.
A quicker route to informed opinion could be a search of the archives of:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/dis-forum.html
...or a posting of questions specifically to that list, which is engaged
with very largely by people actually in the situation enquired of.
It is billed as a "discussion list for disabled students and their support
staff" in Higher Education in the UK. (The past three months have averaged
about 60 posts per month - it's in continuous use, and has been for some
years).
Could also try searching the archives of that list - there is a fairly
sophisticated search mechanism provided.
*****
And a few (lightly-informed) opinions:
1. An elaborate structure has developed over the past 5-10 years, with a
lot of legal underpinning that kicks in at different stages, for
encouraging and accommodating disabled students (students with
disabilities) (students with impairments) (students oppressed by a public
with attitude) (whatever) in UK higher education.
There are people paid to see that it all works a little better each year.
(There are other people paid to balance the budget of their college or
university). (There are government officials paid to give the public an
impression that further and higher educational opportunities are being
expanded and more equitably available across UK's wonderful antique Class
Structure, while covertly reining back on the boom of so-called "useless"
fields of study, like medieval history, peace studies, public accountancy
etc, and encouraging the entry of funded overseas, non-EC, students who are
more lucrative than home-grown students).
2. UK higher ed bumbles along in buildings designed for other times and
purposes, so even when everyone has a Right Attitude (if ever) and is
willing to welcome everyone else, it often doesn't work out, or not the way
anyone expected. Brits by and large perhaps have less faith than North
Americans in the power of legislation to force people to do things that the
public doesn't want to pay for and politicians find difficult to sell.
3. As in many other areas of life, it is the case that large numbers of
able-bodied, able-minded undergraduates pass three years at university
completely unaware of many, perhaps most, of what services and facilities
are available to them on their campus, even though they would like, or
would have liked, to try (have tried) some of them if they but knew, or had
known. (If everyone did know, and tried to access everything, a lot of
restrictions would be brought in to keep the numbers down to what could be
catered for). Something like 100% of people are thus in some ways
disadvantaged in not knowing, not accessing, (being kept out of) (being
discriminated against) (whatever)
(This point is included not specifically to annoy anyone -- though I
realise it probably will -- but to give an example of the kind of tired
reflection that can be met in minds that have been around a few cycles of
bold change and new initiatives and better chances and whatever, in the UK.
I don't know whether this kind of thought is found as frequently among the
older hacks in the US education scene).
m99m
PS "routing" in southern Brit-English is pronounced "rooting", (as rhymed
with "Tooting", a part of London [pronounced "Lundun"])
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