ESOK-hanke 2006-2011

Developing Inclusive Policies and Provision for Students with Disabilities in Universities

Alan Hurst

The “Teachability” project began in Scotland in the 1990s. It aims to encourage teaching staff to think about the ways in which their current daily classroom practices might help disabled students to be fully involved or might create barriers for them. The first necessary stage is for teaching staff to decide which parts of the study programmes for which they have responsibility are core requirements and which all students must do. These are not negotiable. Once past this stage there are five questions to answer. As a helpful starting point it is useful to think about the nature of the barriers to inclusion and participation. Some of these might arise because of the nature of what is being studied in relation to particular disabilities. Others are a result of the ways in which staff choose to teach their courses. Finally, there are barriers to disabled students’ participation which are caused by teachers’ not being highly conscious about the consequences of what they are doing. 

Presentation by Alan Hurst. (.ppt, 41 kt)