Schools and education authorities in England have had a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils since 2002. Disabled pupils have been supported in this way within the school environment but what can they expect as they continue their education journey into higher education?
Schools and education authorities in England have had a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils since 2002: originally, under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended by The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001), and, from October 2010, under the Equality Act 2010. Disabled pupils have been supported in this way within the school environment but what can they expect as they continue their education journey into higher education?
Universities and other higher education providers also have obligations under the Equality Act (including the duty to make reasonable adjustments), and they provide a huge amount of support to disabled students either out of their own resources or supporting students who are in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs).
In this article we look at some of the findings in the Disabled Students’ Commission Annual Report 2020-2021: Enhancing the disabled student experience.
The Disabled Students’ Commission (DSC) is an independent and strategic body with a key priority to advise, inform and influence English higher education providers (HEPs) and sector bodies to improve support for disabled students. Its aim is to help the sector achieve more positive outcomes for disabled students in relation to access, participation, success and progression. It is a successor to the former Disabled Students’ Sector Leadership Group (DSSLG). It was established in March 2020 and is funded by the Office for Students (OfS).
The DSC brief is to challenge, influence and support the Department for Education (DfE), the OfS, HEPs and other relevant sector organisations to accelerate the pace of change in creating inclusive learning and living environments for disabled students.
The Commissioners had decided that the priority and overall direction of the DSC’s work plan would be to follow a student life-cycle model, with a focus on key milestones, but response to the COVID-19 pandemic became the immediate priority and they produced a very helpful set of recommendations in response to the impact of the pandemic on disabled students, ahead of the 2020/21 academic year. The challenges identified included a recognition that the provision in disability support is likely to differ between a school-setting and university-setting.
A particularly interesting aspect of the DSC’s work in relation to the pandemic is the findings of a roundtable on blended learning run by the DSC. Feedback provided during this roundtable highlighted the advantages and disadvantages experienced by disabled students using blended learning, as well as the differences disabled students experienced depending on their impairment type. The report contains an analysis of different types of impairment, what is working well and what is not and what needs to change (beyond ensuring a consistent departmental approach, streamlining of learning tools and provision of materials in advance). For example, students with a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D found it difficult to comment on ‘live’ information, as learning materials often require an immediate response. One of the recommendations was the importance of including synchronous and asynchronous learning as this may offer disabled students the flexibility they require by empowering self-direction and giving students more control over the pace and the spaces in which they learn. The importance of monitoring student engagement, particularly for those students with a mental health condition, was found to be an area where change was needed as was the need to be able to turn the camera on/off for those students with a social/communication impairment.
The report also includes some interesting analysis of data undertaken by Advance HE using 2018/19 data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) including:
The DSC has identified a number of considerations that will inform its work going forward and some of these are particularly relevant to the transition from a school-setting to a university-setting including:
Preparing pupils as they transition into higher education has always been a priority especially in relation to pupils with disabilities and this report will help develop a greater understanding of some of the issues involved in that transition and better equip pupils as they begin their journey into higher education.
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