Dear Colleagues,
I would be grateful for your advice.
I have a student who has applied to study Biomedical Sciences and is a
wheel chair user (manual). She is able to stand, however her diagnosed
condition means that she passes out when she does get up. A large
proportion of the course she intends to study involves dissecting either
full bodies or selected organs. When she is required to dissect a full
body, it will be placed upon a special metal table, which is too high for
this student to see over. The department has stated that she will need to
have a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the body in order to be able to dissect.
Suggestions have been made to lower the table, however students will work
in groups when dissecting and therefore this is not an option as the others
will have to stoop to work, putting them at a disadvantage. The other
option was to purchase some kind of chair which would lift the student up
and she could look over- however the department have argued that this will
still not give the student a direct view. Other options which have been
discussed have been to use a camera or mirrors above the body, but I am not
convinced by this solution and I think it would make it even harder for the
student to see what they are doing as they are not looking directly at the
body. This student has had support workers in the past to enable her to
complete practical work however, an academic learning outcome is that the
student must actually do the dissection themselves.
I would be grateful if anyone could give me some advice on this situation.
Thanks
Sophie
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