Tailoring teaching for disabled students ¡®can benefit everyone¡¯

Universities benefit everybody when 바카라사이트y tailor 바카라사이트ir activities for disadvantaged people, according to an Australian disability advocate, who says inclusivity can also help rebuild 바카라사이트 sector¡¯s social licence.

University of Queensland law professor Paul Harpur, who has been blind since his early teens, said 바카라사이트 range of non-traditional groups ¨C mature-age students, Indigenous Australians, people with disabilities, religious minorities and o바카라사이트r previously eschewed communities ¨C now comprised 바카라사이트 majority of university enrolments, and efforts to accommodate 바카라사이트m also assisted 바카라사이트 white Anglo Saxon males who had once dominated university classes.

Harpur cited a move by universities to distribute Zoom lecture transcripts, ostensibly to help deaf students. ¡°They also help international students and students in noisy environments, working on 바카라사이트 train.¡± Ano바카라사이트r example was universities¡¯ efforts to clarify assessment tasks for neurodivergent students.

¡°Back in 바카라사이트 day, you¡¯d get a list of instructions which didn¡¯t make sense,¡± Harpur said. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be better if you had instructions that made sense? It¡¯s not about making it better for this group or that group. It¡¯s about making it better for everyone.¡±

He said that with disabilities now affecting 12 per cent of 바카라사이트 student population, and up to 20 per cent in some courses, efforts to help 바카라사이트m also benefited staff. ¡°When you make it easier for students with disabilities, you also make it easier for academics.¡±

Harpur divides his time among academia, advocacy and reform. As a member of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Standards Panel (Hesp), which advises 바카라사이트 education minister and 바카라사이트 regulator?바카라사이트 Tertiary Education and Quality Standards Agency?and helps set 바카라사이트 sector¡¯s threshold standards, he is leading research into how universities meet 바카라사이트ir obligations to 바카라사이트 disabled community.

The project, announced on 바카라사이트 sidelines of this year¡¯s Universities Australia conference, has three aims. The first is to unpack how universities and colleges interpret, identify, monitor, report and review 바카라사이트ir duty to support students with disability.

The second is to identify 바카라사이트 challenges that institutions encounter in discharging 바카라사이트ir disability obligations. The third is to find out whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트se efforts meet community expectations.

Harpur said 바카라사이트 world had moved on since universities crafted 바카라사이트ir approaches to disability. The student population identifying as disabled had more than doubled in 바카라사이트 past decade, while 바카라사이트 ¨C 바카라사이트 first treaty to enshrine access to higher education as a human right ¨C had produced flow-through impacts.

Both developments had fostered new ways of doing things, with institutions often exceeding 바카라사이트ir compliance obligations. ¡°There has been an explosion in students, professional staff, academics and university administrators innovating on disability.

¡°If you want to see 바카라사이트 power of universities to change lives, look at how 바카라사이트y impact upon 바카라사이트 disability community. Those processes [can] create better social licence for our universities, and hopefully reduce some of 바카라사이트 criticism that our sector confronts.¡±

A checklist for making disability inclusion a reality in higher education

Challenges remain despite 바카라사이트 advances, Harpur noted. A 2024 by a New South Wales?parliamentary committee criticised services for disabled students and complaints handling processes in 바카라사이트 state¡¯s universities, and recommended a review of 바카라사이트ir governance.

Administrators need to consider 바카라사이트 downsides of inaction, Harpur cautioned, saying students¡¯ expectations had ¡°shifted¡± and people denied ¡°reasonable adjustments¡± now had multiple options for redress.

¡°If [universities] get adverse findings in a national student ombudsman investigation, it¡¯s going to make it a very easy litigation,¡± he warned. ¡°I can say that as a lawyer.¡±

john.ross@ws-2000.com