1. Looking Forward to the Future: The impact of disability equality schemes in Higher Education
Mike Adams – 24 October 2007

2. Issues I Will Address
The DED and legislation more generally, and its impact on HE
The equalities discourse – what it means for HE and disability
Education outcomes for disabled people
Education and its wider impact on improving the lives of disabled people.

3. Joint ECU / DRC DED Work 21 HEI Disability Equality schemes sampled
38% assessed as compliant
62% assessed as non-compliant
The stats compared well in relation to other sectors

4. Emerging Key Issues Involvement of disabled people Action planning
Impact assessments
Information gathering

5. Equality Models Individual justice model Group justice model
Identity model
Participatory model

6. Developing a Participatory Model
Practice that works
Proactive use of legislation
Investing in staff
Working in partnership

7. Education Outcomes Elimination of unlawful discrimination
Peer support and person-centred learning
Positive interaction between disabled and non-disabled learners
Promoting positive attitudes and higher expectations within education institutions
Adequate funding to maximise capacity
Better transitions

8. Improving Life Chances
In the UK, there are 6.8m disabled people of working age - 1 in 5 are not working as much as their peers.
Only 50% of disabled people are in work compared to 80% of non-disabled people.
Disabled people are not earning as much – they are more likely to be in manual and low-skilled occupations and less likely in managerial, professional and highly-skilled occupations.
In 2004/05 one quarter of all children living in poverty had a parent who was disabled or had a long term health condition.

9. In % of disabled people aged between had no qualifications whatsoever, compared to 9% of non-disabled people of the same age – an 11% gap.
Disabled young people are 40% as likely to go into higher education aged 18 as non-disabled 18 year olds.
The number of disabled students participating in higher education has since increased year on year – yet participation by non-disabled people has grown much more rapidly over the same period.

10. Conclusions Momentum going in the right direction
HE one of the leading sectors in innovation and development – but we must not get complacent
The ESRC-funded project is a key piece of the jigsaw.