The webpage details all the support UAL has to offer to students with disabilities, in line with the social model of disability to work towards removing disabling barriers within education. They provide advice and support before you begin your course and at any stage of your student journey as well as highlighting all the different access facilities, such as:
- one to one support
- Assistive technology
- Recording lessons
The Social Model of Disability says we are not disabled by our individual differences, we are disabled by the barriers in the world around us.”
(University of the Arts London, 2020)
And this is because the different needs are not taken into account. This reminds me of the video ‘Not all disabilities are visible – The Horizontals‘ from the pre-task.
Accessibility is the bare minimum. Inclusivity is our living wage. Doing things the way they have always been done doesn’t work because things have always been exclusive.”
(TEDx Talks, 2017)
People are prioritising productivity over their bodies and health and that is not okay. Those with invisible disabilities struggle with navigating an inaccessible world but also having to justify that they are not being lazy, they are just listening to their body that they know and understand better than anyone else. Furthermore, especially as the capitalistic western society we live in places immense focus on productivity and therefore your own personal value. The Horizontals, however, argue that your value should not be based on your productivity or the output of your work.
This is further supported by Gillian Giles article on “You Do Not Exist To Be Used”: Why Your Life Purpose Is Bigger Than Capitalist Productivity”. Giles explains they were diagnosed with ADHD, hearing loss, a neuromuscular disease at and early age and that significantly impacted their educational journey which centred productivity, causing stress and poor self-worth. Additionally, they spoke about the intersection between their race and their disability, something UAL’s disability service does not acknowledge.
The combination of my blackness and lack of productivity caused by disability resulted in teachers and peers marking me as lazy, or a problem.”
(Giles, 2019)
Would ultimate inclusivity and accessibility remove the importance of productivity and acknowledge the intersections of our varied identities? How do we create and educational setting with everyone in mind – with a balance in encouraging student work and use whatever tools support their learning while also support staff and educators to provide that variation in support.
How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
The main way is familiarising myself with the webpage. As a UAL alumni myself, I was not aware of this service and in booking a skills session found out that I could be screened for learning difficulties such as Dyslexia, even though I was already in my final year of education. Due to my personal experience with using UAL’s disability services and finding the support and extensions immensely helpful, it is something I constantly sign post my students to. It is important to recognise that students come from many different educational backgrounds and may never had the opportunity or access to the support they never knew they needed until reaching higher education. Especially if there are students who may not have disclosed a disability, it is crucial to make this information commonplace.
How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?
When interacting with students and staff, having an inclusive and accessible approach to all learning such as:
- having the content/ slides uploaded in advance so students can process it at their own pace.
- Providing printed and digital versions of information
- Having the information available in different formats/ providing references that are text base, visual and audio based, giving the students the freedom to pick
- Not using white paper or white slide background. Accessible typeface and not overloading staff/ students with information.
- Comfort breaks every hour or so, minimum 10 mins to allow people enough time.
- Alternative text for images or visually describing images on slides
- Allowing a space for anonymous feedback but also being aware that students may be struggling and not sure what intervention they need/ are available to them.
References
Access Support and Facilities Statement for Disabled Students at UAL. [ebook] UAL Disability Service. Available at: <https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/30767/Access-Support-and-Facilities-for-Disabled-Students-at-UAL-PDF-302KB.pdf>.
Giles, G., 2019. “You Do Not Exist To Be Used”: Why Your Life Purpose Is Bigger Than Capitalist Productivity. [online] The Body Is Not An Apology. Available at: <https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/you-are-more-than-what-you-do-dismantling-ideas-of-productivity-in-life-purpose/#:~:text=At%20the%20heart%20of%20capitalism,who%20create%20the%20greatest%20output.>.
TEDx Talks, 2017. Not all disabilities are visible. | The Horizontals | TEDxBrum. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhXcP65h0sI>.
UAL. n.d. Disability and dyslexia. [online] Available at: <https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia>.
University of the Arts London, 2020. The Social Model of Disability at UAL. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdnjmcrzgw&t=3s>.
Hi Safia,
I enjoyed readying your post here; to build upon the kinds of ‘adjustments’ that can be made within the classroom and online learning spaces, I have recently been reading about what instructors/educators etc can do beyond these standard adjustments which are from the disability act 2018 – to facilitate learning for diverse cognitive profiles. One of these these being ADHD; In my research I came across the term Executive Functioning which really helped to open up my research question and approach to my topic, below is a link to The Brown Model, for context on this.
https://www.brownadhdclinic.com/the-brown-model-of-add-adhd
Within the link above, Brown’s model serves as a planning tool for designing instruction that achieves intended outcomes without unfairly disadvantage in students of a particular cognitive profile. it reminds instructors to consider the contribution to Executive functioning of the extraneous cognitive load of an assessment or assignments anticipating difficulties that students may face beyond those intrinsic to the task. For instance it may prompt instructors to address Executive Functioning issues practically by providing students with a model for how to break the long range writing assignment into incremental steps.’ (Shea, Hecker and Lalor, 2019)
Furthermore, considering what learning preferences may be more applicable to someone studying with for example dyslexia who may opt for more hand on learning through making.
Reference
Shea, L.C., Hecker, L. and Lalor, A.R. (2019). From disability to diversity : college success for students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. Columbia, Sc: National Resource Center For The First-Year Experience And Students In Transition, University Of South Carolina.
Brown ADHD Clinic. (2019). The Brown Model of ADD/ADHD | Brown ADHD Clinic | United States. [online] Available at: https://www.brownadhdclinic.com/the-brown-model-of-add-adhd.