Topic briefing

Disabled students


Published 27 July 2020

Examples

Below are some examples of how providers have supported outcomes for disabled students which you may find helpful when developing your own approaches. Some of these approaches may not yet be fully evaluated.

We will update this page with more examples of effective practice as we identify them.

If you have, or are aware of, examples of effective practice in this area please contact [email protected].


Lecture recordings at the University of Huddersfield

The University of Huddersfield has introduced automatic video recording of all lectures.

Recordings are available to all students, not just those with a disability or personal learning support plan. The university monitors usage, with the latest data showing that at least half of all students had accessed a lecture recording in the past year.

The lecture capture system allows students to:

  • add bookmarks to recordings to highlight important sections
  • add notes to assist their learning
  • share bookmarks and notes with their peers.

The university has now started a project where linguistic students caption videos for hearing impaired students. This keeps the process in-house and helps to reduce the costs.


Reviewing programme material at The Open University

The Open University has developed a reader and reviewer guide which invites internal and external people to review its programme material.

It includes an equality, diversity and inclusivity checklist of issues and questions that act as prompts to ensure that a broad range of students are considered.

The guide is used by teams to prepare materials before the course is rolled out. It can also be used by students evaluating the inclusivity of their teaching and learning.


Student profiles at The Open University

The Open University has developed profiles of hypothetical students (assigning different protected characteristics, employment status, whether they are carers, etc.) that act as a basis for discussion about the implications of curriculum design decisions.

These profiles cover a range of student requirements and allow those designing courses or offering information, advice and guidance services to reflect on possible barriers and enhance the pre-entry information they provide.

Published 27 July 2020

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