CALL FOR PAPERS
Rethinking Research from Disability Perspectives: Towards a New Scientific Paradigm
Contemporary universities are undergoing a profound transformation in how they understand who produces knowledge, where research is conducted, and which experiences are recognized as legitimate within the academic sphere. For a long time, much of scientific output was shaped by perspectives that excluded numerous realities and ways of experiencing the world. Today, that reality is changing.
It is against this backdrop that the First International Congress on Teaching and Research from a Disability Perspective (CIDID 2026) was conceived, organized by the Complutense University of Madrid on October 5 and 6, 2026. The congress aims to become a leading international forum for rethinking the university, research, and knowledge production from inclusive, critical, and socially transformative perspectives.
CIDID 2026 seeks to highlight an often-overlooked reality within the academic sphere: people with disabilities are not merely subjects of study but also active contributors to research, teaching, and the transfer of knowledge. Drawing on their lived experiences, professional expertise, and scholarly work, many researchers and educators with disabilities are promoting new ways of understanding social reality, challenging the traditional structures upon which scientific knowledge has historically been built.
Thanks to the activism of the 1960s and 1970s, scholars and activists with disabilities demonstrated that the category of ‘disability’ is a social construct that accentuates differences and reproduces structural inequalities in our societies. This perspective transformed the lens through which disability was understood, shifting attention away from individual impairment and toward the social, environmental, and institutional barriers that shape the experience of living with a disability.
Currently, scholarship on disability increasingly incorporates situated experience as a central element of the research process. This approach is grounded in the understanding that research is not independent of the positionality from which it is conducted and that lived experiences of disability provide essential perspectives for achieving a deeper understanding of social reality. In this sense, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2011) has already emphasized how knowledge is produced through specific bodies and experiences, highlighting the value of embodied perspectives as a crucial contribution to interpreting culture, social relations, and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion.
Following this line of thought, Tanya Titchkosky (2007) emphasized how this embodied experience not only interprets the world, but also reveals social and discursive frameworks, viewing this standpoint not merely as a source of knowledge but as a critical tool. For Titchkosky, people with disabilities, as producers of knowledge, not only offer a situated perspective but also destabilize dominant ways of understanding the social world, demonstrating that academic knowledge itself is permeated by norms and values.
In addition, increasing attention has been given to participatory research methodologies in which people with disabilities play an active role in the design, implementation, and validation of research processes. As Kirsty Liddiard and others (2025) suggest, this approach allows for progress toward more inclusive and collaborative research models, where knowledge is co-produced through shared engagement, thereby strengthening its rigor, legitimacy, and capacity for social impact.
Co-production, therefore, is not merely a research methodology but also an ethical and political stance aimed at redistributing power within the research process, recognizing people with disabilities as key contributors to knowledge creation that directly affects their lives and communities.
In line with this approach, CIDID 2026 is conceived not as a conventional thematic conference but rather as an interdisciplinary space for dialogue, collaboration, and collective knowledge creation. The conference seeks to highlight the academic leadership of researchers and educators with disabilities, foster international networks of collaboration, and promote a university that is genuinely diverse, accessible, and representative of society.
The conference also aims to drive structural change within academic and scientific communities by fostering more inclusive models of accessibility, participation, and knowledge production. In this way, it seeks to contribute to the development of academic practices and institutional policies capable of reducing inequalities and enabling the full participation of people with disabilities in research spaces, teaching, and the transfer of knowledge.
To achieve this objective, the conference will be held over two days and will feature keynote addresses, workshops, roundtable discussions, and paper presentation sessions in a hybrid format, facilitating both in-person and online participation. This design reflects a clear commitment to accessibility, collaborative learning, and the creation of an inclusive environment in which all participants can contribute on equal footing.
CIDID 2026 aspires to establish itself as a leading international forum for rethinking the university, research, and knowledge production through more diverse, collective, accessible, and socially transformative perspectives. A truly inclusive university not only ensures access to knowledge but also upholds the right to produce, share, and lead it.
References.
Garland-Thomson, R. (2011). “Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept.” Hypatia, 26(3), 591–609.
Titchkosky, T. (2007). Reading and Writing Disability Differently: The Textured Life of Embodiment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Liddiard, K., Atkinson, L., Evans, K., Gibson, B., Goodley, D., Hale, J., Lawson, R., Runswick-Cole, K., Spurr, R., Vogelmann, E., Watts, L., Weiner, K., & Whitney-Mitchell, S. (2025). “No-one’s contribution is more valid than another’s”: Committing to inclusive democratic methodologies. Research in Education, 121(2), 158–174.
Garland-Thomson, R. (2011). “Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept.” Hypatia, 26(3), 591–609.
