September has just finished, and what a hectic month it was! As well as celebrating my birthday, September was a really busy month, ending with students being back on campus again which has certainly been really odd after all the quiet! I hope it was a smooth transition back into Uni life for you all :)
This month saw quite a few things achieved! Here's a little summary of the couple of updates I've already shared...
- Laurence Perkins (head of security) looked into using the SafeZone app and how it can best be applied to help disabled students,staff and visitors and the potential accessible map features. I am still waiting on confirmation as to whether this can happen or not!
- Martin Miller (accommodation) agreed to look into ensuring that the University owned accommodation is accessible, no more expensive and is also easy to follow for disabled students. And is currently in the process of creating an 'accessibility guide to accommodation' which he hopes to have a draft for me to review towards the end of October/early November!
But a lot of new things began too...
-I met with Adnan (Education Officer) to discuss an Access Needs survey which we are hoping to deliver around November time, with the plan to coincide this with a focus group for disabled students to come forward and share their experiences. This survey is going to look into the accessibility of and peoples opinions on the AccessAbility Center, as well as campus, accommodation and things like online learning material, so we can get a true idea of what matters to you as students when it comes to accessibility!
- I have also been working with various members of staff to plan the events for International Day of People with Disabilities (IDPWD) in December! We have shared many ideas for things that can be held around campus, but if anyone has any ideas or things they'd like to see don't hesitate to email me at nak18@le.ac.uk and I will see what I can do! :)
- I also have some updates from Chris Harrison (Estates) surrounding accessibility on campus and in lectures. He has commissioned an external company to access the accessibility on campus and is hoping to hear back from them in a few weeks regarding their findings. He is in the process of beginning a working group surrounding accessibility issues on campus, and is currently devising a plan on how best to tackle the issues we raised to him and prioritizing certain aspects based on time and budget constraints. He has propose that we focus on ramp access, lecture theater access and usage for wheelchair users (desks, spaces etc), automatic door openers, lifts, accessible toilets (including features such as alarms, handrails etc) and communication of access routes as a first priority.
He has also started work on an ‘Inclusive Design’ guide which will be issued to all contractors for every future project on campus, to ensure that accessibility issues are fully factored into any designs and to remove the individual interpretation and inconsistency that current guidelines leave open!
- This morning I met with Dave Hall (The Registrar) for a meeting about the Sensory Garden. This went so well, and we are now moving onto assessing the space that we are hoping to use to build the garden itself. He has agreed that the project needs to be student led, and is keen to see my vision come through in the sensory garden itself by allowing me to work alongside the landscapers and developers in designing the garden! This is definitely more than I could have hoped for, and exactly what I wanted for this garden.
He is also organizing for Chloe (Activities Officer) and I on a trip to an organic garden center who have a section for sensory gardens, so that we can gain some advice and ideas on how we can best make this project work.
And to make it even more positive, he also totally agrees this should be the first step of many in reclaiming the green space on campus! And providing this sensory garden goes to plan, is looking at the potential of adding more to places like Oadby accommodation and further sensory and green areas around campus to create a much larger space that is dedicated to wellbeing. So after a year of my hard work on looking into this project, there's a massive win there which I couldn't be happier about!
We are soon to be meeting again with Dave Hall and also Adam from the gardening team to look at the space we've chosen, devise a realistic budget and then set about designing the garden! And next week we are meeting with some more people about the sensory garden too! So when all this happens, I will do a full Sensory Garden update :)
I am likely missing things from this list, but as always I will continue updating this blog and my Facebook page with everything :)
Thank you all for your continued support, ideas and inspiration! My email (nak18@le.ac.uk) is always open to suggestions, comments, ideas and anything! Like I said last time, my role is to serve as your student voice, so always feel welcome to share what you think! :)
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