Disability History Month 2023

Students' Union VP Welfare and Community, Laura Bold, talks about what we're doing to support our disabled community at Bath Spa, and how you can help us do better.

This year Disability History Month runs from 16 November to 16 December.

Disability History Month (DHM) is an annual event which creates a platform to focus on the history of our struggle for equality and human rights. Its key purposes include raising awareness of the unequal position of disabled people in society and to advocate for disability equality, as well as to develop an understanding of the historical roots of this inequality, and to highlight the ‘social model’ of disability – among other aims and principles. 

This year, the Students’ Union is working with the University to support a programme of events for DHM – including the DHM 'Equali-tea’ café, online sessions, and a film screening hosted by the Disabled Students’ Network - but we are also committed to advocating for our disabled students and building a more accessible SU and University year-round. 

One of our charitable aims at Bath Spa SU is to promote the interests and welfare of students studying at Bath Spa and to represent, support and advise them.  

This year, the Students’ Union is working with the University to support a programme of events for DHM, but we are also committed to advocating for our disabled students and building a more accessible SU and University year-round.

As a part of this aim, we have set up a Networks Forum where network leaders meet and discuss equalities issues (and solutions) at Bath Spa. Leaders from Disabled Student’s Network attended the first forum earlier this semester and raised several points/suggestions concerning accessibility at BSU including: 

• Limited number of emergency wheelchairs at Newton Park 
• Heavy doors across campus  
• Possibly putting in a third bus stop between Commons and Library (at the corner of the green) 
• Out of date info on the AccessAble App 

...as well as lots of other constructive points from all the networks in attendance.

We’re really pleased to report back that this feedback has been listened to. Estates and Facilities have bought an additional emergency wheelchair which is kept in the Security Lodge, and a conversation about an additional bus stop has been opened up between Head of Estates and the Duchy (Newton Park Campus is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall).  

We’re launching a survey to improve accessibility on campus 

AccessAble is an app which contains information about accessibility of venues across the country. Bath Spa’s pages on the app are currently outdated. If you’d like to help us improve our campuses and make them more accessible, please complete the survey and tell us: 

• Are certain buildings wheelchair accessible? 
• Does your classroom have an automatic door? 
• Is there a hearing loop in your lecture hall? 
• And anything else!