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Transforming support for students with disabilities in UK Higher Education
Author(s) -
Taylor Mark,
Turnbull Yvonne,
Bleasdale Jo,
Francis Hulya,
Forsyth Henry
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
support for learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1467-9604
pISSN - 0268-2141
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9604.12143
Subject(s) - allowance (engineering) , government (linguistics) , process (computing) , dyslexia , medical education , software , learning disability , universal design , inclusion (mineral) , assistive technology , psychology , multiple disabilities , computer science , reading (process) , medicine , political science , engineering , world wide web , human–computer interaction , social psychology , operations management , developmental psychology , philosophy , linguistics , law , programming language , operating system
Intended UK government changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance will have a significant impact on the support that UK universities provide for students with disabilities. In this article we examine the types of transformation that may be needed to support for university students with disabilities, from a socio‐technical perspective. The research reported in this article involved a year‐long case study in a UK university. The potential changes required to support for students with disabilities within the university studied, to cater for the proposed UK government changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance, include: providing non‐medical helpers through external agencies; developing a dyslexia screening process; providing enhanced library services, including access to printers and scanners and assistance with assistive software; providing laptops with assistive software; making assistive software available in a limited form in computing laboratories; and more co‐ordinated special examination provision.