Titchkosky, T. (2007). Reading and Writing Disability Differently: The Textured Life of Embodiment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Liddiard, K., Atkinson, L., Evans, K., Gibson, B., Goodley, D., Hale, J., Lawson, R., Runswick-Cole, K., Spurr, R., Vogelmann, E., Watts, L., Weiner, K., & Whitney-Mitchell, S. (2025). “No-one’s contribution is more valid than another’s”: Committing to inclusive democratic methodologies. Research in Education, 121(2), 158–174.
Thematic areas
CIDID is conceived as an interdisciplinary forum aimed at bringing together research, experiences, and innovative projects developed within the Social Sciences, the Humanities, technological innovation, and contemporary knowledge production.
Adopting a critical, cross-disciplinary and socially engaged perspective, the conference invites reflection on the contemporary challenges facing universities, research, culture, technology, and social transformation.
Submissions are invited on topics including, but not limited to, the following thematic areas:
Adopting a critical, cross-disciplinary and socially engaged perspective, the conference invites reflection on the contemporary challenges facing universities, research, culture, technology, and social transformation.
Submissions are invited on topics including, but not limited to, the following thematic areas:
1. University, Social Sciences, and Contemporary Transformations
Research focused on analyzing the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics of contemporary society from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective.
- Education, Inequality, and Social Transformation
- Communication, Digital Culture, and Civic Engagement
- Public Policy, Citizenship, and Rights
- Sociology, Anthropology, and Contemporary Ethnography
- Economy, Technology, and Society
- Digital platforms, participation, and new social dynamics
2. Humanities, Culture, and Critical Thinking
This area seeks to highlight the role of the humanities as a framework for critical thinking and cultural production in response to contemporary social and technological challenges.
- Philosophy and Contemporary Critical Thinking
- Literature, narrative and cultural representation.
- History, Memory, and Social Transformation
- Art, Aesthetics, and Visual Culture
- Linguistics, Discourse, and Communication
- Digital Humanities and Technological Culture
- Ethics, Identity, and Contemporary Subjectivity
- Media, platforms, algorithms, and power dynamics
3. Innovation and entrepreneurship, emerging technologies, and accessibility
This thematic area explores the role of innovation, entrepreneurship, digital culture, and emerging technologies in creating more accessible, sustainable, and inclusive environments.
- Artificial Intelligence and Social Transformation
- Accessible technologies and universal design
- Social Innovation and Impact Entrepreneurship
- Digital education and virtual learning environments.
- Digital Culture and Participation
- Technological divide and digital inequalities.
- Technology, Ethics, and Citizenship
4. Knowledge Transfer, Outreach, and Social Impact
This line of research focuses on analyzing how academic research connects with society and generates processes of transformation, participation, and collective impact.
- Knowledge Transfer and Social Transformation
- Scientific outreach and communication.
- Open Science and Academic Accessibility
- Civic participation and co-creation
- Innovation in Teaching and Collaborative Learning
- • Projects with social and regional impact.
- Innovative formats for cultural and scientific outreach.
5. Knowledge production, situated experience, and participatory methodologies
This thematic area explores new ways of producing knowledge from critical, participatory, and situated perspectives, with a particular focus on lived experience as an epistemological and methodological tool.
- Situated epistemologies and lived experience
- Participatory and collaborative research
- Autoethnography and biographical methods
- Reflexivity, positionality and research ethics.
- Collective production of knowledge.
- New Forms of Academic Legitimacy
- The Democratization of Knowledge and University Transformation
6. Studies on disability, inclusion, and accessibility
This research area focuses on disability studies from multiple theoretical, methodological, and applied perspectives, promoting critical, interdisciplinary, and socially engaged approaches. This research area is open to researchers without disabilities.
- Critical disability studies.
- Educational Inclusion and Accessible Higher Education
- Media and cultural representation
- Physical, digital, and communication accessibility
- Law and public policy.
- Social Participation and Citizenship
- Employment, Autonomy, and Independent Living
- Technology, Inclusion, and Social Transformation
Tipes of contributions
Submissions may be made under one of the following categories:
- Research Papers
- Experiences in teaching innovation.
- Projects on knowledge Transfer, Outreach, and Best Practices.
Abstract submission guidelines
The abstracts should include:
- Title
- Authors' names, institutional affiliation (research center or university), and contact information (email)
- Type of contribution
- Mode of participation (in-person/online)
- Abstract (300–500 words)
- Around 5 – 6 keywords
Languages accepted :
- Spanish
- English
Key Dates
| Opening of call for papers | 17th June 2026 |
| Deadline for abstract submission | September 1, 2026 |
| Notification of abstract acceptance | 7- 11 September 2026 |
| Publication of the book of abstracts | October 2026 |
| Last day for registration | 2nd October 2026 |
| Conference dates | 5th &6th October 2026 |
Publication and dissemination
The abstracts of accepted contributions will be included in the conference proceedings.
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