May I be so bold as to try to articulate a danger in such coding. It will
never be complex enough to capture all cases. The taxonomy will be too
gross, and disable people on the box edges.
I think I am trying to say that attaching a code to a person will cause
difficulties for some students. The gain will be administrative. In truth,
each student has individual needs. The scenario I am fighting against is as
follows:
I state that TextHelp is helpful for in the rough order of 65% of dyslexic
students. Two weeks later, I discover that an administrator has promulgated
a rule saying that all dyslexic students shall use TextHelp.
Have you considered coding the available inputs and outputs (braille,
machine readable text, notetakers etc.) and attaching a set of such codes to
a student?
David Lyons
University Disability Technical Officer
Rm. 5A.528
Department of Computer Science
University of Essex
Colchester, Essex, UK CO4 3SQ
Tel - (44)1206 872674
Fax - (44)1206 872788
email - [log in to unmask]
www - http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/staff/lyons.htm
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Val Harrington & Gillian
> Malins
> Sent: 10 October 2002 14:32
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Disability Coding
>
>
> Hi all
>
> We are attempting to codify student support needs so that a record
> can be entered onto our central student records system
> which will be used to inform teaching and learning needs. I am
> currently putting together a list of possible codes and wondered if
> anyone else has already done this and is willing to share
> information. Perhaps you could let me know (off list) what type of
> codes you used and what issues have arisen as a result - whether
> positive or negative.
>
> Secondly we are also trying to benchmark our student numbers
> against the national trend in terms of widening participation. I know
> this was discussed a few weeks ago in terms of staff numbers.
> Some idea of the numbers of disabled students at your institution
> in relation to the total numbers and what the percentage is would
> be helpful.
>
> Thanks
>
> Gillian
>
>
> Gillian Malins
> Disabilities Adviser
>
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