Disability Awareness Fortnight

Welcome to this year’s Disability Awareness Fortnight (DAF) campaign, coinciding with the UK’s national Disability History Month. This year’s campaign celebrates our student body’s diversity across hidden and visible disabilities such as neurodivergence, chronic illness, mobility, and others.

Our Disability Awareness Fortnight takes place from 1-14 December and is facilitated by our student-led organising committee. Members from across Queen Mary’s campuses have put together incredible content and events across three strands: panel discussions, social activities, and web content.

Take part in enthralling events including a winter holiday social with the Neurodivergent Society, a panel discussion between Queen Mary academics and postgraduate researchers highlighting their disability research, a braille-based treasure hunt, and more!

Explore our merch and our web content including fidget toys, student spotlights, and disability debunking Instagram posts. Come celebrate with us!

DAF Organising Committee and Matthew Beach, VP Communities

Upcoming Events

Braille Workshop and Scavenger Hunt: 12th December noon - 1pm; Blomeley Room 2; Free | Disability Awareness Fortnight

Disabilities Society: End of Term Board Games at Bad Moon Café: 13th December 3pm - 5pm; Bad Moon Cafe; Disability Awareness Fortnight

SWD & DAF: End-of-Term Board Games: 13th December 3pm - 5pm; Bad Moon Café - near Borough Station; Unwind at the end of the term with this fun board games event!; Alcohol Free | Clubs & Societies | Fun stuff | Free | Disability Awareness Fortnight

see all events

Support and resources

Disability and Dyslexia Service (DDS)

Confidential advice, guidance and support for disabled students, including those with mental health conditions, Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and Specific Learning Differences such as dyslexia.

The service can provide support including one to one skills support, reasonable adjustments such as exam arrangements, screenings for Specific Learning Differences, mental health mentoring, support with applying for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) and more.

Click here

Liberation at the Students’ Union

At the Students' Union we recognise that forms of structural oppression marginalise some groups of students, including BAME, LGBT+, trans, disabled and women students. Each year, we elect two self-defining Disabled and SLD Representatives for Mile End and Barts and The London and who work to improve the experiences of disabled students by lobbying the University and leading campaigns and events.

View your representatives

Digital Library

Books

Books – Fiction

A Room Called Earth by Madeline Ryan (Autism)
One Two Three by Laurie Frankel (Autism, Wheelchair use, communication device)
So Lucky by Nicola Griffith (Multiple Sclerosis)
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (Chronic Pain)
My Heart to Find by Elin Annalise (Lyme Disease)
Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai (Anxiety and PTSD)
Pages I Never Wrote by Marco Donati (Dyspraxia)
A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard (Hearing Impairment)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Autism)

Books – Non-fiction

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century Edited by Alice Wong
Sitting Pretty: The View from my Ordinary Resilient Body by Rebekah Taussig
What The **** Is Normal? by Francesca Martinez
The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid
Odd Girl Out: An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World by Laura James
An Adult with an Autism Diagnosis: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed by Gillan Drew