Professor Simon Darcy believes passionately in the rights of all people to fully participate in community life. A Professor in Management in the Enterprise, Innovation and Impact discipline at UTS Business School, he specialises in developing inclusive organisational approaches for marginalized groups, including people with disability. Simon’s work has spanned transport, tourism, employment, entrepreneurship, the built environment, sport, events, volunteers, and disability services. It is characterised by an evidence-based approach to changing practice in the business, government and not-for-profit sectors.

He has been awarded Australian Research Council grants involving volunteer management, disability entrepreneurship and improving sport legacy for marginalized groups. Together with his involvement in the CRC for Sustainable Tourism, other major grants involving national and international organisations he seeks to bring an evidence-base to change practice and policy for improved social participation and citizenship. Some of the major areas of impact includes contributing significantly to the understanding of the business case for accessible tourism nationally and internationally through the UN World Tourism Organization and, with Professor Jock Collins, undertaking research that has illuminated entrepreneurship among people with disability – informing development of the IgniteAbility startup program and ongoing work as a mentor with Remarkable.

Simon is currently working on a number of projects related to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Australian Disability Strategy 2021-31, disability citizenship and person-centred approaches. Internationally, he is involved in research on the management of volunteers at the Olympics and Paralympics, understanding legacy outcomes of major events, and the importance of accessibility for the sustainability and liveability of cities. Connected to all this work is how disability relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

To all this work, Simon brings an insider's perspective to working with marginalized groups as someone with lived experience of disability where he has experienced a pre-disability world and then as somebody who traumatically acquired his disability he has had to navigate the very different discriminatory ableist world from a disability perspective. He became the first complete quadriplegic to be a professor in Australia.

Simon also has a long history of involvement in advocacy and on volunteer boards, and of involvement with the disability community as a person with traumatically acquired disability. He has been a power wheelchair user since 1983. Simon was a member of the Disability Council of NSW (2011-2015) and actively involved in development of the NSW Disability Inclusion Act 2014. He has held a variety of board positions, was the Vice-President of the Association of Consultants in Access Australia, and is/has been an advisor to the Commonwealth and New South Wales Government on disability services, employment/entrepreneurship, transport and tourism.

Simon’s outstanding contribution to research, engagement and collaboration in accessible tourism was recognised with the World Leisure Organisation’s 2010 Innovation Prize for the Sydney For All project with Destination NSW and Easy Access Australia. He received the 2009 Vision Australia Making a Difference Award for this work. In 2017 he was invited to present the Richard Jones Oration for the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission examining issues of transport, travel, sport and tourism as it relates to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2015 and 2021 Simon collaborated with UN World Tourism Organization on the development of publications outlining the field of accessible tourism and industry best practice.

In 2021, 2022 & 2023 Stanford University/Elsevier BV Simon was named in the top 1% of scientists worldwide for citation metrics. This included in the Business & Management subfield of Sports, Leisure & Tourism (82); Rehabilitation (86); and Economics & Business (7065). (See Baas, Jeroen; Boyack, Kevin; Ioannidis, John P.A. (2021; 2022; 2023),

Simon was a recipient of the UTS Vice Chancellor’s Human Rights Award and the inaugural UTS human rights social media award. He also received the 2018 and 2023 Distinguished Research Scholars Award from the UTS Business School. In 2024 Simon received the UTS Chancellor's Medal for Sustained Research Excellence for work on the social participation of marginalised groups, disability citizenship and developing transformative solutions to discriminatory practices.

Simon has been recognised for his contribution to the disability community through being an Australia Day Ambassador and an Ambassador for the Don’t Dis My Ability campaign, He was nominated and awarded as highly commended for the 2020 National Aspire Awards in both the Government/University and Human Rights categories. From 2021-2024 Simon has been an Ambassador for the IncludeAbility Employment Program of the Australian Human Rights Commission working with 17 of Australia's largest employers.

Simon's research has been published in leading international journals, including the Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, Voluntas, European Sports Management Quarterly, Event Management, Disability & Society, Disability Studies Quarterly, and Disability & Rehabilitation. Simon is also author or co-author or editor of 10 books, including Managing the Paralympics (2017), The Dis/ABLED Tourist: Navigating an Ableist Tourism World (2024), Accessibility in Sport Management: An International Venue Perspective (2025), and forthcoming The Paradox of Minority Entrepreneurship: Australian Insights, Global Implications (2027).

In 2026 Simon was recognised for his outstanding contributions to higher education, and accessible and inclusive environments in the Australian Honours list as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).