Episode 1: Student Advocacy and Disability Inclusion with Gemma Lucy Smart

In this inaugural episode, we dive into the power of student collectivism and what it actually takes to build genuine advocacy movements within universities. Host Ebe Ganon sits down with Gemma Lucy Smart, a PhD candidate and seasoned disability advocate who serves as both Disability Equity Officer and HDR Equity Officer for the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association, plus represents postgraduate students with disability nationally through the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.

Gemma shares her experience as a student advocate at the university and national level: we explore how student advocacy works and what drives student advocates, how to balance working within systems versus challenging them directly, and how student collectivism is a deeply valuable source of community and systemic change on campus.

Key topics

• The power of student collectivism vs individual advocacy
• Strategic decision-making: when to work within systems vs challenge them
• Supporting emerging student leaders and preventing burnout
• Building disability communities across undergraduate and postgraduate spaces
• Language politics in disability advocacy
• Co-production and co-design in university settings
• Universal Design for Learning and AI's role in accessible education
• Assumptions about disabled students in higher education

Connecting with student advocacy and networks

• SUPRA (Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association): https://supra.net.au/ 
• Students with Disability Leadership Collective: https://studentvoiceaustralasia.com/students-with-disability-leadership-collective 
• Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations: https://www.capa.edu.au/ 
• National Union of Students (NUS): https://nus.asn.au/ 
• National Student Ombudsman: https://www.nso.gov.au/ 

Professional Networks for Staff

• Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Association: https://www.ephea.org/ 
• Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND): https://www.atend.com.au/ 

Universal Design for Learning Resources

• CAST (Centre for Applied Special Technology) UDL Guidelines: https://udlguidelines.cast.org/ 
• Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET): https://www.adcet.edu.au/ 

Gemma’s work:

• Writing in Honi Soit, the University of Sydney student paper: https://honisoit.com/author/gemma-lucy-smart/
• Gemma's research: https://orcid.org/0000

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Produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.