Faculty and staff with disabilities are part of an often invisible group on campus. While Services for Students with Disabilities offers programming to connect and support students with disabilities, there is no similar resource available to faculty and staff with disabilities. A group of UT faculty and staff with disabilities are interested in changing that by gathering people from across campus to connect, support and make ourselves known as part of the identity and diversity of UT. This group’s definition of disability is broad and includes any faculty or staff member who self-identifies as having a disability or condition that has or may create barriers in participating in aspects of daily life.

There are currently five identity-based faculty/staff associations, which are also known on campus as University Resource Groups (Asian/Asian American Faculty and Staff Association, Black Faculty and Staff Association, Faculty Women’s Association, Hispanic Faculty/Staff Association, Pride and Equity Faculty Staff Association) and we would like to explore the interest in creating a similar group for faculty and staff with disabilities. Possible goals or benefits of a group could include sharing experiences, providing connection and support, advocating for changes, raising the awareness of the presence and the capabilities of people with disabilities on our campus.

If you are interested in learning more forgetting involved in the creation of this group, please feel out this survey so we can contact you to move forward with next steps: https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ahFdZtM3MUJv3H7