Dear Clare

Disability awareness is all well and good, but I hope that 
your institution is taking the complaint seriously.  What 
would be the action/procedure if a student complained that 
he/she was being treated differently because they were 
black or patronised and marginalised because she is a she.

Carrot and stick.  Show people you mean business.  Talk to 
both parties, find out what is happening in there.

Bryan Jones
Equal Opportunities Adviser
London Guildhall University..

On Fri, 6 Feb 1998 17:05:48 -0000 Hilary Nurse 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 
> 
> ----------
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Cc: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: disability awareness for students
> > Date: 06 February 1998 13:41
> > 
> > Can anyone suggest ways to provide disability awareness for non-disabled 
> > students?  
> > 
> > We have had a complaint about discriminatory behaviour towards a student
> who
> > uses a wheelchair "they see my wheelchair and treat me differently, they
> don't
> > talk to me"  This complaint is mainly targeted at students aged 18 to
> early 
> > 20's, but the disabled student proposed that we need to promote awareness
> 
> > amongst all students.    
> > 
> > I would like to respond, but would need approaches that could be used
> with each
> > new intake of students, and it would have to be cost effective (in time
> as well
> > as money).  
> > 
> > Are the posters developed in an earlier HEFCE funded projects still
> available?
> > What else has been successful?  Any ideas and suggestions appreciated!
> > 
> > Clare Davies
>  
> Clare 
> 	This may seem a little simple minded of me and I apologise in advance, but
> perhaps those students in need of education about disability need to
> experience what its like to be disabled.  I was thinking something along
> the lines of kitting them out with heavy gardening gloves, heavy goggles
> (welders perhaps) and asking them to thread a fine sewing needle, or other
> tasks such as shopping.  Better still if you have access to some
> wheelchairs and make them do a whole days study from the 'comfort' of such
> and have them supervised by a regular wheelchair user.
> 	If the above ideas could be incorporated in their course of study and they
> were then asked to report back on their experiences this may prove to be a
> worthwhile 'icebreaker'.
> 	I speak and make these suggestions as a relatively 'newly' diagnosed
> dyslexic of early middle age and working fulltime and studying with the
> Open University .  When trying to aquaint people with the disadvantages of
> dyslexia is to sit 'normal' people down with say a simple text in an
> alphabet other than their native one and ask them to work out or 'read'
> those texts out loud.  You'd be surprised of the reaction this produces
> amongst  these 'normal' people.
> 	Do let me know if any of these ideas work for you.
> Hilary M. Nurse
> 

----------------------
Bryan Jones
[log in to unmask]




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