Mainstreaming Disability in Curriculum Design: the Development of a Resource for Academic

ENHANCING STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY:

Higher Education and Workforce Development

Ninth Quality in Higher Education International Seminar in collaboration with ESECT and The Independent. Birmingham27th-28th January 2005

Mainstreaming Disability in Curriculum Design: The Development of a Resource for Academic Staff through a HEFCE Funded Project

Val Chapman and Helen Carlisle

Equal Opportunities Centre, UniversityCollegeWorcester, UK

Abstract

The session will outline the aims and outcomes of a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded project entitled Academic Standards and Benchmark Descriptors: Developing Strategies for Inclusivity. The project has analysed subject specific learning activities and graduate generic skills from ten pilot subject benchmark statements and identified any challenges associated with the achievement of these learning objectives for disabled students. The session will provoke interesting debate surrounding the link between gaining a degree within a subject such as physiotherapy, and gaining chartered or professional status and how this is affected by the disability legislation.

Context

This paper introduces a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded project, managed by the Equal Opportunities Centre at University College Worcester (UCW),that ranfrom January 2003 to December 2004. The key purpose of the project was to develop a more inclusive approach to the design of Higher Education programmes of study in the United Kingdomthat might ultimately benefit the 5% of students in HE who have disabilities (HESA data, 2002/03).

In recent years, graduating students have been confronted with a very different employment challenge than previously. In the 1990s research (AGR, 1995) showed that “graduates felt "short changed" by higher education institutions which had failed to note that the "rules of the game had changed" and consequently (despite fulfilling the traditional goal of a "good degree") had not provided them with the essential skills for employment” (Steven, C. & Fallows, S., 2000, pp1). In response to employers’ needs and students’ demands, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have had to review their curricula and the range and nature of their courses’ learning outcomes to include employability skills, and these are now clearly embedded in the academic Subject Benchmark Statements published by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), though they are sometimes described as “generic” rather than “employability” skills.

If students in general had become dissatisfied with how they were being prepared for the world of work in the 1990s, disabled students, in particular, rightfully reported an even stronger grievance. Traditionally, disabled people have been far more disadvantaged in the work place and in accessing HE than non disabled people. Whilst the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), 1995, provided the platform for addressing inequalities in the workplace, SENDA (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act), 2001, provided the regulatory framework to help redress inequalities experienced by disabled people wishing to enter HE and to prevent discrimination against disabled students during their course of study.

The DDA defines disability as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Disability is described as those with –

visual impairments
hearing impairments
mobility problems
learning difficulties (e.g. Down's Syndrome)
mental health problems - includes depression, can be intermittent
invisible disabilities e.g. epilepsy
disfigurement

In employment terms, the DDA makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate against current or prospective employees with disabilities. Employers are required to act in fair and common sense way and need to make “reasonable adjustments” so as not to cause a substantial disadvantage to disabled employees. Similarly, under SENDA, HEIsmust refrain from discriminating against disabled applicants/students. The Act makes it illegal for the institution to discriminate by either treating someone less favourably than someone else for a reason related to his/her disability without justification, or byfailing to make a reasonable adjustment that enables the student to engage effectively with their course.

AccurateU.K. statistics are difficult to ascertain, but it is believed that the UK has approximately 9 million disabled people (those with dyslexia are not included in this figure) which includes 5.5 million of working age in Englandwhich constitutesaround 20% of the population. Whilst only 3% of the UK population are born with disabilities, one in four people in the UK either has a disability or has a disabled close relative. One in four people will consult their GP about mental health problems each year and, despite the ubiquitous disabled signage, fewer than 5% disabled people are wheelchair users.

Though over 2 million disabled people are in employment, the unemployment rate for disabled people is 2.5 times higher than non-disabled people. Further evidence of the inequity in society is reflected by the fact that 12% disabled workers have professional/managerial jobs as compared with 21% of non-disabled employees; also, disabled workers in full-time employment earn approximately 20% less than their non-disabled counterparts. (

Though HEFCE funded disability projects have helped HEIs improve their

provision over the last 10 years, particularly in terms of specialist services, a mapping project conducted on HEFCE’s behalf in 2000 revealed a distinct lack of resources to support academic staff. The latest HEFCE disability funding (2002/05) therefore focused on projects that would help ensure that disabled students engage effectively, and not be disadvantaged by, the learning and teaching process. UCW’s HEFCE funded project, entitled Academic Standards and Benchmark Descriptors: Developing Strategies for Inclusivity, aimed to meet this challenge through, in liaison with the QAA, the development of a web based resource, SCIPS (Strategies for Creating Inclusive Programmes of Study). The resource will assist the academic community in developing a more inclusive approach to the design of teaching, learning and assessmentthrough identifying potential barriers to learning embedded within Subject Benchmark Statements, and providing appropriate “reasonable adjustements” and/or enabling strategies.

Since 2003 the QAA has been developing an infrastructure to strengthen, elaborate and make more comprehensive, the purposes and outcomes of HE in the UK. This has largely been in response to the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (Dearing Report,1997) and the Widening Participation agenda, and constitutes an attempt to maintain broadly comparable academic standards across the whole of HE. As part of this agenda, the QAA, working with subject groups of academics from a wide range of disciplines, introduced a collection of Subject Benchmark Statements in two phases. Phase 1 subjects were introduced in April 2000, and included 33 subjects of which 11 were specifically related to healthcare disciplines. Phase 2 subjects were introduced in March 2002 and included 26 subjects. Since then, many additional subject areas have expressed an interest in creating their own Benchmark Statements, and on November 24th 2004 the QAA launched the “recognition scheme” and also published guidelines and arrangements for the review of existing Statements. (Benchmarking, pp 11, Higher Quality, No 16, October 2004).

Subject Benchmark Statements are authoritative documents, written by representatives of the academic communities and published by the QAA. They act as one of a set of reference points for designing and reviewing HE programmes of study by describing the characteristics of particular subjects, outlining the attributes and capabilities thatgraduates in those subjects might demonstrate, and representing the general expectations about the standard of honours degrees in the subject.

The Statements provide an external source of reference that, whilst recognising diversity and variety in HE provision, inform the quality of designing programmes of study in the UK. Implicit within the design of programmes are strategies for assessment and for the delivery of teaching and learning, it can therefore be argued that there are clear relationships between these strategies, the design of programme specifications and Subject Benchmark Statements within the context of this project.

The current review of the original Subject Benchmark Statements, the preparation of additional subject statements, and the implementation of SENDA (2001) has provided a highly appropriate context for the UCW project to pilot a reviewof a sample of subjects (n=10) for inclusivity issues. Theproject is raising awareness about disability issues right at the heart of the curriculum. It provides a framework that can inform the development future Benchmark Statements,andhighlights the academic community’s responsibility for the design of programme specification and the delivery of inclusive learning, teaching and assessment within HE in the UK.

The resource identifies“learning activities” in each of the ten pilot subject Statements, and determined any factors that could be problematic for disabled students aiming to undertake these activities/or achieve the related learning outcomes. Some of these learning activities within Statements are subject specific and some are generic “employability” or “graduate” skills, but all are regarded as necessary for students to become proficient in the discipline. Some of the ten subjects are directly linked to training and professional competence within a specialist vocational field (most notably nursing, physiotherapy, veterinary science and social work) and therefore the learning activities as defined within these Statements are more closely aligned to employability skills than the ones highlighted in other subject areas.

The primary outcome of the project has been the development of the web –based resource, SCIPS,for academic staff to consult during the interpretation of Subject Benchmark Statements when creating programme or course specifications. SCIPS offers advice and guidance, as well as strategies on all aspects of inclusivity within programmes of study. Development of this resource has been undertaken through consultation with a variety of key stakeholders, including former chairs of subject benchmarking teams, for example with academic staff (Institute of Learning and Teaching (ILT), staff developers at the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) pre conference workshops day, and with disability professionals at the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities (SKILL) conference.

The project has also built upon previous research within this field, most notably: Teachability, the DEMOS Project (Online Materials for Staff Disability Awareness), SWANDS (South West Academic Network for Disability Support), COWORK: Widening Access for Disabled Students and TechDIS. However, the project is groundbreaking in that it is one of the first resources to promote inclusivity within a subject specific environment whilst maintaining the potential to generalise across all subject areas by also covering generic graduate employability skills.

