1 / 18

Admissions,the DDA Part 4 and beyond…

Admissions,the DDA Part 4 and beyond…. Paul Brown p.d.brown@dundee.ac.uk Lucy Foley l.foley@dundee.ac.uk Scottish Disability Team www.sdt.ac.uk . Admissions and the DDA. Who is covered? Anyone who is enquiring about or applying to a course

dasan
Download Presentation

Admissions,the DDA Part 4 and beyond…

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Admissions,the DDA Part 4 and beyond… Paul Brown p.d.brown@dundee.ac.uk Lucy Foley l.foley@dundee.ac.uk Scottish Disability Team www.sdt.ac.uk

  2. Admissions and the DDA Who is covered? • Anyone who is enquiring about or applying to a course • Disabled applicants, potential applicants or students who are: - Full or part-time - Post-graduate or undergraduate - Home or International - On short or taster courses - E-Distance Learning - Taking day or evening classes - Undertaking only part of a course

  3. Admissions and the DDA • Admissions is included in the list of student services in the provision of which discrimination is possible • Discrimination = either less favourable treatment or failure to make reasonable adjustments without justification

  4. Admissions and the DDA In relation to admissions, this could mean: • Discrimination by unjustifiably refusing admission or by admitting on less favourable terms • Discrimination by accepting followed by failure to make reasonable adjustment

  5. Admissions and the DDA • A ‘reasonable adjustment’ is any action that helps alleviate a substantial disadvantage. For admissions, it can include: - Changing procedures - Providing additional services - Adapting material - Training staff - Altering the physical environment

  6. Admissions and the DDA Compliance presupposes: • An understanding of what amounts to less favourable treatment • An awareness of possible reasonable adjustments • The wherewithal, including resources, to convert knowledge and awareness into practice

  7. Criteria for ‘Reasonableness’ • Academic and prescribed standards • Financial resources • Grants/loans • Cost • Practicality • Other available aids and services • Health and safety • ‘Interests’ of other students • Must not be used spuriously • Must be material and substantial

  8. Issues for Admissions • Disclosure • Evidence Gathering • Communication • Interviews • What if less favourable treatment is justified?

  9. Less favourable treatment and disclosure of a disability • In order to avoid discriminating through less favourable treatment on the grounds of disability, responsible bodies will need to know about that person’s disability. • If they do not know and could not reasonably have known that someone was disabled, then that person has not been treated less favourably for a reason relating to his or her disability.

  10. Less favourable treatment and disclosure of a disability cont’d • When one person has been told in the institution then the institution could be deemed to know about a person’s disability. • Disclosure on, for example, an UCCAS form is “knowledge”.

  11. Finding out about courses • How is it taught? • How is it assessed? • Is it regulated/validated by a professional body? • What is ‘core’ to the course ie what must a student be able to do in order to do the course?

  12. Finding out more about the student What do you need to know? • The student’s impairment/disability/medical condition? • The student’s learning and teaching requirements? - reading format - level access? - need to use a loop system? - limited manual dexterity? And More…………!

  13. Communicating Students’ Needs to Staff • How do you inform staff of needs? • What do you tell them? • When do you tell them?

  14. Communicating about course elements/requirements with potential students • Who does this? - The admissions tutor? - The Disability Office? - The Departmental Disability Contact? • How is the dialogue “opened-up” and made meaningful?

  15. Clarifying two types of “Interview” The Academic Selection Interview • How are students support requirements found out about and met? • Are course equivalent reasonable adjustments made to interviews? • Is the student permitted to demonstrate his/her abilities and aptitudes for the subject/discipline in alternative “non-standard” ways?

  16. Clarifying two types of “Interview” cont’d Pre-entry Visits to Discuss Course and Needs • Who sets these up? • Who is involved - Disability Office Staff - Academic Staff - Accommodation Staff? - Current disabled students? • Is there a meeting with the potential student, academic and disability support staff?

  17. Discrimination • If a potential student is refused admission on the grounds of a disability - can this be justified under the law? • Have all potential reasonable adjustments been examined before such a refusal?

  18. Discrimination cont’d • If a disabled student has been admitted onto a course have adjustments been: - designed - agreed - communicated to the student and teaching staff - resourced etc • Are they written-up into a “learner-agreement”? • How will they be monitored to ascertain their continued effectiveness?

More Related