University rewards a tireless campaigner

02 May 2019

WATCH: How our Staff Volunteer of the Year improved support for disabled staff with hard work, determination - and “a great, big smile”

Dr Hamied Haroon, a Research Associate at the School of Health Sciences and “a force of nature”, according to his colleagues in our Office of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, has been named the University’s Staff Volunteer of the Year 2019.

When Hamied became a member of staff at the University, having previously been a student, he was shocked when all support available to him suddenly disappeared! So he campaigned tirelessly in his own time to improve our support for disabled staff.

Hamied helped set up the Disabled Staff Network and was instrumental in getting the University to appoint its first Disabled Staff Adviser, a post that now supports hundreds of disabled staff on issues such as reasonable adjustments, accessible equipment, Access to Work funding and discrimination.

He has also helped organise a variety of local and national conferences as well as the ‘Lord Morris of Manchester Memorial Lecture’, the first public lecture to focus on rights and equality of disabled people, which featured Paralympian, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson as its keynote speaker.

Now Chair of the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks, he campaigns for equality for all disabled HE/FE staff and beyond and is busy organising a one-day national conference on the theme of intersectionality of disability and sexuality and other identities such as gender, race, religion, etc.

And he is involved in writing a book for children in collaboration with other scientists, addressing stereotypes in science, which will have a positive impact on society and the scientific community for generations to come.

Here you can watch Hamied’s story: