Supporting students with Reasonable Adjustments: survey

Colleague feedback is requested to help improve the training and guidance available when supporting students with disabilities.

The University is committed to ensuring every student has equal access to education and opportunities to progress.

One way we can do this is through Reasonable Adjustments. These are support measures we are required to put in place to help disabled students to engage with their learning.

Examples include providing flexible options for assessment such as presenting to a smaller group, allowing students time to process information during taught sessions, or providing accessible teaching resources like visual prompts, guided reading list or a glossary of terms ahead of teaching.

Survey

If you are involved in delivering or supporting teaching and assessment, please complete this Reasonable Adjustments survey by Friday 19 July 2024.

The survey will help the Reasonable Adjustments Schools Working Group (RASWG) to gauge current levels of understanding and confidence among colleagues in implementing Reasonable Adjustments, and identify where additional support is needed.

Survey responses can be completely anonymised to enable open and honest feedback.

Reasonable Adjustments guidance

Reasonable Adjustments can be requested by any student with a disability.

They should be implemented as soon as reasonably and practically possible after we first become aware of a student’s disability.

The student does not need to have registered with Disability Services (DAS) first, although it is very important they do so and that colleagues also report their actions using the Schools’ Observed Indicators (SOI) form.

Recent student welfare cases at other universities have had implications for the whole HE sector and have emphasised the importance of implementing Reasonable Adjustments for students at the point of need.

Collaborative work has recently been carried out by the DAS team and the RASWG to review and update our approach to implementing Reasonable Adjustments to ensure we are responding properly.

Colleagues can refer to interim guidance published online and a recording of a recent staff briefing session.

• See further guidance on when it is appropriate to share student data while implementing Reasonable Adjustments.

Whilst it is recognised that this is mainly aimed at academic colleagues who deliver teaching and assessment activities or other student facing staff who support teaching, this approach is also relevant for other colleagues such as module convenors, disability representatives, academic tutors, technical support staff, support centre staff, and wellbeing staff.

More detailed guidance will be made available for the next academic year, together with a new e-module and a Teams channel for resources and sharing good practice.