Paralympic champion, Tanni Grey-Thompson, will be giving a talk at the Cambridge Union Society this evening (22 October), to launch the University’s first Disability Awareness Week.

The awareness week has been organised by the Cambridge University Students' Union (CUSU) in order to help improve staff and students' understanding of disability issues in Cambridge. Nick Palfreyman, Students with Disabilities Officer at CUSU, explains why he felt it was so important to organise such an event:

"Most people don't realise that there are at least a thousand students at Cambridge University with a disability. The majority of these disabilities are 'unseen' and so one of the main aims of the week is to highlight the fact that anyone you meet might have a disability.

"I hope that all students will get involved with Disability Awareness Week as the events are mostly aimed at those who have not thought much about disabilities before and who would like to engage with some of the issues."

The programme of events for the Disability Awareness Week (22-29 October) includes a sign-language taster session, a talk on recognising mental health problems and a keynote address by Dr John Low, Chief Executive of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. All events are open to both staff and students.

Judith Jesky, University Disability Adviser, welcomes the attention that this week will bring:


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