Disabled staff and off-site activities

'Disabled' staff and off-site activities: opportunities and challenges for students' learning

School of Social Sciences

Dr Faith Tucker

In the last decade, new legislative and Quality Assurance measures have prompted UK Higher Education Institutions to recognise differences and diversity in students' experiences and needs. In the GEES disciplines there is now a considerable body of literature addressing this issue, often with a substantive focus upon the manifold issues which off-site activities (e.g. fieldwork) pose for students with disabilities such as impaired mobility, vision or hearing, mental health difficulties or hidden disabilities and dyslexia.

However, in the GEES disciplines, and in the HE sector more widely, this commitment to support the learning of students with disabilities has seldom been matched by an attention to the issues and needs of HE staff with disabilities. Around 1-in-14 HE teaching staff consider themselves to be 'disabled', yet there is a dearth of robust evidence relating to their experiences and needs (Equality Challenge Unit, 2004). The conditions and experiences of this group are often seen as a set of 'issues to be overcome', rather than as opportunity to rethink extant institutional and disciplinary teaching and learning habits. These points have particular poignancy in relation to off-site activities such as fieldwork (integral to GEES curricula).

The aim of the project is to explore opportunities and challenges for learning posed by the participation of staff members with disabilities in off-site activities through an in-depth consultation with a sample of 'disabled' GEES teaching staff. This project will produce case study and CPD workshop materials to facilitate discussion in GEES departments of the opportunities and challenges for students' learning posed by the participation of 'disabled' staff in off-site activities. These materials will be made available to HEIs via the University's website.