A11y North: Newcastle | Winter 2026

We're back at Opencast for our final A11y North of the year, and we have got two great guests lined up:

Beverley Newing (Head of Accessibility at the Ministry Of Justice) will talk through some of the structures that the MOJ team has had over the past 5 years. There’s no one size fits all, as each organisation is different, but this will give you some ideas of different potential team shapes and sizes, and roles that might fit into an accessibility function.

This will be followed by a special Q&A session with Paralympian Jack Smith MBE, who brought home a gold medal in Wheelchair Rugby at the 2020 Toyko games

There will also be food and drink, courtesy of the wonderful folk at Access Given who are sponsoring this session.

Agenda:
18:15 Introductions
18:30 Beverley Newing
19:15 Pizza Break
19:30 Jack Smith MBE
20:15 Close/networking

Access needs/Dietary Requirements
If you have any access needs or dietary requirements, please reach out to us.

Logistics:
Exact Location via what3words: ///device.normal.cheese
Free parking is available, but attendees must enter their car registration into the touchscreen at the front desk.