1. TIME BETTER SPENT? Disabled student perceptions on the impacts of administrative processes
Tim Coughlan & Kate Lister
Institute of Educational Technology, Learning and Teaching Innovation

2. ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSES
What do disabled students have to get through?

3. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT STUDY

4. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT STUDY

5. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT STUDY

6. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT STUDY

7. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT EVERYDAY LIFE AND INDEPENDENT LIVING

8. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT EVERYDAY LIFE AND INDEPENDENT LIVING

9. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT EVERYDAY LIFE AND INDEPENDENT LIVING

10. PROCESSES
TO SUPPORT EVERYDAY LIFE AND INDEPENDENT LIVING

11. CONTEXT

12. CONTEXT
Administrative processes are problematic
Workshop and online forum discussion activities with our Disabled Students Group and Students Association Conference Identified areas that students wanted to see research and action by the university, including: Amount of time spent on processes like declaring a disability, getting DSA, PIP, and others. How does this affect their studies or well-being? Are there ways to use this information to reduce the burden on disabled students? How organisational processes require people to use a particular communication channel (e.g. only allowing certain actions by phone, or in person) and what impact this has on disabled people.

13. Poor design of administrative processes has serious impacts
CONTEXT
Poor design of administrative processes has serious impacts
Ellis, L., Douglas, G. and Clarke, H., (2015) . Experiences of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for People with Sensory Loss
Image by Roger Blackwell:

14. Processes are fragmented and changing.
CONTEXT
Processes are fragmented and changing.
Images by Jasleen Kaur - and Herry Lawford -

15. SURVEY DEVELOPMENT

16. SURVEY DEVELOPMENT
Themes
How challenging are different types of processes? How challenging are each of the common processes experienced by our students? What are the different impacts of these processes on the student? Is support needed to undertake these processes?

17. Identified common processes and potential impacts through:
SURVEY DEVELOPMENT
Approach
Identified common processes and potential impacts through:
Issues raised and examples from participatory research exercises.
Discussions with staff responsible for support.
Narratives requested from students about their experiences.
Review of draft survey questions by staff and student representatives.

18. The following potential impacts on students were identified:
SURVEY DEVELOPMENT
Potential Impacts
The following potential impacts on students were identified:
Time spent on studies
Quality of your coursework assignments
Ability to succeed in exams
Mental health
Physical health or wellbeing
Stress levels
Effect on your disabilities
Impression of the University
Impression of council or governmental departments

19. RESULTS

20. FINDINGS
Which processes are challenging?

21. FINDINGS
Which processes are challenging?

22. FINDINGS
What are the impacts?

23. FINDINGS
What are the impacts?

24. FINDINGS
Getting help

25. Burdens in communicating with multiple people
RESULTS
Qualitative data themes
Burdens in communicating with multiple people
Repetition of information
Inconsistencies and contradictions
Financial challenges
Paying for medical evidence and assessments
Too overwhelmed and busy to apply for available support
Forms and documentation challenges
Questions on forms inappropriate to capture issues faced
Getting the right evidence for the process challenging

26. Changes to health conditions
RESULTS
Qualitative data themes
Changes to health conditions
Completing administrative processes exacerbated existing conditions
Changes to support needed during study created more administrative burden
Delays
Problems and delays accumulate over time and interact with deadlines in study.
Lack of support or equipment in place leads to student being behind from the start or choosing deferral of study.

27. FINDINGS

28. Reasons for this appear to include: Needs assessments
FINDINGS
Which processes are challenging?
Processes intended to provide support for disabled people are more challenging than general processes for study or everyday life.
Disabled Student Allowances (DSA) challenging for 61% of respondents who considered it applicable to them.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) challenging for 69% of respondents who considered it applicable to them.
Reasons for this appear to include:
Needs assessments
Medical or other forms of evidence (some with financial cost)
Multiple organisations and components to processes

29. Most commonly reported negative impact is on stress levels (62%).
FINDINGS
What are the impacts on students?
Most commonly reported negative impact is on stress levels (62%).
Also common are negative impacts on:
Impressions of government or council departments (51%)
Mental health (45%)
Negative impact on the respondent’s disabilities (41%).
But experiences of administrative processes had a positive impact on impressions of the OU for 42%.
Image by bottled_void:

30. Administrative processes had:
FINDINGS
What are the impacts on student attainment?
Some impacts are of particular interest because they suggest an effect on the student’s attainment.
Administrative processes had:
A negative effect on time spent on study for 38%
A negative effect on quality of assignments for 26%.
44% had experienced delays meaning that some kind of requested support had not been in place when needed.

31. DISCUSSION POINTS

32. DISCUSSION POINTS
Where next?
This study adds to evidence and voices suggesting that there are problems of administrative burden on disabled students. The method provides some clarity of where barriers are and the impacts these have. Inside the OU, it has started to inform the redesign of the Disability Support Form, alongside other research on the language used. But it also highlights the need to focus on cross-organisational engagement to resolve issues with external processes.

33. DISCUSSION POINTS
Where next?
Survey respondent sample is likely to represent a more positive and successful sub-group of the whole student population. Methods to analyse drop-out from processes and learning analytics would complement this to provide a more complete picture. Barriers and impacts interact and accumulate. They are time-dependent. Methods to represent disabled student journeys with a holistic view of the barriers and impacts over time are a current focus for us. Empower students to evidence the challenges they face. Develop a process-based view on accessibility for students.

34. Email: tim.coughlan@open.ac.uk
THANK YOU