About the Disability Rights Working Group
The Disability Rights Working Group (DRWG) is committed to the constant interrogation of our understanding and responses to issues that impact disabled people. The DRWG hosts activities that provide greater awareness of these issues and that foster disability equality.
Call for Papers for Online Seminar (October 2025)
We are currently accepting abstracts for papers to be presented at our online seminar in October 2025. The seminar will focus on policies and good practices that universities are adopting to become more inclusive of staff with disabilities, as well as in relation to academic research.
A selection of the authors will be invited to submit chapters to the book, Disability Rights in Higher Education: Universities as Disability Champions of Change (Routledge), edited by Professor Paul Harpur of the University of Queensland, to be published in 2026.
Our goals for the seminar are:
- Focusing on actual policies, actions and good practice at universities (and other higher education institutions), which make the institution more inclusive for staff with disabilities
- Understanding how those polices, actions and good practice came into being, including the role played by staff with disabilities in lobbying, drafting and implementation
- Promoting peer to peer learning which can be used to empower and inspire participants to take action at their own academic institution
- Legal obligations, whether at UN, regional or national level are not the focus as such, but they may relate to the good practice
We invite proposals to be submitted to Brittany Postle (postleb@berkeley.edu) and Rachel Weissman (rachelweissman@berkeley.edu) by May 15, 2025.
Please read submission requirements here.
Upcoming Events
POSTPONED (Date/Time TBA)
Angéla Kóczé: V.C. v. SLOVAKIA, the Forced Sterilization of Romani Women, and her article “‘Ally’ or ‘Enemy’?”
Angéla Kóczé is an Assistant Professor, Chair of Romani Studies and Academic Director of the Roma Graduate Preparation Program at Central European University in Budapest and Vienna. She has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters with various international presses, including Palgrave Macmillan, Ashgate, Routledge and CEU Press, as well as several thematic policy papers related to social inclusion, gender equality, social justice and civil society. In 2013, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, honoured Kóczé with the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award for her interdisciplinary research approach, which combines community engagement and policymaking with in-depth participatory research on the situation of the Roma.
Our Oxford Blog Series
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our blog series on The Oxford Human Rights Hub, Twenty-five Years of Protection Against Disability-based Discrimination in the EU: An Evolving Understanding of Disability.
Twenty-five years ago, the EU legally enshrined the prohibition of discrimination based on disability in the Employment Equality Directive. A series of posts coordinated by the our Disability Rights Working Group takes the arrival of this twenty-fifth anniversary as an invitation to reflect on the meaning and scope of this prohibition. After a quarter of a century, what developments have there been in the understanding of disability in European anti-discrimination law? This first post goes into the legislative framework and the evolving understanding of disability-based discrimination in landmark cases of the Court of Justice of the EU (‘the Court’).
Who We Are
Co-Directors
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Laverne Jacobs
- (During her service as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Professor Jacobs will continue to lead and work on academic projects with the Center, but will not be involved in any of our advocacy work.)
- she/her
Laverne Jacobs is a Professor of Law at the University of Windsor in Canada. She researches, writes and teaches actively in the areas of law and disability rights, human rights, and administrative law and justice. Through her research, she explores the lived experiences of people with disabilities in relation to the law. Professor Jacobs has published and lectured widely in Canada and internationally. She is the lead author of several books and articles including the first law and disability textbook in Canada (Law and Disability in Canada (2021)) and the Annotated Accessible Canada Act (2021). Professor Jacobs founded and directs The Law, Disability and Social Change Project, a research and public advocacy initiative housed at Windsor Law that works to foster and develop inclusive communities. She is also a Co-Director of the Disability Rights Working Group of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law.
Outside of the University, Dr. Jacobs has consulted with NGOs and government. She has been invited to serve on the Board of Directors of several organizations, has held public appointments on tribunals, and has testified as an expert before the Senate of Canada on disability issues. Dr. Jacobs has received recognition for her scholarship and leadership on disability equality, including the Touchstone Award from the Canadian Bar Association in 2021.
Dr. Laverne Jacobs was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2022 for the 2023–2026 term.
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Lisa Waddington
- she/her
Lisa Waddington is the European Disability Forum Professor of European Disability Law at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
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Marie Spinoy
- she/her
Marie Spinoy is a PhD Researcher and Lecturer in Constitutional Law and Anti-Discrimination Law at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law.
Student Assistants
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Brittany Postle
- she/her