Dear Clare,
Poor you. I'm sure we've all had the problem from time to time.
the first thing is that, although educational services, etc, are not covered under
the dda, other services that the university offers, such as accommodation,
canteen, library, I think, and book shop, are.I don't know why they think it's
okay to take the money out of only student services, because the university
will also have to comply with the dda as an employer and make reasonable
adjustments for any disabled applicants of jobs or disabled employees.
If you have any disabledstudents who are being denied access at the moment,
they might feel like writing in protest about it to the v.c. This happened here
recently, or rather, a letter from a student was passed on to him, and he got
involved! I think he was extremely unhappy about the situation, and realised at
once how bad this could look if this student, who was quite articulate about
their probhlems, went public. This was also a "way in" for people to draw
attentiohn to the need to uphold our policy and try to conform to the dda and
our disability statement.
Of course, things take a while to change, and only so much can happenat
once, and it certainly does hneed the support of the v.c.
I'm wondering if, now that students are going to be our "customers", paying
tuition fees, I mean, whether that arguement can be used. I heard of someone
who recently took their university to the small claims court, and won. It wasn'[t
a disabled student, but someone who had left a course, because of poor
material, and got their money back.
Of course, their is money around disabled students, too. Have you seen the
"widening participation" report from the CVCP? I have found, too, that it often
helps to involve an outside agency, one that, perhaps, works with people with
that particular impairment. Depending, of course, on the quality of that agency.
Often, an outside disability organisation, can be more forthright than a staff
member.
These are some verypreliminary thoughts. I shall be interested to hear other
people's views.
It's a hard one ahnd I wish you the best of luck with it.
Susanna.
Susanna Hancock
Equal Opportunities Officer
QAAS
ext: 6873
Email: [log in to unmask]
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