The disability discrimination act 1995, disability statements and the effect on higher education for students with special needs in England

Abstract

Disabled people are invisible in the Treaty of European Union and, until quite recently, have been invisible or very poorly represented in post-compulsory education. Europe's first anti-discrimination act for disabled people came into force on 2nd December 1995 and it has had a very mixed response from those who had campaigned for it. The Act generally excludes education from its terms of reference except that institutions of further and higher education are required to produce a disability statement on their provision for students with disabilities and learning difficulties. This article reports the findings of a survey of the anticipated effects upon the higher education sector in England of the requirement to produce Disability Statements. It appears that the requirement may have some quite positive effects upon not only the nature and form of information available, but also on the provision offered in the sector