Disabled Student Support

Accessible Events  

In November 2023, the 22-24 Disabled Students’ Rep Cai Ware had a unanimous policy passed at Union Council for the Students’ Union to undertake an Accessible Events project.  

The Students’ Union now has an Accessible Events working group that is currently addressing the following areas:  

• Communicating our work to students  

• The Accessibility Page on Website  

• Events Listings on Native Events Platform 

• A Students’ Union Accessibility Strategy  

• Staff Learning & Training 

• Partner Relationships & Expectations  

• What we expect from students & disclosure work  

• Student Training (including department reps & society committees) 

• Digital Inclusion 

Baseline Inclusive Measures  

For this campaign we're looking at what institutional changes we can create at Hallam. With such a large number of our cohort identifying as disabled (19.8%), we need to make sure Hallam is as accessible and inclusive as possible. 

After our 2022/23 SSA College Officer, Dayo, pushed our Disabled Student Rights Policy through Union Council, we now have mandated support for disabled student rights at Hallam. We are working with Disabled Student Services, leading on a campaign to get inclusive practice as compulsory in delivery of teaching and support to students. Inclusive practice covers everything from subtitling recorded content to providing notes prior to teaching content. By having inclusive practice as our norm, we will be able to keep learning accessible and make sure disabled students' needs are met. 

We’ve been working with our Disabled Students' Rep, Cai, and Disabled Student Services to revise the current learning contract. Learning contracts are what are used within the University to make sure teaching and professional staff are aware of any adjustments or accommodations needed due to a student's disability. Currently, the learning contracts are difficult to understand and there is a lack of buy-in due to this. 

We held focus groups over November 2023 with disabled and non-disabled students and collaborating with the Disabled Student Services department at the University. Now we have the analysis (as of February 2024), written by Marissa Hill, the Head of DSS, we'll be putting together an action plan to make the recommendations from the focus groups happen! Here are some of the key recommendations:  

• Review the communications about disability and inclusive support at Hallam. 

• Rename and rebrand and relaunch the Learning Contract 

• Agree on the Baseline Inclusive Measures as a Hallam standard and promote this widely to staff and students for an equitable experience. 

•  Improve the information and guidance to support students on placement. 

• Reasonable Adjustments and Inclusive Practice policy and a training program for academic staff. 

• Create a disabled student panel to run throughout the year and create a more inclusive and collaborative feedback loop.