I may be drifting away from the original message, but the issue of
students with disabilities not wanting any action taken reminds me
of a case we had to handle earlier in the year. The student (not
from this University) was in a wheelchair and couldn't open doors or
support herself in libraries, the canteen etc. Her university was
concerned for her health and safety and insisted on setting up
carers to follow her around.
The student emphatically did not want this and said so. She
recognised she could not cope unaided but wanted to rely on
volunteers. The university regarded this as an unsafe policy and
considered excluding the student.
I spoke to Sophie Corlett some weeks before she left Skill and she
pointed out that laws have a heirachy with some taking precedent
over others. In this case Health and Safety Laws would apply over
others and, given the university would be held responsible if
anything happened to the student, it should consider its position
very carefully. Though she also pointed out that the university
should consider doing everything possible to enable a clearly
independent minded student to cope as she saw fit. By adapting
the environment basically.
Dave Laycock
Head of CCPD
Chair of NADO
Computer Centre for People with Disabilities
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1N 5AL
tel. 020 7911-5161
fax. 020 7911-5162
WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/
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