We are committed to promoting genuine equality of opportunity for disabled people and to creating a learning, working and living campus environment in which everyone can achieve full participation.
We recognise that ignorance about the nature of disability and the needs of disabled people can affect perceptions and influence behaviours at an individual or an institutional level, and that the consequence can be the denial of equal treatment to disabled people. This can take the form of direct and indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation.
Our Disability Equality Scheme describes what we are doing to promote equal treatment and opportunity for all disabled members and potential members of our university community.
Our first Scheme was introduced on 4 December 2006 and has been subject to constant updating as we have continued to engage with our disabled students and staff in the course of implementing the action plan.
This updated Scheme provides an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved over the last three years and to look forward to the next three years.
I was delighted to be asked to champion this Disability Equality Scheme and know that my successor will do everything in his power to see that it makes a difference to the lives of those for whose benefit it has been written.
One of the five core values adopted by our board of governors links to our strategic purpose of social inclusion and reads as follows:
We are inclusive…we strive to create a friendly, collaborative and trusting environment, where individuals are treated with respect and where a sense of community prevails.
This means that we are passionate about fairness and equal access to education, jobs, services and information, and that we are proud of the diversity which results when everyone has a fair chance in life.
We are committed to promoting full participation for disabled students and staff in all aspects of our activities. We have an ongoing process for reviewing and developing our policy and practices to achieve such participation and we consult regularly with our disabled community as part of this process.
We are anxious to engage with everyone who can make a contribution to our disability equality agenda.
Our aims are to:
We will be keen to receive your feedback on our Disability Equality Scheme as we move forward through our action plan for the next three years.
Susan Price
Acting Vice-Chancellor
December 2009
We have tried to involve as many disabled people as we could in helping us to update our Scheme. As was the case when we produced our original Scheme in December 2006, we have had a clear understanding throughout of the difference between engagement and involvement and consultation at the last minute over management-driven proposals. We sought to involve disabled people in the following ways:
Involving our staff and students in these different ways drew attention to several barriers faced by disabled people in our current practices and procedures, as well as many examples of good practice.
We are confident that our action plan continues to reflects what our disabled students and staff have told us should be in it. We will continue to involve our disabled students and staff in the delivery of the action plan.
Here we describe our general and specific duties in relation to disability discrimination and how we intend to continue to fulfil them.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was amended by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 so that it now places a duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to:
These six points form the “general duty” under the Act.
The Code of Practice published by the Disability Rights Commission states that:
“The goal of the general duty is the promotion of equality; the underpinning principle is the requirement to take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons. The understanding that to deliver true equality of opportunity for disabled people requires more than treating them the same as everyone else underpins the requirements to combat discrimination (notably the Act’s requirement to make reasonable adjustments) and to promote equality of opportunity.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission* states the purpose of revising a DES as:
(*EHRC (2009) Disability Equality Schemes: The Three-yearly Review)
The Disability Discrimination Act takes a somewhat traditional, restricted approach to defining disability, with a strong emphasis on medical conditions.
At the University of East London we have adopted the social model of disability. The model was developed in the early 1970s by disabled people to show that it is society’s failure to understand, rather than disabled people’s actual disability or impairment, which led to their being socially excluded. While the model makes no attempt to deny or ignore the existence of impairments or physiological differences, it makes no value judgements such as what constitutes “normal”. The model also points up the social barriers which can be changed or overcome, in order to achieve genuine social inclusion.
This means that we accept that:
In order to improve the lives of disabled people we need to:
We must discourage language which perpetuates the mistaken idea that we need to compensate people with impairments for what is ‘wrong’ with them.
In the social model of disability impairments only disable people from participation when barriers or elements of social organisation get in their way. The way society is organised must therefore be changed if disabled people are to participate in mainstream society. Removing those barriers that exclude/disable people who have impairments can bring this about.
Barriers are created by society not by disabled people. They include:
Our Disability Equality Scheme is where we as an organisation make public our commitment to disabled people to promote fair and equal access to our services by working together to remove the barriers created by society. The Scheme also shows what we are doing to make that commitment a reality.
Those reading it – including potential students and potential employees – will be given confidence that we value them for their knowledge, skills, attributes and potential, whatever the nature of their disability. They will gain an understanding of what we are doing to remove the barriers which often prevent disabled people from realising their potential.
The action plan which forms part of the Scheme will be regularly monitored.
Responsibilities
All staff are responsible for implementing this Scheme by creating a supportive environment for disabled students and staff colleagues. They will receive direction and expert guidance and support from:
The broad values and mission of the University of East London have always included a strong commitment to social inclusion.
