ABSTRACT

The lecture room is at first sight a place where everyone has an equal opportunity to learn, but this is not necessarily the case. Students in universities and colleges often have a range of disabilities, some of which we are likely to know about and others which, either due to the nature of the disability or because of students’ (frequent) reluctance to mark themselves out as different, we don’t know about. As well as a human commitment to ensure all our students can benefit from the learning experiences we offer, in the UK at least there is legislation that makes it unlawful for us to discriminate against students on the grounds of disability (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, https://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/). The following sound-bites give an idea of some typical issues lecturers may face.

the lecturers…

Arthur

Last week the student services woman came up to me just before my lecture and said, ‘You’ve got a profoundly deaf student in your class, so I’ve told her you will provide all your lecture notes to her in advance. That’s all right, isn’t it?’ Well, no actually it’s not all right, because my lectures don’t work like that. When I’m showing slides, I make comparisons, draw inferences, ask students to identify influences, that kind of thing and the notes I use are just the bare bones, often just the list of slides. The trouble is, to show the slides to good effect, you’ve got to have the lights down, which means she can’t lip-read. We had a bit of an argy bargy about it, and in the end I suggested that the student makes a tape of each lecture and gets it transcribed. If she then uses the slides in the slide library alongside that, she’ll get a much better picture of what’s going on, even though it’s a lot more work for her.

Dr Arbuthnott

When I’m talking through diagrams on screen, I rely very heavily on the visual image, and I’ve been told that this makes it difficult for students who don’t see well. What I’ve been asked to do now is provide my PowerPoint slides prior to the lecture for the lad concerned, so he has a chance to scrutinize it on his own screen. It’s a bit a of a pain, because it means I need to be a week ahead with my preparation, but it’s all good discipline, I suppose.

Professor Oakwood

As far as I am aware, we don’t have any disabled students. We did have a chap once who couldn’t use the stairs, but he left after the second year. Anyway, all our classrooms now have wheelchair access, so we’re covered on that one.

Anya

I have had students come up to me saying that I go too fast and that they can’t make notes properly because they are dyslexic. Surely that’s not my problem, it’s student services’ responsibility. I’ve got no intention of doing all the work for my students. It’s their job to learn.

Louise

This one guy, who always creeps in at the back of the room at the last minute, keeps pestering me to give him my lecture notes in advance of the lecture. But I’m often fine-tuning up to the very last minute, so I can’t do that. Life’s hard enough just trying to keep up with the preparation, without these unreasonable requests.

students’ views…

I have a registered disability, but just because I’m not in a wheelchair, it’s as if I don’t exist. They seem to think that just because they’ve provided wheelchair access to the lecture theatres, they’ve done their stuff. But I find it very difficult to sit in those dreadful seats for 90 minutes at a stretch, which is what we get if the lecturer decides to skip the break and finish early, so he can get back to his research.

There are signs up all over saying, ‘No eating or drinking in the lecture theatre’ but I’m diabetic and need to eat at 12.30, so I bring my sandwiches. I’ve had filthy looks from the lecturer more than once, but I don’t see why I should have to explain myself.

These whizz bang lecture rooms are fine for most people, but when the lecturer is using the data projector, the main lights are dimmed and she’s speaking from the console in semi-darkness, so I can’t see her face clearly to lip-read, and I miss a lot of what is said.

When he asks us to get up and put our Post-its on the side wall so he can collect our responses, I hate it. I know I can ask someone to take mine up for me, but I can’t go and look myself at what others have done. The places they’ve made for wheelchairs are very isolating too, so when he wants us to work in groups of three, two people have to come and stand by me so I’ve got someone to work with. They can’t just turn round in their seats like everyone else in the lecture theatre.

I’ve had to really struggle to get here and I’m seriously thinking about giving up. The lectures are the worst bit because with the course materials, textbooks and material on the Web, I can pace myself and take my time, but in lectures everything is so fast, I just feel really stupid and it’s hit my confidence badly.

When he’s showing his slides he sometimes says, ‘You can read this bit yourselves, rather than me reading it out to you’ but I can’t. I hate that!

I had a panic attack in a lecture theatre the week my father died. I just couldn’t get out because I was in the middle of a row. Since then, I need to be at the back on the end of a row, but this isn’t always easy. I tend to skip lectures sometimes if I can’t find a place where I feel comfortable.

It looks so rude sometimes when I fall asleep in lectures. Since I’ve had ME I feel exhausted all the time, but I’m determined to keep trying. I feel very embarrassed though.