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>How effective do you feel that the registration form used by your >institution is in producing accurate information about the number of >students with disabilities? Students tick a box to indicate whether they 'have a disability or health problem which might affect their studies'. If they answer 'yes' then we send them a booklet which explains what the demands of OU study are and what the implications are for particular situations. They then return a form ticking the appropriate facilities to meet their needs. Reluctance to disclose needs is miniscule. I think this is due to the wording of the prospectus. Also the fact that they are not specifically required to put a name to their 'condition' but identify their needs. Later they will receive specific information about examination facilities and facilities at residential schools which they can request. They have access to a local adviser at each stage if they need to discuss their support. We use our own version of the UCAS types of disability as we found these rather negative. We use the following: Sight, Hearing, Mobility, Manual skills, Speech, Dyslexia, Mental Health, Personal Care, Fatigue or Pain, Other (please specify). > >Do you think that a form where the information about >disability (and ethnicity) were physicaly detatched from the main record >would encourage students to trust in the confidentiality of the excercise? I don't think this would make any difference for us. > >Can we achieve a consensus regarding current good practice (given that >marrying the needs of Registry to work with a very standardised form, and >the wishes of this Disability Officer not to reduce people to tick-boxes is >less than straightforward) We felt it was cumbersome to have all the disability types on the registration form. That is why we just ask the one question and then target collecting the information from those who have needs. > Bonita Thomson Adviser East Anglian Region OU %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%