Preface

In September 2017, Nicole came across an announcement for a symposium in the United States of America that would explore investigate academic ableism and the notion that disability in higher education is conceptualised as a problem in need of a solution, rather than a different way of working. Unfortunately, unless you were in the very lecture room at that particular university in America at the time, there was no way to be involved in the symposium, nor was it possible to have access to any materials from it. The irony of this academic ableism was not lost on us; and the idea for a different kind of academic ableism event in the UK was born. The aim would be to have an event that would be "fully accessible at all levels" and that would produce concrete outcomes, of which an edited book would be one. This event would not be, yet another, symposium or conference that left delegates feeling that nothing had changed or been achieved once it had ended.