Digital media now underpins almost every part of daily life — from accessing public information and government services to learning, banking, healthcare, entertainment, and social communication. But as digital content becomes more complex and more multimodal (text, audio, visuals, interaction), ensuring true accessibility for everyone becomes increasingly challenging.
To respond to this challenge, the University of Surrey is offering a fully funded 4-year PhD studentship under the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship in AI-Enabled Digital Accessibility (ADA). This studentship is open to both UK and international applicants, based in Guildford, and is designed for doctoral researchers who want to work at the frontier of AI + accessibility, while grounding their work in human-centred, real-world impact.
Author: Dr Niaz Chowdhury (LinkedIn)
Designation: Lecturer (Computer Science)
Affiliation: Ulster University (Birmingham), UK
Why this PhD matters: accessibility is not “optional”
Accessibility isn’t simply about convenience — it is about participation, inclusion, and equal access to opportunities. However, accessibility often requires forms of translation and adaptation, such as:
- turning speech into subtitles or sign language
- simplifying complex text into easier-to-understand formats
- describing visual content verbally for users who cannot access the visual modality
- translating content into minority languages
These adaptations are essential — but they are also labour-intensive. With the rapid growth of digital content, human resources alone cannot meet global accessibility needs. That’s why the ADA network focuses on enabling doctoral researchers to use AI to scale accessibility, while carefully addressing ongoing challenges in language, sound, and vision.
The ADA network: human-centric AI for digital accessibility
The ADA programme recognises an important reality: even today, AI still struggles with issues such as:
- maintaining accuracy
- preserving narrative coherence
- avoiding distortion or loss of meaning
- handling complex multimodal contexts
Rather than treating AI as a replacement for human expertise, the ADA network is explicitly aimed at developing human-centric AI-enabled solutions that combine technological advances with human insight to protect quality, meaning, and usability.
Interdisciplinary research — with real-world relevance
As a Leverhulme Doctoral Scholar in the ADA network, you will develop a project across disciplines such as:
- language and translation
- media accessibility
- design studies
- engineering and computer science
- cognitive and social sciences
This interdisciplinary structure supports research that is not only technically strong, but also socially responsible and practically implementable — with a focus on personalised accessibility solutions.
Training and academic environment
Successful candidates will benefit from:
- supervision by interdisciplinary teams of world-leading academics
- interaction with other doctoral researchers across the ADA network
- access to masterclasses, lectures, workshops, and skills-building activities
This is designed to help you develop both deep research expertise and broad professional capability in a fast-growing field.
Supervisory team
The listed supervisors for this studentship are:
- Professor Sabine Braun
- Professor Philip Jackson
- Dr Elena Davitti
- Professor Constantin Orasan
- Professor Christine Hine
Funding package (fully funded)
This is a fully funded 4-year studentship (48 months full-time) covering:
- Home or international tuition fees
- Maintenance stipend at UKRI base levels (£20,780 for 2025/26)
- £10,000 to support research and training needs
Key details and deadline
- Institution: University of Surrey
- Location: Guildford
- Mode: Full-time
- Start date: October 2026
- Closing date: 14 April 2026
- Reference: PGR-G-2526-011
- Posted: 19 February 2026
Entry requirements
This opportunity is open to UK and international candidates, and applicants must meet the entry requirements of the University of Surrey PhD programme.
How to apply (step-by-step)
You must complete this online application form, and email supporting documents to cts@surrey.ac.uk with the subject line:
“ADA expression of interest” + your name
You’ll need to submit:
1) Research Proposal (1,000 words)
Structured as:
- Number of the research theme you are addressing
- My take on the theme
- Research questions
- Theoretical framework
- Methodologies
- Significance of the research
File name: YourLastName_YourFirstName_RP
2) Motivation Letter (500 words)
Must:
- demonstrate your fit to the project
- highlight your career development aims
File name: YourLastName_YourFirstName_ML
3) CV (maximum 2 pages)
Including academic qualifications
File name: YourLastName_YourFirstName_CV
Selection process note
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online recruitment workshop in April/May 2025 designed to select balanced cohorts. (As written, this date appears earlier than the October 2026 start and the April 2026 deadline, so it may be a typo in the advert — but you should still treat it as part of the official text and be ready for an online workshop stage.)
Enquiries
- Professor Sabine Braun — s.braun@surrey.ac.uk
- Aimee Savage — aimee.savage@surrey.ac.uk
