcher, Reformer: Women’s Atypical Stories” to reflect on the multiple and intersectional nature of disadvantage, and encourage discussion around how we can all learn from listening to others, being positive disruptors, and becoming torchbearers for the minoritised and marginalised.”

About the facilitator 

Jackie self-describes as deaf, dizzy and disabled and as an atypical academic of working-class heritage. Since 2023 she has been the academic lead for EDI Disability at the University of Manchester and is a Disability Inclusion champion. She was named a Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 winner in 2023 in the Education category and won a Culture Shift award in 2025 for her commitment to leadership in Disability Inclusion. Jackie is also known for creating the Let’s Talk Disability podcast series which moves from dialogue to action through conversations with staff at the university. Most recently she presented the findings from this initiative in a paper called Let’s Talk Disability: A Podcast with a Purpose to a Disability Rights workshop. Jackie has written books, given academic and industry presentations, inspired strategic change in her own institution and is involved with disability inclusion at a national level.