SCIPS

SCIPS provides a breakdown of the Benchmark Statements for 10 pilot subjects, in order to highlight where there might be learning activities, written into each Statement that could be potentially challenging for some students. For each challenge identified, a number of strategies are given to overcome the challenge through inclusive teaching and learning practices; case studies are also provided as well as links to further resources (for disabilities, challenges, key skills and subjects). To offer multiple access routes into the information contained within the resource, users are invited to browse by disability, potential challenge to the achievement of learning, subject area, or key skill. Key skills are generic to all Statements and might include skills such as, “develop written arguments”, “planning and time management”, or “develop effective IT skills”. It is interesting to note that what might be regarded as a core competence in one subject may be regarded as a generic skill in other subjects, for example, effective written communication is a core competency in English.

There is recognition within SCIPS that academic staff may prefer to search for information using the UCAS disability categories. However, the SCIPS database focusesits search feature more on the use of “potential challenges” to the achievement of learning, rather than disabilities. The emphasis of this approach is on information about enabling learning environments rather than on student’s disabilities. If users search the database via the disability route, the user comes across general information regarding the disability prior to being directed to the more specific information contained within the challenge pages of the resource. The database is constructed in such a way that the user is required to move away from the medical model approach which focuses on disability and, instead, prompts the user to consider the specific challenges associated with learning, in order to access the strategies and case studies.

Users can also take the subject route into the database, but again are directed towards subject specific information relating to learning challenges in that discipline. This can be illustrated by considering the needs of a visually impaired student undertaking a course in Sports Science: this student may experience challenges associated with undertaking team games and may require assistance or an adapted version of the game. Similarly a student who is a wheelchair user or a student with chronic asthma or a student with poor co-ordination (for whatever reason) may also need to engage in an adapted version of the game. In all of these cases, there are challenges associated with that activity and strategies will need to be put into place to make that learning activity more appropriate for the student.

The emphasis within SCIPS is to look at the potential challenges inherent in the Benchmark Statement’s learning activities/outcomes and consider what strategies can be put into place to overcome them, rather than listing all the difficulties that may or may not be experienced by disabled students. The importance of this approach is that it emphasises the need to approach all students individually and not assume that one student with a disability will experience the same difficulties as another student with the same (or similar) disability, but rather to focus more specifically on the challenges that the individual student is experiencing with that particular learning activity. In addition, this approach encourages the use of inclusive strategies within the curriculum that would benefit all students, not just those with physical or sensory impairments, and hence reduces the need for labeling students if they are experiencing difficulties.

SCIPS has so far received very positive feedback from a number of key stakeholders at a variety of conference and events held between January 2003 and December 2004. Throughout 2005 the remaining projects within this round of HEFCE funding will be completed and further subject specific inclusive strategies will be made available to the academic community. SCIPS will provide links to this information as it becomes available.

The work of UCW’s Equal Opportunities Centre has been recognised as an example of excellent practice and as a result has been included in a successful bid for a CETL (Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning) collaborative project involving 14 institutions led by Liverpool Hope. As part of UCW’s contribution to this CETL, it is intended that the SCIPS resource will be substantially modified and extended to create a resource aimed at potential as well as existing students in Higher Education.

Disabled people stay in the job longer, have a strong commitment to work, have good punctuality records, have low absentee records, and have a range of skills and talents just like everyone else. It is hoped that the SCIPS resource will help academic staff ensure that disabled people are not discriminated against in terms of meeting courses’ learning outcomes, including the achievement of employability skills, and therefore have fairer access to the world of work and further enrich the employment market.

References:

Association of Graduate Recruiters [AGR] (1995) Skills for Graduates in the 21st Century Association of Graduate Recruiters. London.

Dearing Committee (1997) Higher Education in the Learning Society. Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education. The Stationery Office. London.

Steven, C. & Fallows, S. (2000) Integrating key skills in higher education: employability, transferable skills, and learning for life, London: Sterling, VA: Kogan Page; Stylus Pub.

Gale, D.(2004) Benchmarking, Higher Quality, No 16, October

Annex 1

The structure of SCIPS can be described diagrammatically as follows:

Annex 2

SCIPS Screen shot showing the browse screen:

SCIPS Screen shot showing a subject and potential challenge:

Annex 3

SCIPS Screen shot showing a case study: