Sorry for the delay in writing this blog post, its been a busy few weeks since the Conference and though I wrote this post almost instantly afterwards, I'd been waiting on the transcript to arrive before finalizing and posting.
On Monday October 14th, I headed down to London with my partner for the Westminister HE Forum: Latest Developments in supporting disabled students - widening participation, accessible campus design, and enhancing the student experience conference. This blog is intended to give a pretty brief overview of what the conference entailed, and what was learnt from attending. All the times I give my view and opinions in this blog are from the experiences of the conference, my time as a student, and the thoughts and emotions certain areas provoked in me.
Improving Participation Rates
The conference began with the chair, Prof. David Green (Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of The University of Worcester) welcoming everyone and introducing the first panel. This panel, "Improving Participation rates for students with disabilities - outreach, finance and tackling barriers", focused largely on employment outside of HE with projects such as 'Project Search'. Some interesting and shocking figures came from this section, including that only 6.7% of people with learning disabilities are in employment. Project Search is a project that has recently entered the UK from the US, who are aimed at increasing this figure and you can learn more about them here: https://www.projectsearch.us/
This section also brought up that only 40% of disabled students knew about DSAs and many didn't know they were eligible for support! This brought about the conversation that many students with illnesses or conditions don't identify with being disabled, and felt that they did not fit the eligibility for support as a result. This suggests that as an SU we have done the right thing in replacing "disabled students officer" with "Accessibility Officer" as the title for my role, so massive thanks to our former AO George Hudson for achieving this last year! I will be looking at other areas in which we as an SU and University can improve engagement by thinking further about the use of terminology when offering support or anything else. SOAS University of London also spoke about the increase in disclosure of mental health problems over the last 5 years, with it now thought to be 1 in 4 across the UK. They suggested this was largely down to the more accepting environment we have created around it, and that creating a similar environment surrounding other illnesses and disabilities may help to further relieve stigma that currently puts a barrier between students or staff reaching out for help. On the whole, this section focused largely on the lack of support in Higher Education when compared to Pre-HE. Whilst Pre-HE is a fully supported environment with people often checking in on students, HE is more of a 'climbing rope', where students need to self advocate more for what they need. The suggestion by SOAS here was to look at small steps and achievements alongside recognition, as a way to help the mindset of students who may need extra support.
It was also suggested that "disabled students often need to feel a higher sense of belonging than other under-represented groups", and that ensuring there is a community element to support is incredibly important.
Overall the section discussed the need to ensure students know what they are eledgible for, creating communities where students can come forward to talk about their needs and that inflexible regulations cause issues so we often need to resolve things more individually. I will be looking into the possibility of publishing in easily accessible locations, guides on the support students can get, and ensuring this meets the needs of all student types, undergrad, postgrad, distant, international etc. Supporting Student Success.
Microlink spoke in this section, discussing how they have helped half a million disabled people fufil their ambitions to date, with a focus on "everyone not the majority". They noted that disabled staff should be considered an asset and not a liability, and in order to achieve that we all need to be advocating for this change. With so many people living with disabilities, they simply cannot and should not be ignored. The section went on to discuss the importance of curriculum and training across universities to put the social model into practice. With an emphasis on removing the 'fix' in the attitudes to disability, and promoting acceptance and recreating the knowledge on disability as a whole as being a 'negative'. As HE, we also need to tackle that employability needs to include opportunities in academia which are currently extremely lacking.
The new sites that many Universities are building, boasts an incredible time for new opportunities to get things right, especially in physical accessibility. But there needs to be a focus that we cannot put everything in stone and things should instead remain flexible. We need transparent accessibility upfront, as removing barriers and improving access makes people feel valued from the beginning.
1 in 5 people have a disability/long term health condition, but just 51.3% are in employment. And 77% of students/recent grads had a fear of discrimination in disclosing their disability to employers. This means many aren't asking for the help that they need, or the reasonable adjustments that their employers should be putting into place. Inclusive Curriculum
To promote an inclusive curriculum we need to ensure there is a focus on equity and not equality. Showing students and staff in HE, the reality that not everyone starts life at the same place and people need different levels of support to reach the same opportunities. There also needs to be more management of other student expectations, who have been documented as believing it 'unfair' when disabled students receive extra support such as mitigating circumstances, extra time in exams or further mentoring etc. It was suggested that training sessions for both staff and students could and should be run to better educate on the issues that disabled students and staff may face, and why what could be perceived as 'inequality' or 'unfair treatment', is actually equity in practice.
Accessible Campus Design Prof. David Green spoke a lot in this section about the accessibility features at Worcester University, alonside Ronan Slaughter from JISC, an organisation that supports disabled young people in HE and employment. They identified that whilst some 'accessible features' may meet building regulations, they aren't always accessible or inclusive if they cannot be used or operated independently by a disabled person. As Universities we should be ensuring we meet basic and also 'less thought of' accessibility requirements including: accommodating dogs on campus, the accommodations for mobility scooters , easy water access, neuro-diverse needs and electric sockets in lecture theatres for assistive technology. At Worcester University, they have included accessibility in many features other Unis currently miss. Including ensuring every single university accommodation room has a wheelchair turning circle so anyone can visit their friends and a purpose designed sports center for wheelchair access!
Why I spoke out and 'the nature of the beast'
I attempted to ask my question during the accessibility section, but despite having my hand up during a long Q+A session, I did not get the chance to ask, so instead raised it during a different section where it also related to differences in mitigating circumstances across different Universities. This is what i said...
"I didn’t get the chance to ask my question in the appropriate section, but it kind of links into this too, and I feel that kind of highlights the important fact that as a disabled student I feel like I’m constantly muted. So I’ll ask it now instead as it’s more food for thought for the entire room. Why is it that there are so many differences of experiences depending on the uni or the course that you choose to study at? Why do Worcester and Warwick excel with amazing sports centres and libraries and access when my university has not even got wheelchair desks in our lecture theatres, and you’re expected to sit deskless, leaning on your own lap in the front on your own. Should we perhaps work towards new standards where those sector leads, like Worcester, are putting connections and building stones into other universities to ensure that we meet the same standards as a uni of accessibility, or is something like this already happening but just not transparent to students. Either way the opportunities and accessibility should not change because of the uni that I chose to study at, yet right now I see nothing at all but failings."
The responses to my question/statement were not brilliant. The woman talking at the time,Christine Child, completely refused to answer at all and did not acknowledge anything I was saying and asked if there were any other questions (without so much as thanking me for speaking): "I’m just quite aware there was only one question for the OIA, so is there chance, did anybody else have a question." - nobody else had a question and I had waited to be sure that I wasn't taking the opportunity to speak from someone else. However Dom Kingaby, from the Department of Education, did add that what I was describing was simply 'the nature of the beast': "But it’s the nature of the beast, it’s so patchy, some people are brilliant in certain areas, and others haven’t really got started.". This somewhat angered and disappointed me. Especially when someone who works in an area that needs to make the change, to be suggesting to me that the lack of equal standards in basic accessibility across HE institutions was simply the nature of the beast and we could do nothing to change that. He also told me that I should have chosen to study elsewhere, stating "So if you want decent pastoral care go to that institution that’s got it and don’t go to one that hasn’t.", when for me this was not an option. Had the University of Leicester not offered me an unconditional, my ill health during A-Levels could have prevented me from attending University at all. Regardless, my choice of Uni does not make me responsible for the lack of accessibility, it should be accessible to everyone regardless. Perhaps others also couldn't choose elsewhere, for a multitude of reasons from needing to be close to home, to simply the offers they were given or preferring the course or areas. Accessibility should never have to feature in decision making for a University. This 'nature of the beast' thinking, also got me concerned for the conference on the whole. If the lead chair of this part of the conference believed an entire multitude of accessibility issues was simply 'the nature of the beast', then what exactly where we there to do? It was a drastic difference from the inspiring change I had hoped to see. He ended his response with a sentence that basically summed up everything he had said, "So I think… it’s an unsatisfactory answer for you, I know, but it is a feature of the sector, the patchiness.". And I can honestly say, I don't think the answer to my question gave me anything besides more worry and more questions.
DSA
The conference continued to speak about the DSA and the changes in the numbers of students able to claim DSA and those actually claiming. Whilst the number of students with a known disability has increased 31%, from 189,515 to 248,975, the number of students claiming DSA has actually fallen from 68,500 to 65,000. This could again be due to the use of language and the fact less students identify with being 'disabled', but instead would respond better to "condition/illness/disorder", suggesting we as an SU and wider University do need to do more in order to use accessible language.
Conclusions
On the whole, I found the conference an incredibly insightful experience and for many parts inspiring. Even my question somewhat inspired me to fight harder, to draw away from "the nature of the beast" thinking that has kept accessibility trapped, hidden and enclosed for too long. "The nature of the beast" is never, and will never be a good enough excuse to prevent change from occurring!
Coming directly from the conference, I am going to be speaking with various SU/Uni staff to highlight the importance of things such as physical and digital accessibility, the use of language and many other important points from the conference! So as not to make this post too long, over the next few weeks/months I will continually update you all (as I have been doing) with any changes and progress being made, as it happens!
As always, anything I have missed I will update in another blog post if needed! I am also only an email away at nak18@le.ac.uk, for any comments and concerns, or to help give you a voice in accessibility!