Working with disabled students (September 2012)
Working with disabled students1
Cardiff University is committed to creating an inclusive learning environment in
which educational opportunity is equally available to all. In particular, it is
committed to supporting staff in meeting the needs of disabled students. You
may find the following information useful.
What is disability?
The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment,
which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to
carry out normal day-to-day activities’. People with the following types of
conditions are likely to be covered by the Act:
 Vision and hearing impairments;
 Mental health difficulties;
 Specific learning difficulties, for example, dyslexia and dyspraxia;
 Severe disfigurements;
 Physical conditions, for example, paraplegia, cerebral palsy, repetitive strain
injury (RSI), arthritis;
 Hidden disabilities and long-term medical conditions, for example, epilepsy,
diabetes, cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis.
It is not the impairment itself that is important, but the effect that the
impairment has on a person’s activities. This means that a person with several
relatively minor conditions will still be covered if the combined effect is
substantial.
The definition is broader than the every-day usage of the term, and many people
who are protected by the Act would not choose to call themselves ‘disabled’.
Our duties in law
There are several forms of unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
 Direct discrimination involves treating someone less favourably because of
their disability (for instance, rejecting dyslexic applicants for a journalism
course).
 Victimisation is treating people less favourably because they have tried to
exercise their rights, or have helped someone who has.
 Indirect discrimination arises where a policy, criterion or practice is applied
to everyone and, although it appears to be neutral, it places some people at a
disadvantage because of their disability. (For instance, a no-dogs policy
doesn’t refer to disability, but it places blind people who use guide dogs at a
disadvantage.)
Direct discrimination and victimisation involve treating someone differently
when they should have been treated the same, whereas indirect discrimination
involves treating someone the same when they should have been treated
differently.
An electronic copy is available at
learning.cf.ac.uk/inclusive-curriculum/resources
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Working with disabled students (September 2012)
 Discrimination arising from disability involves treating someone unfavourably
because of something connected with their disability, but it is only unlawful if
you know, or should have known, about the person’s disability. (For instance,
if a student’s medication causes them to fall asleep in class, and the lecturer
reprimands them publicly, it will only amount to unlawful discrimination if the
lecturer should have known about the student’s disability.)
Direct discrimination and victimisation cannot be justified and are always
unlawful. Indirect discrimination and discrimination arising from disability can
be justified if you can show that the treatment is a proportionate way to achieve
a legitimate goal. In that case, the treatment will not be unlawful even it was
unfavourable or put someone at a disadvantage.
 Harassment which is related to disability is also a form of unlawful
discrimination, and it involves violating someone’s dignity or creating a
hostile, humiliating or offensive environment.
 Finally, there is a duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled
people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage because of their
disability.
The duty to make reasonable adjustments means that teaching staff must reduce
or eliminate barriers which prevent disabled people participating on an equal
basis. Such adjustments might, for example, include changes in methods of
learning and teaching, or the provision of materials in alternative formats. It is
an anticipatory duty, which means we have to anticipate the needs of future
students by designing the curriculum to be as accessible as possible from the
outset. This guidance suggests some simple steps, and further advice is
available from the Education Team (see contact details at the end of this
document).
In certain cases, however, adjustments will have to be made for individuals in
response to particular needs. This places a duty on education providers to do all
they reasonably can to find out about students' disabilities, including developing
an atmosphere in which disclosure is encouraged. Guidance on both these issues
is available from the Disability and Dyslexia Service.
In addition, members of staff are encouraged to make use of training offered by
the University’s staff development programme.
The public sector equality duty
In 2005, a wide range of institutions in the public sector were given a positive
duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled and non-disabled people.
This means that, in the way that they carry out their functions, universities must
have due regard to the need to:
 advance equality of opportunity between disabled and non-disabled people;
 eliminate unlawful disability discrimination, including disability-related
harassment;
 tackle prejudice and promote understanding of disability;
 encourage participation of disabled people in public life; and
 take steps to take account of disabled peoples’ disabilities, even where that
involves treating disabled people more favourably than other people.
The University’s approach is set out in its Strategic Equality Plan, which can be
found at cf.ac.uk/govrn/cocom/equalityanddiversity/stratequalplan/index.html
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Working with disabled students (September 2012)
The language of disability2
The ways specific disabilities are referred to are subject to debate and change.
This is sometimes referred to as political correctness. Politically correct
terminology excites strong feelings in many people, both positive and negative,
but there are problems both with taking it to an extreme and with ignoring it
completely. The danger with taking it to an extreme is that it can prevent
people from asking questions and dealing with their real reactions and attitudes
- using the right words can become more important than promoting a positive
attitude. However, language should be used in as positive a way as possible.
For example, people are often referred to by their conditions as if that
constitutes their whole identity: ‘he is an epileptic’, ‘the deaf’. Taken a step
further, this can lead to negative and technically inaccurate labelling that can
dehumanise or belittle a person. ‘Wheelchair bound’ and ‘deaf and dumb’ are
examples of phrases which can be replaced by both more accurate and less
offensive language such as ‘wheelchair user’ and ‘deaf without speech’.
Ask yourself whether you think these terms are positive, negative or neither:
wheelchair-bound
Spina Bifida
brave
handicapped
invalid
special
the disabled
spastic
mentally ill
independent
disabled person
sufferer
special needs students
cripple
___________________________________________________________________
There are no correct answers here, but there are reasons why some people find
some of these words offensive. Terms such as ‘brave’ and ‘special’ may seem
positive at first, but their capacity to be offensive is linked to a stereotype of
disabled people being less capable than others. ‘Able-bodied’ people often
admire people with disabilities for being ‘courageous’ and ‘pioneering’, or they
may be ‘their own worst enemy’. Terminology should not marginalise or
patronise the people it is describing.
To summarise, language is a potent force which can promote negative
stereotypes, but do not become so concerned with the terminology that it
becomes a reason for not discussing issues. If you are not sure what term to use,
take your cue from the disabled person him or herself. What term does he or
she use to describe him or herself? Avoid labels and generalisations and
remember that disabled people are individuals whose disability is only one part
of their identity.
The following table is an attempt to reflect the terms usually preferred by those
groups whom they are used to describe.
2
Reproduced with permission from Skill (National Bureau for Students with
Disabilities): Award Officers Directory, 3rd Edition.
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Working with disabled students (September 2012)
Use
Avoid
People/students with...(e.g. epilepsy)
Using the adjective as a noun: ‘the
disabled’, ‘an epileptic’
‘People suffering from’/‘afflicted
with’, implying victim role
Students with learning difficulties
and/or disabilities
Special needs
SLDD or other initials
Disabled person (if the person prefers it Handicap (except in relation to golf,
and/or for variety) or person with a
racing), cripple, invalid, spastic,
disability (if the person prefers it
special, ‘challenged’
and/or for variety)
Person with a learning difficulty or
person with a learning disability
SEN, ESN, mentally handicapped,
retarded, mental age of...
Wheelchair user
Wheelchair-bound
Person with a visual impairment or a
blind person or a partially sighted
person
Visually handicapped person
Deaf, profoundly deaf or hard of
hearing person
Person with a hearing impairment ‘deaf
and dumb’, ‘deaf and mute’
Person with a mental health problem or Disturbed person, mad or mental
a mentally ill person or a mental health
services user
Hearing aid
Deaf aid
Accessible toilets or toilets/facilities
that are fully accessible
Disabled toilets (unless they are out of
order)
Personal assistants/enablers
Carers
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Working with disabled students (September 2012)
Good practice in lectures, seminars and workshops

