Teachability

 Creating an Accessible Curriculum
for Students with Disabilities

FOREWORD

Part of the mission of the TEACHABILITY: Creating an Accessible Curriculum for Students with Disabilities Project, is to produce materials to assist academic staff in reflecting on various aspects of delivery of curricula, and to consider possible changes to practices, in order meet the teaching and learning needs of students with a range of impairments more effectively. 

Institutions, departments and individual members of academic staff, are currently considering the implications of the recently issued QAA Code of Practice: Students with Disabilities, and the anticipated legislation. This will extend to students with disabilities in higher education similar rights to those enshrined in the Disability Discrimination Act. The materials provide an excellent source of information and a structure to assist individuals, departments and institutions to undertake a review of their provision for students with disabilities and are very timely. 

The document represents the outcome of a collaborative effort involving academic staff from academic departments, teaching and learning units, and special needs advisers, from five west of Scotland Higher Education institutions. I commend it to you as representing a major contribution to meeting the needs of students with disabilities. 

Professor Susan Shaw, 
University of Strathclyde, Chair, Steering Group, 

TEACHABILITY: Creating an Accessible Curriculum Project 

TEACHABILITY PROJECT

CREATING AN ACCESSIBLE CURRICULUM FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Project funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council

Lead Institution
The University of Strathclyde

Any queries or comments in relation to this publication should be addressed to: 

Anne E. Simpson, Project Manager, 
Special Needs Service, University of Strathclyde, 
Room 4.41 Graham Hills Building. 
50 George Street, Glasgow G1 1QE. 
Telephone 0141548 3402 
Email a.simpson@mis.strath.ac.uk 

  Copyright: The University of Strathclyde 2000 
Extracts from this document may be reproduced for education or training purposes on condition that its source is acknowledged. 

Getting Started

Introduction
WHY use these materials?
HOW do you use these materials?
A note on the language of the materials

Questions

Information about the programme
Features of the whole programme of study
Induction of students into the programme or into the discipline
Lectures
Seminars/Tutorials
Practical classes, including laboratories, studios and workshops
Placements, study abroad and field trips
Information and communication
Assessments

Resources 

Resource 1 Information about the programme
Resource 2 Features of the whole programme of study
Resource 3 Induction of students into the programme or into the discipline
Resource 4 Lectures
Resource 5 Seminars/Tutorials
Resource 6 Practical classes, including laboratories, studios and workshops
Resource 7 Placements, study abroad, and field trips
Resource 8 Information and communication
Resource 9 Assessments
Resource 10 References

Introduction

The following materials have been written as a framework for academic staff to reflect on various aspects of the delivery of curricula, and to consider possible changes to practices, which would meet more effectively the teaching and learning needs of students with a range of impairments.  

They have been developed as part of the Teachability: Creating an Accessible Curriculum for Students with Disabilities project.  

This work has been funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and has been undertaken by a partnership of five West of Scotland institutions of Higher Education – the Glasgow Caledonian University, the Glasgow School of Art, the University of Glasgow, the University of Paisley, and the University of Strathclyde.  Within each institution, there have been further key partnerships, namely, of Teaching and Learning staff, Special Needs Services staff, members of a great range of academic departments, and, most importantly, students with various impairments, whose incisive comments are incorporated in the text.   

It is hoped and intended that the materials will be of value to academic colleagues in a staff development context, and that their use would typically be facilitated by staff representing expertise in the areas of curriculum development and special needs.     

WHY use these materials?

The use of these materials will inform the development of departmental action plans for meeting more effectively the teaching and learning needs of students with various impairments.  

In the process, departments will also be able to address the challenges of the QAA Code of Practice: Students with Disabilities, and the requirements of the Disability Rights in Education legislation.  

Departmental action plans are likely to have implications for the wider institution, and it is anticipated that departments will share outcomes with other institutional staff with associated areas of responsibility, and who will also be strategically involved in assuring the quality of provision and compliance with legislation, for example, estates departments, or staff development departments.     
  
