ECR Blog: Dr Shubha Sreenivas reflects on the ‘Disability in Wales’ ECR Expert Forum
On the 5th of February 2025, Early Career Researchers from across Wales gathered at Wrexham University to participate in an Expert Forum on ‘Disability in Wales’ chaired by Professor Ruth Northway FLSW. The forum brought ECRs together with policymakers, third-sector organisations and grassroots campaign groups to discuss how the Seven Wellbeing Goals of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 might interact with and impact disability in Wales.
Dr Shubha Sreenivas, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Wrexham University and member of the ECR Network, reflects on her experiences attending the Forum:
Whilst I have previously engaged with experts by experience, the ECR Expert forum offered a unique opportunity to share my reflections on the Well-being of Future Generations Act through the lens of my disability due to Long-COVID. When I applied to participate in the forum, my goal was to raise awareness about how Long-COVID restricts lives with its invisible and debilitating impact on individuals. I was acutely aware of the diverse experience of fellow disabled individuals navigating Long-COVID as one would negotiate with an unfamiliar beast in pitch black. It is not an exaggeration to say that even getting through an uneventful day is an achievement to most of us, yet our hurdles and efforts to overcome them remain invisible because we bear no visible scars to remind us of this affliction. Just as we are learning to tame this unfamiliar and unrelenting beast, people and organisations around us are equally unaware, and on rare occasions sceptical, of our daily hurdles. My aim, then, was to raise awareness of Long-Covid, ensuring that experiences of Long-COVID are seen, heard, understood, and supported.
Knowing that I represent the 2.9% of the UK population living with Long-COVID (Office of National Statistics [ONS], 2023) inspired me to attend the ECR Expert Forum and offered a platform for me to share this lived experience with policymakers. It was encouraging that the forum spoke a common language of empowerment, whilst acknowledging how disability, irrespective of its cause, can be enhanced and sustained through our social environment. Voicing the need for an equitable environment to enable individuals as confident and contributing members of our communities, the forum reflected on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act-2015; how it currently works, what needs changing, and how it can be improved.
The ongoing intent to ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion through related policies and legal framework offers a useful toolkit to initiate systemic changes, however, there is a strong recognition of the need to sharpen the available tools to make it effective beyond a tick box exercise. The need to reflect on the existing limitations whilst focusing on the true meaning and value of change through available policies was considered. The forum concluded with an overwhelming emphasis on using creative research methodologies to assess the effectiveness of policies for inclusivity and meaningful support to empower individuals and improve community wellbeing.
As a researcher, this forum has broadened my understanding of the diverse experiences of individuals with disabilities. It has also highlighted the importance of ongoing monitoring and evaluation of policies to ensure they are meaningful to stakeholders and reliable in practice, which is essential for maintaining their effectiveness. Through attending this forum, I have learned the process of critically evaluating policy effectiveness and feel encouraged to work with policymakers in future.
The findings of the ECR Expert Forum will be made available in a short report, to be published on our website.