Try to break your sessions into sections (e.g. 15- or 20-minute chunks) by
varying your presentation methods, pausing to encourage questions, setting
short interactive exercises, or just including a one-minute break. This will
aid concentration for all students but will be particularly useful for those who
are relying on lipspeakers or sign language interpreters. Such communication
support requires intense concentration from both parties and is exhausting.

Provide an explicit structure for sessions and activities, and use ‘signposts’ to
that structure as you go.

Speak clearly and at a reasonable pace. A steady rhythm is best as shouting
will only distort sound and lip pattern. Always talk directly to participants
even if they have a sign interpreter with them.

Always face participants when talking to them. Try not to stand with your
back to the light – this places your face in shadow and makes it difficult for
people with hearing impairments to lip-read. Be aware that moving around
the room as you speak will also make lip-reading difficult.

Allow participants sufficient time for taking notes.

Beware of asking people to read a text and respond immediately in a
seminar. Some people—for example, those with vision impairments or
dyslexia—may take longer to read and digest the information. It will help if
such material is given to participants prior to the seminar so they have had a
chance to read it before discussion begins.

Discussion should be managed in a way that ensures all participants get an
opportunity to talk and to listen. Ensure that only one person speaks at a
time; this is vitally important for people with a hearing impairment.

In large groups, questions from the audience should be summarised before
you respond. It is unlikely a person with a hearing impairment would have
heard or lip-read if their concentration was on you.

When showing videos, turn on subtitles (if available) or provide a transcript.

Write up difficult spellings, or provide a handout of technical or subjectspecific terms.
General guidelines for preparing written materials
Presentation and layout

Use headings and page numbers consistently. This allows people with vision
impairments to navigate around the material easily.