The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Code of Practice: Students with Disabilities asks institutions to:

‘Consider making arrangements which ensure that all academic and technical staff:

•	plan and employ teaching and learning strategies which make the delivery of the programme as inclusive as is reasonably possible;

•	know and understand the learning implications of any disabilities of the students whom they teach and are responsive to student feedback; and

•	make individual adaptations to delivery that are appropriate for particular students, which might include providing handouts in advance and/or in different formats (Braille, disk), short breaks for interpreters to rest, or using radio microphone systems, or flexible/interrupted study for students with mental health difficulties.’

The application of Disability Discrimination legislation to HE would advocate ‘reasonable adjustments’ which would prevent disabled students from being placed at substantial disadvantage in comparison to students who are not disabled.  ‘Reasonable adjustments’ can be in relation to, for example, admissions procedures, course content, placements, teaching arrangements, provision of information and examinations.  

These materials are intended to assist staff in addressing these issues.

HOW do you use these materials?

The following four steps are recommended.

STEP 1.

Before you look at either the questions or the text, ask yourself what are the core requirements of the subject or programme that you teach.  

This is a challenging question, but one that needs to be addressed, because potential students with impairments need to know whether there is any possible conflict between the nature of the subject, programme or discipline, and the nature of their impairment.  It is only if you begin with some clarity about core requirements of a programme that you can go on to engage with questions about adaptations and alternatives for students on the grounds of impairment.  Nevertheless, it may be that you will want to revise your ‘clear’ ideas about such core requirements in the light of some suggestions in the materials, or consider alternative means of fulfilling these requirements.  

STEP 2.

Look at the ‘Questions’ section.  

The questions are intended to aid reflection on current practices and procedures in relation to how well (or not) these meet the needs of students with a range of impairments, and whether there is scope for enhancement of curriculum delivery.  You could skip any sections which do not apply to your subject or programme, or use them creatively to address teaching practices not explicitly covered in the materials. 

STEP 3.

Read the text.

The first part of each resource section is about practices and procedures which are likely to meet the needs of most students, and which many departments regard as good, inclusive provision.  

The second part of each resource section is about possible provisions for some students with some impairments.  The difference can be illustrated by an example.  The department practice of putting overheads and other lecture materials on the department web-site could be seen as ‘inclusive practice’ from which all students are likely to benefit.  However, the provision of such materials in Braille is a possible provision for some students.

STEP 4.

Begin to formulate a strategy, by addressing the following questions:

(1)	How accessible is the curriculum for students with a range of impairments?  

(2)	How might the curriculum be made more accessible for students with a range of impairments?

(3)	What steps would need to be taken to implement the ways identified to enhance access to the curriculum?

(4)	What barriers are there to achieving the changes you have identified and what can be done about them? 

(5)	How can the ways in which the curriculum is particularly accessible or inaccessible be made known to potential students with a range of impairments?

Individuals may decide to alter their own teaching practices in some way(s).  At department level, changes to procedures and processes might lead to more accessible curriculum delivery.  However, where barriers do exist, the acknowledgement of constraints is essential in order to inform the programme choices of potential students. Effective strategies, of course, incorporate plans for monitoring and evaluation.  

Departmental strategy will also be of interest to institutional staff with responsibility for quality, programme advertising or for overseeing compliance with discrimination legislation.

A note on the language of the materials

The language of ‘impairment’ and ‘disability’ borrows from the social model of disability.  While people have impairments, the environment – attitudinal as well as physical – can be disabling.  It is simplistic to attribute problems about disability to individuals who are said to ‘have’ this or that disability when the reality is that many such problems disappear when environments are accessible.  And although there is little that staff in higher education can do to change the facts of students’ impairments, there may be scope for altering the environment of higher education, which, like any environment, may be disabling.     
Information about the programme

“Many people feel that I should not be in the course that I am in.”

1.	What information do you think potential students for your programme would need to have to make an informed decision about whether they could undertake the programme?

