Disability Awareness / Equality Training in Third Level Education
Tina Lowe , Student, National University of Ireland, Dublin
As a disabled student, I found during my third level education in UCD that one of the biggest obstacles to pursuing my education was the lack of awareness about disability. The lack of awareness manifested itself particularly in lecture theatres and made participation difficult for me. Apart from the obvious access issues and staff’s lack of knowledge about assistive technology, I found that communication between staff and disabled students was a much more significant issue. This is why I decided to do a masters thesis on disability awareness/equality training, to establish whether or not awareness could be used as an educational tool to improve participation for disabled students.For this paper today, I would like to focus on 2 of the chapters of the thesis. These two chapters dealt with the findings obtained from a staff questionnaire, which I had sent out as part of my research, and the findings of student interviews conducted with several disabled students from UCD. The staff questionnaire was distributed to heads of departments and to senior officers in administration, services and maintenance departments. Their views were sought on whether or not an awareness-training programme is necessary and suggestions were invited as to how such a programme could be carried out. 95 questionnaires were sent out and 49 replies were received. The questionnaire was organised under the following headings:
- Disability Awareness Training
- Experiences with Disabled Students
- General
For the purposes of this paper I will deal only with section a) Disability Awareness Training. In the survey, 65% of respondents said that they had heard of disability awareness training in an informal way. Even though 65% of heads of departments stated that they had heard of Disability awareness, responses from the student interviews indicate that, in practice, the level of awareness does not seem to be so high. In fact 73% of heads of departments said they felt that disability awareness training was necessary. Similarly, a very high proportion of heads of departments (88%) were in favour of promoting disability awareness training in their department. As one respondent put it:
I believe it is important to insert elements of Disability Awareness within teaching and other strategies across faculties in College.
Staff were also asked if disability awareness training was made available, and what kind of training they would prefer. The following options were given for them to choose from:
| Option | No. | % |
|---|---|---|
| One-day Seminar | 13 | (25%) |
| Induction Course (e.g. one hour a day spread over a number of days) | 4 | (8%) |
| Ongoing occasional training | 18 | (41%) |
| On request | 7 | (13%) |
| Other | 2 | (4%) |
| No Answer | 5 | (9%) |
In disability awareness training a variety of methodologies are used (you can see these on the table above, along with the percentage of staff who chose each option). 41% of heads of departments (which is the majority) preferred ongoing occasional training, while 25% wanted a one-day seminar, 13% wanted training on request, 8% wanted an induction course, 9% gave no answer and 4% went for some other answer. These findings concur with the view of one disability awareness trainer who states that if disability awareness training is to be effective, then the preference would be to select ongoing training:
Ongoing disability awareness training allows people to explore disability issues on a deeper level, and this form of training also allows them to explore their attitudes and prejudices more, giving them a broader and lasting impression of disability issues (Kwiotek, 2002)
The issue of selecting the type of training is an important one and might be the subject for more research at the departmental level if disability awareness Training were to be implemented. It is encouraging from the outset to find that 92% of respondents expressed a willingness to participate in disability awareness training. Not only are respondents in favour of such training, 73% of individual departments feel that disability awareness training is necessary in their department. All of the above data shows that there is a desire for disability awareness training in UCD, so that disabled students’ needs can be understood and met. I would go further and say that formal disability awareness training is vital to a proactive policy towards disability in UCD.
With these points in mind, disability awareness training should be considered a powerful tool in improving disabled students’ educational lives and rendering staff’s experiences of interaction with disabled students more positive. Apart from getting the views of staff, it was equally important to evaluate the perceptions of disabled students themselves, as I believe it is vital that disabled people play a role in the research process. I conducted guided interviews with seven disabled students in UCD. Initially, a focus group meeting was held in order to have a discussion on issues relating to the participation of disabled students in third level education. Following this discussion, seven students volunteered to take part in the interviews.
The issues covered in interviews were:
- The participant’s educational background
- Access issues
- Academic and general college experiences
- Knowledge of disability awareness and how it might be incorporated into current teaching practices
- The role of the Disability Support Services Unit
The interview topics were:
- Educational background
- Academic career to date
- Social life on campus
- Disability Support Services Unit (formerly known as Access Office)
- Disability awareness training
These specific areas were chosen for discussion in order to gain an insight into the students’ educational experiences to date. From the information yielded, it was hoped that both common areas of students’ experiences as well as diverging experiences would emerge. It was felt that this information would help to establish whether or not disability awareness training would enable students to have a more positive experience of college life.
The majority of the students felt that lecturers were in a position of power and this meant that the students were not in a position to change lecturers’ teaching methodologies. In order to deal with this, the interviewees suggested that there might be a role for the Disability Support Services Unit to monitor progress of the students and to act as a mediator to bring about changes in lecturing techniques and in actual classroom practice. Following are some of the views expressed by the students who were interviewed. The names have been changed to protect their identity.
Denis : Faculties should be aware, willing and able to assist to the degree that is necessary for the disabled person to achieve their ultimate academic ability – the reason they are in college.
Anne : Staff would be much more aware of my needs if they understood my disability better.
Kim: There should be a system in place whereby disabled students and the Disability Support Services Unit communicate problems in access needs to lecturers and tutors.
With regard to classroom participation, most students felt that they had to make a much greater effort in order to compete with their fellow non-disabled students. This can be seen by the comments made by Robert.
Robert : I have to work harder, double the workload because of my impairment. I have to spell out my needs and this shouldn’t be the case. I have encountered several barriers in the last three years. For example, I chose Statistics but because the Department was not aware of my impairment in relation to my work and research needs the result was that the necessary material to carry out projects was not available in accessible format.
Robert went onto say that if Disability Awareness Training were in place these situations would be improved. To conclude, I would just like to emphasise that from a disabled person’s perspective, in order to achieve a more equitable learning environment, it is necessary to participate fully in the solution to overcoming barriers and difficulties. Self-respect arises from taking a pro-active stance, and through direct involvement in bringing about structural and organisational change. Disabled students want equal access to education, equal participation in the classroom, access to adaptive technology and improved communication between college staff and the general student body.
I believe that disability awareness training could go a long way towards achieving this.