Natalya makes good points here but I think we need to be careful in the arguments we present.

The reality is that not all the kit that DSA provides is used effectively and in some cases it is not used at all and the over-provision of kit in some parts of the support system leads inevitably to under-provision in others.

Not all disabled students require top end PCs. Not all need top end software. A not insignificant number of disabled students will already have a PC/laptop that meets their needs admirably. We are all very good at making sure disabled learners are regarded as individuals in other contexts - we need be no less vigorous in seeing disabled people as individuals in this context. I agree entirely that there are many disabled learners for whom a blanket ban on DSA funded laptops would be disastrous. However I don't see blanket entitlement being justifiable either - it's simply not true that all disabled students need brand new laptops by virtue of their disability when they come to University.

A

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Natalya Dell
Sent: 28 March 2013 12:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Targeted Support for Higher Education Students Review: Call for Evidence

Ian F Said:
> In case you haven't seen this - I think it's really important for
> disability officers and anyone concerned about widening participation
> to respond to this asap. The assumption it seems to be making (that
> everyone has a computer nowadays) does not reflect reality, in my view.
>
> https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/targeted-support-for-highe
> r-education-students-review-call-for-evidence

Thanks Ian, I replied to someone who posted this survey to ADSHE mailing list and I'll post a very similar reply here as I'd appreciate people's thoughts.

I don't actually know how many students in general do or don't own a computer.  I am a disability & tech adviser and I only see disabled students so I have no idea about the broader student population and a quick Google didn't show any promising data on computer ownership amongst students.

I would argue that it is foolish to attempt to do a university course without access to your own computer. I believe this was the case 10-15 years ago and that's only become more magnified since.  It is akin to not having pens and paper (how much would 3 years of notebooks & pens cost vs a £100 second hand computer?).  Students are expected to buy textbooks although I know our student union is doing research into "hidden costs of degrees" and working out "additional costs" of things like textbooks, fieldtrips etc as increased fees is putting the spotlight on non-included "extras".  It's horrible in some ways because I imagine if you are poor you simply lose out and I worry that many of our students are poorer than average for reasons related to their disability.

If you are not disabled then you may have the energy/time/capacity to not have your own computer and just use library or public PCs on campus. Or use a really grotty old computer with Open Office instead of MS office etc
etc.   Many of our disabled students can't get to or can't use university
provided public PCs for disability-related-reasons and maybe free software is just too complicated.  It'd end up with more students stuck and falling out of the system because their disability is likely to magnify the impact of not having suitable computing equipment and other things like poverty.
It is for this reason that we can get DSA to pay for taxi transport for journeys for some students who can't walk 1-2 miles to university like their non-disabled counterparts.

I worry that if our students had to provide their own machine there would be even more problems with "reliability of tech" than there are now.  As "tech of all trades" at our place I am often asked to advise/help with dodgy computers and where DSA is involved it's great to be able to advise "Contact the supplier, arrange repair, get a loan machine" etc.  DSA machines are generally standardised and suppliers are improving with repair and loan quality of support.  Sending a machine with AT on it to a general tech for repair/advice often results in the techies panicking and either refusing to deal with it, or messing up the AT.

If a student had to use their own machine for installing AT on then if it broke or had the usual computer issues and they couldn't afford a repair/replacement then they'd be deprived of assistive tech as well as the basic machine. We'd be wrangling whether their computers were fit for purpose and all sorts. Just the thought of this makes me CRINGE!  It is bad enough when a student uses their own machine and that fails completely on the student.

Public access PCs are really very basic.  The ergonomics is often atrocious and it's not easy to do ergo stuff "one size fits all" as it can be subtleties like specific mice/keyboards, chair settings, screen settings, profile info, etc. They're not designed for sustained use which would be needed by students doing all their work on one.  Often the keyboards are worn out!  I believe EA Draffan has done or talked about some work on "personalisation" of a PC and how important that is to students - and possibly magnified for disabled students.

Before I could consider answering this survey I think I'd need to think about how to frame my response so that BIS would recognise the very real dangers of "treating disabled students the same as everyone else" being a form of discrimination in itself.  I am not sure I'm articulate enough to argue "well yes many/most (citation needed) non disabled studes do have computers, but here's why ours would suffer if you took DSA computers away...."

Is what I am saying making sense?

Natalya
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