•	Is there anything you could add (or change) to help potential students, including those with impairments, to take a more informed view about whether they could and would want to undertake your programme?

•	Do you give potential students a named contact in the department if they remain in doubt about whether they could undertake your programme?  

2.	How could you make information about your programme(s) more easily available to potential students, some of whom have impairments?

Features of the whole programme of study

“I hope I’ll be well.  But from time to time I may need to go into hospital for treatment.  What happens then?”

1.	What flexibility is available in your programme of study in relation to:

a.	Student attendance requirements

b.	Availability of programme part- or full-time

c.	Extensions to end-dates of programme modules or elements

d.	Scope for transfer to alternative programmes 

e.	Scope for choice of modules or elements within the programme?

2.	What flexibility in relation to a – e above could be made available to a student for reasons associated with an impairment?

Induction of students into the programme or into the discipline

“I remember when I first arrived. Being in a hearing environment, it is very difficult.”

1.	What measures do you take to induct students, including those with disclosed needs, into your department or discipline?

2.	Does your student induction extend to cover the variety of teaching and learning settings and methods used on your programme(s), such as placements and practicals?

3.	Where students have impairments, which create a need for the use of equipment or educational support worker, are you able to offer additional assistance with induction into the range of teaching settings and methods used?

4.	What procedure does your department have for informing staff involved with induction in advance about the disclosed needs of students likely to require additional help?

Lectures

“It helps if you get the notes before the lecture and then you know what they are on about.”

1.	How does your department ensure that venues to be used for lectures, and the ways of informing students about that, are compatible with the disclosed needs of the students?

2.	What is the procedure in your department for ensuring that lecturers know in advance of any student who has additional needs in relation to receiving or recording lecture information, and where that requires some modification of teaching practice to enable the student to participate?

3.	Do you as a matter of routine make the information you provide for students in lectures available also in some other way which takes account of the needs of all students, including those with impairments?

4.	Are there mechanisms in place for ensuring that staff are aware of what is required to facilitate sign language interpretation or lip reading, and for the effective use of equipment such as radio aid transmitters and microphones?

Seminars/Tutorials

“I felt in history tutorials as if he thought, She is not really present, she is away in another world.  She is not contributing…  But I couldn’t hear!”

1.	What is your department’s procedure for ensuring that all tutors are informed about the needs of any students with impairments in a tutorial/seminar setting?

2.	How do you ensure that the teaching methods used in a tutorial/seminar setting are compatible with the learning needs of all students present?

3.	Where students, for a reason relating to impairment or health problem, are unable to attend a tutorial/seminar, are there arrangements for providing support in making up the material missed?

Practical classes, including laboratories, studios and workshops 

“If material for practical classes were delivered to you sooner than the main body of the class, it would be easier to keep up with the rest.”

1.	How does your department identify and accommodate students who are unable to perform practical tasks, e.g. through absence, injury or impairment?

•	Does the way in which the difficulties are addressed aim to maximise the student’s independence in the practical work, where this is a goal for other students?

•	What scope is there for providing relevantly comparable alternative work for a student who has an impairment to enable him or her to satisfactorily complete the programme?

2.	What procedure does your department have for taking into account the needs of a range of possible users when buying equipment or refurbishing practical classrooms?

3.	How does your department prepare teaching staff to meet the needs of students who have visual, hearing or other impairments, when required to do so, in the setting of a practical classroom?

Placements, study abroad and field trips

“Whereas in Britain I would have to walk down the street, in St Petersburg I could jump on a trolleybus or tram and ride down the road…”

1.	How does your department organise placements, study abroad or field trips in a way that takes cognisance of the needs of all students, including those with impairments?

2.	Where problems are identified, before or during the placement, study abroad or field trip, which would make its completion impossible or unduly difficult, can students be offered any alternative experience with comparable educational/social outcomes?

Information and communication

“Economics asked ME if there was a certain colour that helped!  They were great.  They use coloured paper.”

1.	What procedures do you have in your department for ensuring that information intended for students, including those with impairments affecting the way they receive information, is received by them?

