.
Laws as passed by the British Parliament are often quite muddled, unclear,
and merely hopeful that things might eventually get sorted out and bring
more benefits than problems. To order institutions to provide "access" to
people having a "disability" is a nice idea, but there are considerable
differences between what various people (or judges in court) might consider
to be a reasonable provision, adaptation or accommodation of the huge
variety of types and methods of educational services to the huge variety of
personal needs, wishes or wants, in the huge variety of actual buildings,
structures and environments (as has already been experienced in the US).
The UEA website provides a good deal of information about its current
experience, and the kind of adaptations and special provisions and so forth
that are available or can be made available, at:
www.uea.ac.uk/dos/studentswithdisabilities.html ,
and greater detail at:
www.uea.ac.uk/dos/disabilityinfo.pdf ,
and explains why it prefers to be in touch with possible applicants at the
earliest, to ensure that they know what they might be coming to, and the
university knows what may be needed, and there can be a trial match of
views on ways in which special needs may be met.
The UEA does admit that, in unusual situations, it may have difficulty
finding a way to meet a particular applicant's needs; but states that it
would not take a decision without the applicant being able to offer
additional suggestions etc.
Reading the UEA stuff, I got an impression of a University that has gained
a good deal of experience over 20 years of adapting its practices and
buildings to welcome and accommodate the great majority of students with
disabilities, and has also gained the confidence to be upfront and honest
about what it can do or will attempt to do.
Of course, they could just have given some baloney statement about
welcoming all and everyone with whatever -- and then let those people sign
up, pay their fees, and find out the problems one by one, with accumulating
dismay and misery, knowing that any complaints, appeals or legal actions
could be played out over months or more likely years, usually with the
student giving up, sadder, financially poorer, and without the studies and
degree they had hoped to achieve.
You might, for example, be able to nail UEA for admitting that they have
one department currently housed in a very old, listed [protected] building,
which they cannot legal adapt with elevators etc -- but if they could
demonstrate that you had no compelling reason to study in that particular
location, but could take a similar course, at comparable cost, in another
institution within 100 miles, housed in a modern, fully accessible
building, it might prove very difficult to nail them. Meanwhile, the
publicity generated by hard cases could bring some backward modifications
of the law (as also experienced in the US).
Try the UEA website.
m99m
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