I think the language we use is very important and we seem to be going
backwards.
While there's nothing wrong with universities providing 'study buddy'
schemes (or 'study skills support') free of charge for all students
irrespective of whether or not they have a disability, when it comes to
expecting support to be funded from the students DSA it needs to be very
clearly stated in assessment reports etc and (summarised) in invoices
that the charge is for specialist support aimed at helping the student
address particular effects of a disability on participation in their
course.
Referring to specialist support as a 'study buddy' or even 'study skills
support' sounds patronising and risks students not even bothering to
make use of the support, especially students who are maybe already a bit
reluctant to explore the potential benefits of using specialist
assistance in their studies. Personally I would hope by now that HEIs
have got rid of such outdated terminology in the context of DSA funded
support.
While it's good to avoid 'jargon' it's more important that we use
language that does not result in students feeling patronised, that
clearly explains to the student what they can (and cannot) expect from
the support being recommended for them and that does not create a
completely unnecessary risk of applications for specialist support being
delayed/complicated through the need for additional correspondence with
the funding body or even refused by the funding body because they cannot
justify releasing funding according to how the support is described in
the context of current DSA legislation.
Hope this helps,
Ian Francis
On 22/09/2010 19:57, Petrie, Joel wrote:
> Is there a general problem with the language we / Needs Assessors / SFE use as professionals?
>
> As an ex disabled student& now practitioner around disability I'm astonished by the language we use. I'm not convinced any disabled student wants a "buddy" - I think they'd prefer an effective, supportive professional.
>
> And don't get me started on the revolting "Non-Medical Helper" - a term which seems to completely ignore the concerns of the disabled people's movement and a generation of findings in Disabilty Studies.
>
> Joel
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. on behalf of Kathy Martyn
> Sent: Wed 22/09/2010 17:32
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: study buddy
>
>
>
> This is proving to be an interesting dialogue as we also have students who need support and so far have had this funded. We do not use the term study buddy, or indeed mentor in the application but talk about additional support. I think it is important that in making any application it is clear what the support is for without using too much jargon. The context for our students have been related to students with ongoing MH and support in practice placements as they make the transition from service user to student to health care professional. We make it very explicit what the role entails and so far have always managed. It will be useful in this new academic year to see what happens as we have students currently applying for NHS bursary DSA
>
>
> Kathy Martyn
> Principal Lecturer/Disability Liaison Tutor
> SNM
> University of Brighton
>
>
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