We introduced a policy on the employment of disabled people in 1995 and updated it in 2002. We were awarded the 2 Tick Symbol “Positive about Disabled People” in December 2003 and have been regularly re-accredited. As at September 2009 5.3% of our staff had declared a disability compared with 1.6% at October 2004 when we began our monitoring [the current sector average is 2.3%].
We have some 1,500 students with a disability or dyslexia and we have provided strong support through a dedicated service for over 15 years. The service includes a NNAC (National Network of Assessment Centres) ACCESS centre, where we assess the study support needs of students from this and other institutions. The service was last reviewed earlier this year under the new inspection regime and was the first HEI to succeed under this inspection regime.
Our Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy has as one of its five aims “to be an inclusive university, with learning, teaching and assessment practices that reflect the diversity of our learning community, and ensure parity of experience for all members”.
The number of our full-time undergraduate students who are in receipt of the Disabled Students Allowance [a proxy indicator for the total number of disabled students] at 5.69% is close to the number (6 %) which the Higher Education Statistics Agency sets as our benchmark.
The following table describes the main types of disability.
Table 2 Sector and UEL Students with Disabilities Profile |
||
|---|---|---|
- |
UK Domicile Students 2007/08 |
|
- |
Overall |
|
- |
Sector |
UEL |
Dyslexia |
47% |
58% |
Blind/ Partially sighted |
2% |
2% |
Deaf/ Hearing impairment |
4% |
3% |
Wheelchair user/Mobility Difficulties |
4% |
4% |
Personal care support |
0% |
1% |
Mental health difficulties |
6% |
5% |
An unseen disability |
15% |
11% |
Multiple disabilities |
9% |
5% |
Other disability |
12% |
11% |
- |
100% |
100% |
Source: HESA date 2007/08
We have been running a flagship mentoring scheme for disabled students for the last six years, endorsed by the National Mentoring Consortium and the former Disability Rights Commission. Although restricted in the early years to UEL students, we have more recently started to roll the scheme out to other universities. A current student on the scheme says:
“The mentoring scheme at UEL has given me the chance to gain relevant knowledge for my step towards my working goal; it has also been a chance for me to feel proud to be a part of the university and to be a productive representative of the university within the working establishment”.
We have invested heavily in our estate, some of which is over 100 years old, to improve its accessibility and we have constructed a number of state-of-the-art new buildings.
Our libraries are accessible and welcoming to disabled and dyslexic students. We have a very wide range of assistive technology.
Students with additional study needs on our distance learning programmes have access to expert support.
We are home to the Rix Centre, which seeks to enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities through the use of new information and communication technologies. We are also home to an RNIB specialist Resource Centre for blind and visually impaired people on physiotherapy programmes.
Consultative machinery for addressing the needs of disabled students and staff in an inclusive manner include:
All these bodies include students and staff with disabilities. The Estates Strategy Disability Focus Group includes an external expert on accessible buildings and no plans are signed off unless and until that expert has cleared them.
We undertake regular staff surveys in which we monitor the experience of our disabled staff. In the last such survey earlier this year our disabled staff made a generally favourable return on their experience of the University of East London as an employer. For example 67% of our disabled staff felt that they were treated with fairness and respect by colleagues, 62% of disabled staff felt that UEL effectively supported staff with a disability and 58% considered that UEL is committed to equality of opportunity. However the corresponding percentages for all staff completing the survey are 86%, 67% and 72%, which indicates that we have further work to do to improve the experience of our disabled staff. Our HR managers and Occupational Health Advisor work closely with individual disabled staff and their managers to identify and provide support, and we will continue to build on and enhance the level of support.
In the course of updating our Scheme earlier this year, we asked staff to complete a questionnaire about our Disability Equality Scheme and the level of support we offer. The results were generally positive in terms of their experience of working at UEL, but indicated a low level of awareness of our Disability Equality Scheme, and we are taking action to address this.
We continue to monitor on an annual basis the number of disabled staff who are the subject of grievances, disciplinary action etc. We also monitor our staff turnover data and analyse the reasons why staff leave our employment. The data do not lead us to conclude that our employment policies are having a detrimental effect on staff with disabilities. The turnover data for the three year period from 1 October 2006, for example, tell us that of the 13 staff who left our employment due to capability issues, only one had a disability.
We have been assessing the impact of our recruitment and selection policy for a number of years. Our recruitment data show that the number of disabled applicants who applied for posts at UEL in 2008 and 2009 was double the number for 2006 and 2007. However, we will work to continue to attract still higher numbers of disabled applicants and to translate applications into appointments.
Through our Equality and Diversity Committee w e have been assessing the impact of other policies and procedures on disabled students and staff during the lifetime of this Scheme and will continue to do so.
