Rachel Hewett

Rachel Hewett is an Associate Professor at University of Birmingham. She is Co-Director of Vision Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) which is situated in Department of Disability Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN) in the School of Education.

She joined VICTAR as a Research Associate in 2010, before progressing to a Research Fellow in October 2012 and was appointed as a Birmingham Fellow in September 2017. She was later promoted to Associate Professor in 2022, prior to becoming Head of Department of Disability Inclusion and Special Needs. Previously she worked in Clinical Trials, and managed a series of large phase-three trials at Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit at University of Birmingham.

Rachel’s primary research interests are in the post-16 transition experience of young people with special educational needs and disabilities. She was the primary researcher on the ongoing ‘Longitudinal Transitions Study’ which followed the post-16 transition experience of a group of young people with vision impairment over 11 years. More recently she led the research study behind the development of the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment.

Through her doctoral study she focused particularly on the experiences of young people with vision impairment in making the transition into Higher Education.

Rachel has been PI and Co-I on research projects funded by various funding bodies, including Nuffield Foundation, RNIB, Thomas Pocklington Trust, and NatSIP.