• Time

    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

  • Location/Venue

    Central London

17 March 2016

Disability Forum

The event is now over, you will find a summary below.

During the first hour colleagues undertook training on ‘Deaf awareness’. It was delivered by Lauren Hedges, AccessHE, using materials from a training session delivered by CommunityID and organised by HEAR, the London network of equalities organisations, funded by London Councils.

Following the recent guidance published by BIS and the Minister for Universities and Science to the Director of Fair Access and subsequently OFFA’s Guidance on Access Agreements for 2017-18, the forum members discussed their thoughts on the focus paid to supporting access, retention and outcomes for students with specific learning difficulties, an autism spectrum disorder or mental health needs in Higher Education. Colleagues were invited to prepare for this discussion by reading the guidance which can be found at https://www.offa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/11-02-2016-OFFA-Guidance.pdf and https://www.offa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/strategic-access-agreement-guidance.pdf. Colleagues then received an update on the changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance from the National Association of Disability Practitioners. In light of the changes and with an emphasis on inclusive learning and teaching, the group continued with their best practice document on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This will be presented at the conference for practitioners in July and the group reviewed the updated draft programme for this event.

A draft agenda can be found here.

If you would like to know anything about this event, please contact Guy Cowen-Hutton, AccessHE Operations Officer, at guy.cowen-hutton@londonhigher.ac.uk.