Non-Specialist Human Support: working with disabled students

Please find here the assessment profile for your course as well as the timetable for feedback

Summary

Aims and objectives

Section 1: Disability awareness

Support for students with physical disabilities

Support for neurodiversity and co-occurring differences, such as dyslexia and dyspraxia.

Support for students with mental health conditions and Autism

Section 2: The legislative background

Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) 2001

Equality Act 2010

Social model of disability

Medical model versus Social model of disability

Increasingly, the government is asking universities and other providers of Higher Education courses to consider how inclusive their teaching and learning is for all students, including those with disabilities.

This is in line with the social model of disability, which seeks to remove barriers for individuals and thereby reduce the need for individual reasonable adjustments for students wherever possible.

A good example of this is utilising technological resources such as Virtual Learning Environments - Queen Mary use a system called QM Plus, which you are reading this through (this is produced by Moodle), as well as lecture capture systems that record lectures so students can watch them again. Queen Mary has an excellent lecture capture system called Q-review, which academic staff are encouraged to use so that students can relisten to any content should they so wish.

As the government expects universities to prove that they provide excellent teaching to students (as well as research), this agenda will continue. One way this may develop is through the Teaching Excellence Framework, or TEF. At the time of writing, the content of the TEF is very vague but the government consultation can be found here.

The Equality Challenge Unit have produced this resource for universities, which offers guidance and case studies on how to make their teaching more inclusive.

From the perspective of a Non-Specialist Human Support Worker, the disabled students supported at Queen Mary may continue to require support if their disability is so complex that they cannot solely rely on technological resources such as lecture recordings.

For more information please contact Simon Jarvis on s.jarvis@qmul.ac.uk. You may also like to visit the Disability and Dyslexia Service's Inclusive Practice webpages, which contain more information about how universities can provide their students with an inclusive learning experience, as well as advice and guidance on how to ensure that teaching and learning is as accessible as possible. See http://www.dds.qmul.ac.uk/inclusive-practice/

Note-taking in lectures and other taught sessions.

Taking notes for other people

Layout of notes

Spelling

Note-taking exercise: Guns, Germs and Steel (with Professor Jared Diamond)

Reader, Workshop Assistant / Laboratory Assistant

Reader

Transcription support

Workshop / Laboratory Assistant

Practical Support Assistant

Physically disabled students

Blind and visually impaired students

Non-specialist human support available through the Disability and Dyslexia Service.

Section 2: Non-Specialist Human Support Workers and the Disability and Dyslexia Service

Getting paid

Randstad have produced some video clips to help explain the process for both adding and authorising timesheets.

Please see the link below...