Access King's is the Staff Disability Inclusion Community Network at King’s College London.

The network’s mission is to be a conduit for access to support, communities, peers, advice, guidance, resources, and spaces.

We aim to bring positive change and improve opportunities for our network at King’s. We will work closely with the central Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team to build a university where equity and equality of opportunity exist for all.

We welcome any staff members and Postgraduate Research students at King’s to join our staff network. We are keen to welcome staff regardless of whether you self-identify as disabled.

We welcome allies who play an important role in supporting people with disabilities, neurodiverse people, or people with long-term / restrictive health conditions.

Our guiding principles are:

• Accessibility
• Community
• Confidentiality
• Empowerment
• Support
• Success for All

• Foster a member-led community safe space, where our network members can ask questions, meet, and make friends, share their experiences, and learn about the experiences of others.
• Education through guest speakers, peer learning, and awareness events and campaigns.
• Driving policy change with central teams to build a University where equality and equity of opportunity exist for all.
• Collaboration with the central Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team, and other staff networks to always strive to be better.

• Disabled staff and Postgraduate students
• People with long-term and/or restrictive health conditions
• Neurodivergent staff and Postgraduate students
• People with mental health conditions
• People with caring responsibilities
• People who manage or work / study alongside those with disabilities or long-term/restrictive health conditions

A Range of Voices: We recognise that, whilst staff are brought together to improve disability inclusion and to discuss issues that affect disabled staff, all staff have different interests and backgrounds. Meet-ups and events will reflect this diversity, wide range of people, wide range of experiences, and wide range of skills, which will lead to better problem solving and information sharing.

We welcome any staff member and Postgraduate Research student at King’s. We particularly value the contributions of those listed in ‘Our Network Voice’. We are keen to welcome staff regardless of whether you self-identify as disabled. We welcome allies who play an Important role in supporting people with disabilities, neurodiverse people, or people with long-term / restrictive health conditions.

We will never ask you to disclose your disability, health condition or caring responsibilities. The network’s Microsoft Teams site is a private group and, although there is a degree of visibility when you join this group, we request all members maintain a strict confidentiality about its membership and contents. We also appreciate that not all disabilities are visible or permanent. If you are unsure if the Network is for you, then please come along to our next meeting or get in touch with the Co-Chairs.

• Celebrate and raise awareness through UK Disability History Month, Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Global Accessibility Awareness Week & other events.
• Continue to grow our community by hosting more Pop-Up events and attending department meetings to share resources and support provided by the network.
• Launch our new strategic plan that also reflects on how far we have come as a network since 2019.

• Access King’s Buddies
• Neurodiversity Forum
• Access King’s Drop-In Sessions

Access King’s has a Co-Chair (Strategy), a Co-Chair (Community) and a Co-Chair (Engagement), who lead a network committee which includes representatives from across the entire university who help to produce and deliver network meetings, events, and the co-ordination of feedback on policies and procedures. Please get in touch if you are interested; all enquiries will be treated in confidence.

We hold monthly committee meetings with a formal set agenda that is set by our members and committee with the intent of helping to progress the goals we have and amplify the voices and feedback from our network.

In 2023, the Access King's Committee wanted to review how far we have come on the journey of setting up a disability inclusion network at King's to determine how to move forward in the future.

Building on our first report that was published in 2020, this new report outlines the significant progress made by Access King’s during its first four years and details its achievements, as measured against the ten strategic objectives that were established when the network was created.

Read the Access King’s 2019 – 2023: The Journey So Far in full.

For more information about our network, visit our Access King’s SharePoint page.

• Email us at access-kings@kcl.ac.uk
• Join our mailing list
• Join our Microsoft Teams group
• Visit our Viva Engage page
• Visit us on Instagram – access_kings
• Visit us on X (Twitter) – AccessKings