Creating an accessible curriculum for students with disabilities.

1. Introduction

This leaflet is one of a series written for the SHEFC-funded Project, Teachability: Creating an accessible curriculum for students with disabilities. The whole series covers elements of curricula, from this one on Information about the Course or Programme of Study through to Examinations and Assessments. Each leaflet provides information and suggestions for academic staff who are concerned to make their curriculum design and delivery as accessible as it can be to disabled students. Given that a curriculum which is accessible is one in which reasonable adjustments have been anticipated, the leaflets are also likely to be of value to those who are reviewing their provision in the light of the duties of the Disability Discrimination Act, Part IV.

The series is intended to support academic staff in reviewing curricular provision, and to help decide whether some change is required or desirable. Of course, the implementation of change may involve others in the academic department or unit, or in the wider institution or beyond, such as professional bodies or national organizations. The aim is to identify, and thereafter remove or reduce, inadvertent barriers, which prevent disabled students from successfully participating in courses and programmes of study.

The DDA Part IV, Code of Practice (para. 4.27) requires that academic staff be clear about core course requirements. Such clarity is useful in identifying what scope there may be for changing aspects of curriculum design and delivery. It is important that academic staff consider where adjustments may, and may not, be made, or where course design or delivery may or may not be made more accessible. The legislation promotes a departure from ad hoc, reactive responses to the needs of disabled people. This suggests that wherever possible, courses and teaching practices should be accessible by design, so that only minimal adaptations need to be made, reactively, for individuals.

Whether anything different or additional might be needed by a disabled student or applicant by way of information about a course or programme of study will depend on the information already made available to all applicants and students. As far as possible, the needs of disabled students should be considered when courses and programmes of study are designed. Given the critical, gateway role of information about the course or programme, it is essential that the features of courses which may be inaccessible to some students should be made known in advance. This leaflet suggests that in thinking about the accessibility of information about courses or programmes of study, it is necessary to consider not only the format and location of the information, but also its content and its tone.

The legislation makes clear that academic standards should not be compromised. However, it adds that academic standards should not be used spuriously, or as justification for barring whole groups of disabled people from courses or services. Thus it would be unlawful to suggest, for example, that no dyslexic students or no blind students would be accepted onto a particular course. Although such explicit exclusions may be unlikely to feature in a course or programme description, disabled applicants are in addition likely to wish to know whether their chances of achieving the highest success in a subject or discipline will be reduced by the way in which the course or programme is delivered or assessed.

It is incumbent on those who determine the demands of courses and programmes to ensure that there are no unnecessary barriers to the participation of disabled students. And it is incumbent on those who describe courses and programmes of study to ensure that such descriptions accurately reflect the course or programme’s demands. If it is conceivable that some adjustments which might be needed by some disabled students would not be possible, perhaps because they would conflict with academic or other prescribed standards, such as those set by a professional body, then it is essential that this information is made available to applicants for the course or programme of study.

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