Dear Penny.  I wonder what would you have said if I wrote, trying to address the issue you raised:  "...make use of our failures to inform (y)our work and so to enable us to fail better in future".  I am not sure about the glassess you suggested, but my respects, man!

No doubt 'practicioner' should remember that while we discuss these issues there are disabled people that are facing a factual situation in which 'they are significantly disadvantaged'. 

Now, this is not to say that your approach of trying to find something useful should be discarted. On the contrary.  I guess if we can find a way in which everyone is happy, we should try it. But such a 'solution' shouldn't hide the fact that the organisation you mentioned was causing the situation in the first place, against the law.
The problem of not addressing that issue is that we could indirently be encouraging  the development of private services to help defaulting organisations. We should considered the consequences for disabled people and the sector. 

In my view, the disability as a business culture could have devastating effects. To start with, it reverses the focus on the 'student'.  before we privatise all the public sphere, we should try to encourage organisations to comply with the law. 

Best, Andy

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Penny Georgiou [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 01 June 2009 15:31
To: A.Velarde; [log in to unmask]
Subject: quotes for support tutoring

Dear Andy, 

 

'improving the world'...now that is a long existential conundrum...a conversation best had over a long cool glass with ice cubes, in comfortable chairs against a sky of dusk...in the hustle and bustle of the daily catching of planes, trains, and automobiles, we each have to do the best we can, with the various approaches at our disposal...and when they don't work, we can invent new ones. 

Penny
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: A.Velarde [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Mon 01/06/2009 14:46
To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
Cc: 
Subject: [SPAM: 30.000] RE: [SPAM: 20.000] RE: quotes for support tutoring




	Dear Penny. I wasn't really suggesting  a course of action. I was just expressing a personal  'legalistic' opinion. I appreciate the emotional cost of legal battles and perhaps that is the reason why I think SENDA is wrong. In my own perfect world, i would create a law that had organisational structuring remedies and a class action system rather than an individual remedy approach. As a colleague of mine says, the law has been made to bring money to the solicitors class. Any way, back to the point you raised.
	
	I don't think it is possible to disagree with the spirit of of what you wrote. I guess none wants to complain or even believe in complaining. It seems it is , like laughter, a universal human characteristic. However this is different to say that the approach you suggest is going to be 'effective' for the person that is suffering the problem. I noticed, at this point, you shifted your point of observation, from the person to yourself ( "I much prefer (as it gives me hope)...").
	
	Your approach is a method of working which I don't think was in question. I respect your choice, and in many ways, people like me follow it, but not because we are convinced that such an approach helps to 'improve the world', or because it is a morally superior.
	
	I just wonder how we could ever reconciled a professional attitude with a 'social model' approach. I guess it is up to 'disabled' people to do what they can, and so do we in our own work?
	
	Best, Andy
	
	This email  contain my own personal opinions only
	
	________________________________________
	From: Penny Georgiou [[log in to unmask]]
	Sent: 30 May 2009 23:49
	To: A.Velarde; [log in to unmask]
	Subject: RE: [SPAM: 20.000] RE: quotes for support tutoring
	
	Dear Andy,
	
	Thanks for the comments, and I appreciate the spirit. Still, I am not a believer in complaints procedures as a solution. Complaints systems are quite dehumanising, and it is often the case that the process just wears people down; both the person complaining, when it is genuine, and then the person being complained against when it is not.
	
	I much prefer (as it gives me hope) when we make use of our failures to inform our work and so to enable us to fail better in future; ie to extend the limits of our capacity to make things work, knowing that there are always impasses and impossibilities, and, of course, failures...
	
	Penny
	
	
	
	
	-----Original Message-----
	From: A.Velarde [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
	Sent: Fri 29/05/2009 15:28
	To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
	Cc:
	Subject: [SPAM: 20.000] RE: quotes for support tutoring
	
	
	
	        HI Penny. Interesting and outrageous.  My legalistic view is that that University is surely under the obligation of providing auxiliary aids and services (under SENDA, Code of Practice Post 16 and DDA 2005). The Disability Rights Commission (today  it has a name about human rights issues) used to have a mediating services. Perhaps the student could take this a bit further and call the organisation to account. It is not on for students (paying the fees that they pay) to have to 'sort out'  what it is a clear university responsibility (provide a suitable and accessible physical environment).
	
	        I am also of the view that NADO (I understand it now has an acronym that sounds something like NAPDADC) could do a bit more to raise the awareness of the work conditions of its fee paying associate and do a bit more that lovely 'lets get together now and be alright' event in the year. Perhaps sending a letter to that University (to the highest authority cc to the human rights commission)  making him (would the person is a she? Any bets?) aware of this situation that doesn't help to the professional treatment of professional people.
	
	        Just a Friday and grumpy thought.
	
	        Andy
	
	        NB. These are my personal views.
	        ________________________________________
	        From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Penny Georgiou [[log in to unmask]]
	        Sent: 29 May 2009 11:43
	        To: [log in to unmask]
	        Subject: Re: quotes for support tutoring
	
	        Dear Colleagues,
	
	        A request for tutorial support has just been put to me for a student presenting with SpLD (dyslexia) , as an assessor.
	
	        The proposed provider is a large company -  a big mover now moving into specialist learning support. The costs quoted are £300 set up fee, plus £66 for a risk assessment ostensibly in order to work in a student's home.
	
	        The student, when asked, didn't know anything about working at home. What she had agreed with the tutor was to meet at the British Library because there are no rooms at the University.
	
	        There are no grounds to agree to this, and such a request trivialises the situations where there is a real need that warrants exceptional and expensive arrangements.
	
	        The student says that she has not had any support so far, as there is no one available at her university. She is now just a few months from the end of her course, and she came to see me originally almost 2 years ago.
	
	        Clearly, we have to do some joined up thinking as a sector here, and quickly. This is not rocket science. Isn't it time we had a website for the sector for non-medical helpers, where practitioners could list their qualifications, experience and contact details, so that students could go there and find support in their area when the University disability service is not able to place a student directly. There is a need for a fall back position, otherwise, the system becomes prey to either cynicism or gross misjudgement and loss of perspective.
	
	        What can universities do to make suitable accommodation available for these encounters?
	        What can ADSHE do as a key professional organisation in this field of work?
	
	        Regards,
	
	        Penny Georgiou