Top Tips for Inclusive Post-14 Education Dr. Melanie Thorley *AccessAbility Programme Co-ordinator M.Thorley@gre.ac.uk www.gre.ac.uk/aap

Overview Disability awareness Universal Design for Learning - UDL Technology and Applications Some basics Working with paraprofessionals in the classroom. *AccessAbility Project and STAART

Disability Awareness Disabilities and/or impairments. Support for post-14 disabled students. Equality Act 2010.

Disabilities and/or impairments Mental health difficulties. Dyslexia and autistic spectrums. Long-term health conditions. Mobility difficulties. Visual impairment. Deaf and hard of hearing.

Equality Act 2010 A person (P) has a disability if: (a)P has a physical or mental impairment, and (b)the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. It is never unlawful to treat disabled students more favourably than non-disabled students (EHRC website). This is positive action.

Universal Design for Learning - UDL Is an educational framework that guides the development of flexible learning environments by reducing barriers and providing reasonable adjustments. However, good practice for inclusion benefits all students. http://www.udlcenter.org/resource_library/videos/udlcenter/udl#video0/

Technology and Applications Assistive technology (AT) is any piece of equipment, software programme or product system that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of disabled people. https://www.atia.org/at-resources/what-is-at/

Examples of AT Mind mapping software. Digital recorders. Lecture capturing – audio and visual. Eye-gaze trackers. Switches instead of mice. Speech to text software. Screen readers.

AT cont. http://braininhand.co.uk/who-we-help/brain-in-hand-university-edition/ The University of Worcester have an entire website dedicated to strategies for creating inclusive programmes of study https://uk.scips.eu/faq/

Some basics Text – avoid black ink on a white background. Provide PPPs and handouts in advance. Provide coloured overlays if your institution only has white paper. Encourage the students to digitally record the session if it would be beneficial for them. Ensure disabled students are included in group activities.

Working with Paraprofessionals Address the student, not the PP. Provide notes, handouts, PowerPoint presentations in advance. Do not include the PP if the students are working in groups or pairs. If the PP is taking notes and they appear to be struggling to keep up, it is likely that the students are also having difficulties.

STAART Support Through AccessAbility – Retention and Transition. We believe that students who have a realistic expectation of post-14 study are more likely to succeed. Therefore the more support we can provide before they start their course, the better the outcome Available for all new disabled students considering college or university. Workshops and inductions.

FB – University of Greenwich – STAART Last slide - hooray Hopefully you have enjoyed the session as well as widening your knowledge a bit. Any questions? Last thing -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_laws FB – University of Greenwich – STAART Twitter - @GRE_STAART