Leave plenty of space between paragraphs and columns. There should be
more space between paragraphs than between lines of text.

Left-justify text and leave the right margin jagged. This makes it easier for
people with dyslexia to follow the lines of the text. Avoid wrapping text
around diagrams - this can make sentences difficult to follow.
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Working with disabled students (September 2012)

Where appropriate, use bullet points and short notes instead of continuous
prose, and keep paragraphs brief. Sub-headings can make skim-reading
easier.

When using PowerPoint or OHPs, try to have only one topic per slide, and no
more than six or seven bullet points.

Many people with dyslexia find diagrams, concept maps and flow charts
particularly useful. However, people with vision impairments will need this
information presented in an alternative way, so provide written descriptions
and/or a tactile version of important diagrams and pictures. .
Text/Font

Provide typed overheads and handouts, preferably in a sans serif font like
Arial, Verdana or Trebuchet MS.

Use at least 12pt font in publications, 12pt or 14pt on handouts and 24pt on
slides or transparencies. Most people find these font sizes easier to read,
including people with some kinds of visual impairment, dyslexia or
concentration difficulties.

Use bold text for headings. Avoid excessive use of capitalisation, italics and
underlining. People with dyslexia often recognise words by the patterns they
form. Capitalisation removes these differences between words because all
letters are the same height. Underlining and italics can make text run
together, again making it difficult to read.

If writing in pen, use a medium tip pen or a felt pen in a dark colour.
Remember that people who are colour blind are particularly likely to have
difficulty distinguishing red and green.
Paper

Ensure there is a good contrast between text colour and background colour,
but be aware that black on white can cause glare. If possible, provide an
electronic version so that people can print their own; otherwise, consider
printing handouts on pastel-coloured paper.

Print text on a plain background: a patterned background can obscure the
text and make it difficult to read.
Communication and Etiquette

When you first meet a blind person, introduce yourself. When you are going
to move away, tell them: don’t leave them talking to an empty space.

When you are talking to someone with a speech impairment, concentrate on
what is being said, be patient and don’t try to guess what they want to say.
If you don’t understand, don’t pretend that you do.

Lipreading requires a lot of guesswork, and some sounds are visually
indistinguishable. If someone is lipreading and doesn’t understand what you
are saying, try to rephrase rather than simply repeating the same words.

When talking to a wheelchair user, try to ensure that your eyes are at the
same level as theirs, perhaps by sitting down. Don’t lean on the wheelchair it is part of the user’s personal space.
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Working with disabled students (September 2012)

Avoid asking personal questions about a person’s disability, such as “Were
you born like that?” Questions about a person's disability should be relevant
to the course, for example, ‘Would this handout be better in a larger font
size?’, ‘What would be your preferred method of assessment?’ or ‘What
strategies would you usually use in this situation?’

If someone looks “different”, avoid staring. Concentrate on what they are
saying, not on the way they look.
And finally…
If a student asks for an adjustment, and you don’t know whether it’s possible,
don’t refuse; say that you don’t know, and that you will find out.
Disclosure and Confidentiality Policies
Information about disability is sensitive personal data under the Data Protection
Act 1998 and must be kept confidentially and securely. For more information,
see the confidentiality policy at cardiff.ac.uk/govrn/cocom/accinf/index.html
and the disclosure policy at cardiff.ac.uk/dyslx/infoforstaff/disclose/index.html
Advice and further information
Iain Mossman, Curriculum Design Officer
mossmanij@cardiff.ac.uk (029) 2087 9428
Information about the Inclusive Curriculum Project, Cardiff University guidance,
and links to further resources learning.cf.ac.uk/inclusive-curriculum
Christine Werrell, Disability and Dyslexia Service Manager
werrellc@cardiff.ac.uk (029) 2087 9317 cardiff.ac.uk/dyslx/index.html
Estates Division Information about accessibility of buildings and pool rooms
cardiff.ac.uk/estat/accessibilityinformation/index.html
Information Services Web accessibility information
cardiff.ac.uk/accessibility/index.html
The QAA Code of Practice for students with disabilities qaa.ac.uk/Publication
s/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/Code-of-practice-Section-3.aspx
Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance for education providers
equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/guidance-for-education-provider
s-further-and-higher-education/
Disability legislation: practical guidance for academic staff
(note: this document pre-dates the Equality Act, but the provisions it describes
are largely unchanged) heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/inclusion/disabilit
y/DisabilityLegislationForAcademics_revised_2010.pdf
JISC TechDis:
Accessibility Essentials (information on using Word, PowerPoint and PDFs
accessibly) jisctechdis.ac.uk/AccessibilityEssentials/index.html
This text was updated by the Inclusive Curriculum Working Group in 2012.
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