Disability Matters Town Hall Circus

The Disability Matters online town hall circus is a series of annual knowledge exchange events. Town halls are used by universities as platforms for providing policy updates and gathering feedback from staff and students. However, town halls are often inaccessible to disabled people. The idea of an online town hall circus is to challenge ableist notions of conventional town halls and instead reimagine how these gatherings might be transformed into accessible spaces that cultivate joy, wonder, and care.

The town hall circus forms part of the knowledge exchange activities for Phase 7 which focuses on transforming equity, diversity, and inclusion through disability.

 The first town hall circus event will be led by the Sheffield team. It asks the question ‘How does centring disability drive innovative change and expand equity, diversity and inclusion in health research?’ 

Future town hall circus events will be hosted by other partner sites at later dates.

The format of the town hall circus will be as follows:

• First Act (20 minutes): Four presentations (5 minutes x 4) from the Sheffield team that ask questions of the audience
• Access break (5 minutes)
• Second Act (10 minutes): Q&A chaired by Dan (10 minutes) - A chance for participants/audience to respond to the First Act and also pose their own questions
• Transition break (2 minutes)
• Third Act (30 minutes): Compass session - identifies our direction of research - and continues our conversation now with our panel members in the form of a panel discussion (15 minutes) and open plenary (15 minutes)
• Close (3 minutes)
• Access break (5 minute)
• Optional Rafting session for aftercare and reflections (10 minutes)

Time zones

We are a pan-national programme and welcome attendees from all over the world.

Please check the time of the event according to the your local time zone as it may differ from what is listed on the event page.

Padlet

We are using Padlet to enable asynchronous engagement and networking at this event.

After registering, you will receive an invitation to participate on the Padlet boards. The networking lounge is where participants can find and connect with others with similar interests. The discussion board is where participants can submit comments and questions relating to the theme of the event. 

For safety and confidentiality reasons, we ask that participants refrain from sharing sensitive data and personal information on Padlet and use only professional contact details such as institutional email addresses, professional networking profiles (e.g. LinkedIn) and professional social media accounts. See Using Padlet for more details.

The Padlet boards are password-protected and accessible only via the link shared in the confirmation email. For privacy reasons, please do not share the link or password with anyone else. Duplication of content from the Padlet boards including screen captures will also not be permitted.

The Padlet boards will open one week before the event and close one week after the event.

For further information on engagement and data privacy, see Ensuring accessibility, safety, and privacy at our events .

Access

When you purchase a ticket, you will receive a confirmation email containing the Zoom video link. You will receive a second reminder email closer to the event.

BSL interpretation and live captioning will be supporting the event. Written copies of the speaker’s talks will be made available before the event on our Disability Matters Scholarship Collection.

Attendees are welcome to join or leave the event at any time. Participating in the Q&A and discussion is optional.

A recording of the talks will be available after the event.  BSL interpretation and Q&A discussions will not be recorded.

If you have other specific access needs or have further questions about access, please contact us.