Supporting Disabled Students in HE – an uphill struggle?

Are staff aware of the legal rights of disabled students? Do they know how to remove barriers before they might have an impact on students? Would they know best practice on handling disability-related issues in complaints and academic appeals? Would new guidance from OIA help?

Val Williams, at the University of Bristol, said in a recent blog posted on the ECU website:

‘One of the issues we are finding is the underlying and unvoiced assumption that disability is a ‘problem’ and that the adjustments to be made for each disabled person will be merely an additional expense, creating extra ‘support’ tasks, extra issues for building services, and extra issues for teaching staff and colleagues. Thus although any educational institution might have processes and policies to support disabled people, these processes become shaped and solidified by discourses of negativity which may undermine their positive purpose and potential.’

A disabled student at the university said:

‘…the university does seem to have a desire to help students with disabilities, but there has been a huge lack of staff awareness regarding disability and a lack of clear pathways for disabled students to get the help they need. It feels as though students with disabilities are having to find their own paths, to get help and support, which is both exhausting and frustrating.’

You can read the full blog here 

The OIA (Office of the Independent Adjudicator) published their ‘Good Practice Framework: Handling Complaints and Academic Appeals’ last year as a guide for higher education providers in England and Wales.

An updated section ‘Supporting disabled students’ was published in October 2017. This section outlines good practice guidance for providers to consider when supporting disabled students. It includes advice on how providers can remove obstacles to learning, support students before and during their studies, as well as on what to do when things go wrong. Its scope is therefore wider than previous sections of the Good Practice Framework .

The guidance covers:

• An overview of the legal requirements and the legal rights of disabled students
• Removing barriers to learning
• Disabled Students’ Allowances
• Accessing and providing support before induction, after induction and during students’ studies
• Integrating disability equality and reasonable adjustments within other procedures such as mitigating (extenuating circumstances) procedures, disciplinary procedures and attendance concerns
• Guidance on manging disability-related issues that arise in complaints and academic appeals handling.

It also signposts useful resources

The guidance will inform the way that the OIA considers complaints relating to disability issues from the 2018/19 academic year.

You can download the guidance here.