Supporting students with disabilities: good progress, but must try harder

Abstract

© 2 01 4 M A H ea lth ca re L td T he introduction of the Equality Act in 2010 has had a significant impact on policies and procedures in all organisations. Within health care, it has required creative thinking to ensure that the rights of individuals are balanced against the needs of patients and service users. However, implementing the requirements set out in the Act still provokes considerable discussion and debate. For universities delivering healthcare programmes, adjustments are often required for students with disabilities, which requires partnership working through consultation and effective communication to ensure that the students’ needs are met. This includes involving academic staff, support staff, practitioners who support students and the students themselves in the development of policies and procedures, and in the processes to identify and implement adjustments needed, to ensure that students are not disadvantaged. Equality and diversity training is a requirement for all academic and healthcare staff. Students are taught the importance of not making assumptions and being respectful of an individual’s beliefs and values. Sadly, despite this training, the response to students with disabilities from some students and academic and healthcare staff, still poses challenges that suggests that further education is required. Part of the problem is that the numbers of students with a disability remain relatively low (around 10% of students declared disabilities on entry to university in 2012 according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (2014)), which means that direct contact is relatively limited. While training and education are important, actually working with students with a disability is probably the most effective means to break down barriers and dispel misconceptions. The introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995, which later became subsumed into the Equality Act in 2010, has removed many barriers to higher education and led to an increase in the number of applicants with a disability entering nursing. Often the decision to enter nursing has been Karen Elcock