"shouldn't hide the fact that the organisation you mentioned was causing the situation in the first place, against the law. The problem of not addressing that issue is that we could indirently be encouraging the development of private services to help defaulting organisations....
In my view, the disability as a business culture could have devastating effects. To start with, it reverses the focus on the 'student'. before we privatise all the public sphere, we should try to encourage organisations to comply with the law."
Dear Andy,
Yes, you are drawing attention to serious issues, and you are right to point to the duties of the institutions and the law.
I was hoping, by raising this issue within the sector in such a public way, and the institutions concerned will have been reading this exchange, that the ground can move a little, so that it is not left simply to the student to fight this one alone. Having spoken to the student further today, there are other details where companies as well as institutions have failed this student. For example, in her assessment of needs, nearly two years ago, I recommended 3 half days of training. The suppliers of the equipment trained the student, and only delivered one half day of training. The student is failing her essays because she has problems with structure. She wants to be able to use mind maps but doesn't know how. She has not had any non-medical helper support in nearly two years, and is now trying to complete but struggling. She needs tutorial support but her university is apparently quite well known for 'not helping their students'. First of all, the aim is to get the student the support that she needs, including having arranged for her to have training with a trainer who can help her with the mind mapping, who will also report back to me if there are any other issues arising with equipment or training needs. Also, to put her in touch with a tutor who is able to work in a targetted way with the learning priorities that she presents with.
If she indicates an interest to bring a complaint against her institution, or anyone else, I will point her to where she can obtain proper advice about this. In the meantime, my immediate responsibility is to the student on a case by case basis. Bringing these issues to sector in public is an attempt to take it further.
Without the law, there would be no framework that would create the conditions for a service to take place. To deliver a service that properly engages with the challenges that students' needs bring, you need something more: the desire to do so.
Let's see where this goes....
Best wishes,
Penny
-----Original Message-----
From: Penny Georgiou [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 June 2009 15:31
To: A.Velarde; [log in to unmask]
Subject: quotes for support tutoring
Dear Andy,
'improving the world'...now that is a long existential conundrum...a conversation best had over a long cool glass with ice cubes, in comfortable chairs against a sky of dusk...in the hustle and bustle of the daily catching of planes, trains, and automobiles, we each have to do the best we can, with the various approaches at our disposal...and when they don't work, we can invent new ones.
Penny
-----Original Message-----
From: A.Velarde [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Mon 01/06/2009 14:46
To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: [SPAM: 30.000] RE: [SPAM: 20.000] RE: quotes for support tutoring
Dear Penny. I wasn't really suggesting a course of action. I was just expressing a personal 'legalistic' opinion. I appreciate the emotional cost of legal battles and perhaps that is the reason why I think SENDA is wrong. In my own perfect world, i would create a law that had organisational structuring remedies and a class action system rather than an individual remedy approach. As a colleague of mine says, the law has been made to bring money to the solicitors class. Any way, back to the point you raised.
I don't think it is possible to disagree with the spirit of of what you wrote. I guess none wants to complain or even believe in complaining. It seems it is , like laughter, a universal human characteristic. However this is different to say that the approach you suggest is going to be 'effective' for the person that is suffering the problem. I noticed, at this point, you shifted your point of observation, from the person to yourself ( "I much prefer (as it gives me hope)...").
Your approach is a method of working which I don't think was in question. I respect your choice, and in many ways, people like me follow it, but not because we are convinced that such an approach helps to 'improve the world', or because it is a morally superior.
I just wonder how we could ever reconciled a professional attitude with a 'social model' approach. I guess it is up to 'disabled' people to do what they can, and so do we in our own work?
Best, Andy
This email contain my own personal opinions only
________________________________________
From: Penny Georgiou [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 30 May 2009 23:49
To: A.Velarde; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [SPAM: 20.000] RE: quotes for support tutoring
Dear Andy,
Thanks for the comments, and I appreciate the spirit. Still, I am not a believer in complaints procedures as a solution. Complaints systems are quite dehumanising, and it is often the case that the process just wears people down; both the person complaining, when it is genuine, and then the person being complained against when it is not.
I much prefer (as it gives me hope) when we make use of our failures to inform our work and so to enable us to fail better in future; ie to extend the limits of our capacity to make things work, knowing that there are always impasses and impossibilities, and, of course, failures...
Penny
-----Original Message-----
From: A.Velarde [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Fri 29/05/2009 15:28
To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: [SPAM: 20.000] RE: quotes for support tutoring
HI Penny. Interesting and outrageous. My legalistic view is that that University is surely under the obligation of providing auxiliary aids and services (under SENDA, Code of Practice Post 16 and DDA 2005). The Disability Rights Commission (today it has a name about human rights issues) used to have a mediating services. Perhaps the student could take this a bit further and call the organisation to account. It is not on for students (paying the fees that they pay) to have to 'sort out' what it is a clear university responsibility (provide a suitable and accessible physical environment).
I am also of the view that NADO (I understand it now has an acronym that sounds something like NAPDADC) could do a bit more to raise the awareness of the work conditions of its fee paying associate and do a bit more that lovely 'lets get together now and be alright' event in the year. Perhaps sending a letter to that University (to the highest authority cc to the human rights commission) making him (would the person is a she? Any bets?) aware of this situation that doesn't help to the professional treatment of professional people.
Just a Friday and grumpy thought.
Andy
NB. These are my personal views.
________________________________________
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Penny Georgiou [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 29 May 2009 11:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: quotes for support tutoring
Dear Colleagues,
A request for tutorial support has just been put to me for a student presenting with SpLD (dyslexia) , as an assessor.
The proposed provider is a large company - a big mover now moving into specialist learning support. The costs quoted are £300 set up fee, plus £66 for a risk assessment ostensibly in order to work in a student's home.
The student, when asked, didn't know anything about working at home. What she had agreed with the tutor was to meet at the British Library because there are no rooms at the University.
There are no grounds to agree to this, and such a request trivialises the situations where there is a real need that warrants exceptional and expensive arrangements.
The student says that she has not had any support so far, as there is no one available at her university. She is now just a few months from the end of her course, and she came to see me originally almost 2 years ago.
Clearly, we have to do some joined up thinking as a sector here, and quickly. This is not rocket science. Isn't it time we had a website for the sector for non-medical helpers, where practitioners could list their qualifications, experience and contact details, so that students could go there and find support in their area when the University disability service is not able to place a student directly. There is a need for a fall back position, otherwise, the system becomes prey to either cynicism or gross misjudgement and loss of perspective.
What can universities do to make suitable accommodation available for these encounters?
What can ADSHE do as a key professional organisation in this field of work?
Regards,
Penny Georgiou
|