EOWG Introduction: Sarah Lewthwaite

Hi EOWG colleagues,

I’d like to introduce myself, as I’m delighted to be joining the EOWG, moving across from the Curricula Taskforce. I’m Sarah Lewthwaite. I’m based at the Centre for Research in Inclusion at the Southampton Education School, University of Southampton, UK. I’m a senior research fellow and I lead the “Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set” study<https://teachingaccessibility.ac.uk/> as principal investigator. The research is supported by UK Research and Innovation. I’m working with team members Sarah Horton and Andy Coverdale, on a 5-year mission to explore accessibility pedagogy, focussed specifically on how accessibility is taught in a range of contexts, in higher education and the workplace. I’m always looking for ways to extend this work so please get in touch if you’re interested in collaborating. (Please also consider responding to our current call for papers on accessibility education with Frontiers<https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/34619/advancing-digital-accessibility-in-academic-and-workplace-education>!).

My professional background has been supporting access to education in schools and in universities. My PhD in Learning Sciences was about student experiences of disability and social media; and my subsequent work has interrelated critical disability theory with accessibility, alongside advocacy to protect grant funding for students with disabilities in UK Higher Education.  I’ve also held positions at the UK National Centre for Research Methods, and have a longstanding focus on disability, inclusive research methods, online learning and higher education.

I look forward to joining you on the next EOWG meeting tomorrow and contributing to your vital work.

Best wishes,
Sarah

Dr Sarah Lewthwaite (she/her)
Senior Research Fellow & UKRI Future Leaders Fellow,
Centre for Research in Inclusion<https://www.southampton.ac.uk/education/research/centres/centre-for-research-in-inclusion.page>, Southampton Education School,
University of Southampton.

Principal Investigator: Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteachingaccessibility.ac.uk%2F&data=04%7C01%7CS.E.Lewthwaite%40soton.ac.uk%7C07e09a08adcc4269443508d9a442dc50%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637721429330399790%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=3MSL%2F1%2BmjiMOKr%2FXVXmf9Cq1SM%2B1X2RGPcUR0MZ6ls4%3D&reserved=0>
Topic editor: Frontiers ‘Advancing Digital Accessibility in Academic and Workplace Education’<https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/34619/advancing-digital-accessibility-in-academic-and-workplace-education>
Latest paper: W4A ‘Teaching accessibility as a shared endeavour: building capacity across academic and workplace contexts<https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3493612.3520451>’.