2.	How does your department ensure that the needs of all students are taken into account when purchasing equipment to be used for communicating information, or for students to access information?

Assessments

“You’re being marked on how much you can memorise and not what you actually know.”

1.	What arrangements are in place for ensuring that all students are well informed about precisely what is assessed, and how the assessment is carried out?

2.	What alternative arrangements could you make where an assignment or part of an assignment or exam cannot be made accessible to a student?

3.	What systems are in place to ensure consistency and fairness in alternative assessment arrangements, for all students who require them?

4.	What arrangements can you make for flexibility over deadlines and timetabling of assessments for students requiring this?

(See also Resource 8   Information and communication)
For all potential students. . .

Many potential students will consider whether or not they would be able or want to undertake the programme(s) you offer.  This raises the question of how you can help people to reach an informed decision.  

Many aspects of programmes will be of interest to potential students:

•	What is the programme about?  What does it cover?

•	What prior knowledge, experience, skills or qualifications do you think students will need to tackle the programme?

"Many people feel that I should not be in the course that I am in."

•	What materials for learning will be provided by the department, and how much do students have to provide for themselves?  (E.g. Are there lots of books to be bought and read?  Is guidance given on essential and optional reading and other materials?  Do students need access to computers or other equipment?)

"When we are talking about 8 textbooks that have over a thousand pages, per year, I cannot read that."

•	How is the programme taught?  (E.g. Are there labs, placements, lectures, tutorials, etc?)  Is there a heavy emphasis on attendance?  

•	How many students are in your classes (lectures, tutorials, seminars etc)?

•	When and in what ways is the programme assessed?

•	How does the programme fit into the overall degree structure?  What else can students choose to study if they take this programme?  How many credits does it give students towards the overall qualification?

•	Can the programme be studied at different paces, full-time or part-time?

•	If students carry on with this subject, are there any new requirements?  Is it taught differently in later years?  Is there a lot of competition among students for carrying on with the subject?

•	Who can students contact if they want more help in making up their mind about whether this would be a good programme for them to take?

"Who IS my ‘academic adviser’?  I didn’t know I had one!"

Information about your programme, which addresses the above types of questions is likely to be useful to most potential students.  The more clearly and simply the information is expressed, the more accessible it will be.  Some consideration also needs to be given to where the information is best made available, such as the department web-site, the University prospectus, the institution’s administration offices or liaison services.

For some students with impairments. . .

People with various impairments will almost certainly be among those looking for information about your programme.  And for the majority of this latter group, programme information, which addresses the questions above, will usually be sufficient to help them to decide whether the programme would be a wise choice for them.  However, some potential students might need information in a different format, or some additional information.  

Some people who are blind, partially sighted, dyslexic or who have some other difficulty in accessing standard text, may benefit from having your programme information in a different format, such as in Braille, on disk, or audio-cassette.  People who are blind, and who rely on screen reading software to access web information, may be able to do so if your web-page conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and if your web-pages do conform to these guidelines, other users are not likely to be disadvantaged. 

Guidance about whether your programme is likely to be particularly difficult, for some students with some impairments, could usefully be included in general course information.  Some of the reasons why a course could be inaccessible may not be obvious from general course information.  For example, potential students who use wheelchairs would need to know whether part of a course has to be held in a building which is not accessible for people in wheelchairs.  Potential students who have reduced stamina would welcome information about whether timetabled teaching takes place in rooms far away from each other, with limited time between classes. 

Other reasons are likely to be incorporated in general course information.  For example, it might be that a modern language programme involves reliance on aural acuity, and you are likely to have touched on the aural nature of course delivery in a general section on how your programme is taught.  However, if the programme also relies on visual material, such as videos and pictorial images, then it would be useful 
for a potential student who is visually impaired to know about this in advance.  If your general information already tells people who to contact if in doubt about whether the programme is suitable or not, then potential students with some impairments will know how to address any continuing uncertainty about whether the course will be accessible for them.