Over the lifetime of the current Disability Equality Scheme we have implemented a new on-line application and vacancy management system which is AAA compliant and which captures feedback from applicants and internal users of the system. 95% of the feedback about the new system has been positive and we have installed process changes based on the feedback.
We have an annual student satisfaction survey in which disabled respondents are asked for their experience of our entire academic and support provision. We monitor what they tell us.
We monitor on an annual basis the number of disabled students who are the subject of grievances, disciplinary action, student complaints etc.
Our Disability, Dyslexia and Access Centre monitors the experience of students using its services.
Although we believe that our data have a high level of accuracy, it is a reasonable assumption that some students and staff do not declare their disability for personal reasons. Thus we know that we have some further work to do to make sure that our monitoring captures all disabled students and staff.
We are located in the London Borough of Newham, the most ethnically diverse borough in the whole of the United Kingdom . The composition of our student body and increasingly of our workforce reflects that diversity.
We are thus aware that many of our students and staff are at risk of more than one form of discrimination.
We work with many partners who are themselves public authorities, including further education colleges, schools, and NHS trusts. We will work with our partners to ensure that our disabled students and staff experience the same quality of provision whether they are working or studying on or off campus.
We enter into a wide range of contracts with third party suppliers, not all of whom are public authorities. Our action plan commits us to ensuring that disability equality is embedded in all our procurement practices. This means that the contracts awarded to all of the suppliers who provide services will state that the services will be accessible to disabled people and that the contractor will make such reasonable adjustments as we require.
The highlights of our achievements in the first three years of the Disability Equality Scheme include:
Part III of our Scheme: our Action Plan
Action |
Rationale |
Persons responsible |
Target date |
|---|---|---|---|
Appoint a Disability Co-ordinator (at least 0.5) in Facilities Services |
Many issues arise in relation to security, car parking, cleaning, residences etc |
Director of Facilities Services |
In the next planning and budgeting cycle |
Continue to review our assessment procedures for disabled students |
We need to be sure that the system for offering revised assessment procedures for disabled students, and the extenuating circumstances procedure are working effectively. |
Head of Student Experience (AE) |
Ongoing |
Ensure that funds are available to upgrade assistive technology where needed |
Equipment rapidly gets out of date. |
Director of IT Services |
Ongoing |
Train IT Services staff in the use of assistive technology |
Not all IT Services staff are able to support students in the use of assistive technology |
Director of IT Services |
Ongoing |
Give disabled students early notification of the rooms in which classes are to be held when they register on modules |
Disabled students need to check out the accessibility of teaching rooms although it is our responsibility to do this first |
Head of Timetabling |
Ongoing |
Ensure that full lecture/resource notes are provided on all modules |
Disabled students rely on the support available within the virtual learning environment offered by UEL Direct |
Deans of Schools |
September 2010 |
Continue to work through, refine and embed disability impact analysis in all our daily activities |
Impact assessment is key to putting in place appropriate mitigating actions where there is clear disadvantage |
Secretary and Registrar |
Ongoing |
Provide support and information to staff and managers to ensure that staff do not feel anxious about disclosing their disability |
We can offer support only when we are aware of the disability |
Senior HR Manager (Policy & Operations) |
Ongoing |
Continue to involve disabled students and staff in the delivery of this plan |
We need to demonstrate that we are reaching out to all of our disabled students and staff |
Secretary and Registrar |
Ongoing |
Set up focus groups with disabled staff and students to review and discuss issues of concern to them arising from the staff and student satisfaction surveys |
We need to understand why some disabled students and staff are less satisfied with their experience than others so that we can respond appropriately |
Senior HR Manager (Policy & Operations) Senior HR Manager (Strategy and Change)
|
|
Put in place a programme annually to mark the International Day of Disabled Persons |
We need to show institutional awareness of the contribution which disabled students and staff make to our community |
Director of Mentor and Equalities Unit |
Annually |
Assess our current provision against the QAA code of practice on disabled students |
We need to ensure that we meet the QAA quality standards |
Head of Quality Assurance and Enhancement |
June 2010 |
Gain approval for a new code of practice on disability etiquette |
Staff often feel anxious when meeting disabled students, especially for the first time |
Manager, RNIB Centre |
June 2010 |
When we became aware in 2005 of the changes which were likely in the new Disability Discrimination Act we set up a group to scope where we are now and what we needed to do. The group included disabled students and staff. The scoping exercise has retained its relevance as a useful checklist and is set out below.
We now keep a watching brief on the following employment issues which emerged from our 2005 scoping exercise:
We likewise keep a watching brief on the following services to students:
These have been useful questions to aid our discussions and to facilitate consultation as we have continued to work on the Scheme.
© 2010
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