Enabling the development of
optimum personal autonomy
Deb Viney, Diversity Advisor,
SOAS, University of London
Stockholm, May 2014
Stockholm May 2014
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An introduction to Deb

Psychology graduate (Portsmouth, 1989) &
graduate member of the British Psychological Society

Junior health service technician in the Wessex Neurological Centre

Junior medical researcher (haemophilia & HIV)

Part time lecturer (teaching psychology at all levels from
age 16 to post-graduate plus counselling skills & ethics)

Disability Service Co-ordinator at University of Southampton

Diversity Advisor at the School of Oriental & African Studies

Founding member of the National Association of Disability Officers (now
NADP) and long serving member of the Board of Directors

and a 16 year old single parent …
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Core value:
optimising personal autonomy

Ultimately the aim of a disability practitioner should be to
facilitate disabled student(s) in developing optimal
personal autonomy – we are effectively working towards
putting ourselves out of a job!!!

Inevitably, for some individuals there cannot be total
independence, so we must encourage the person to seek the
greatest independence they can achieve – which should
mean making life choices for themselves and often involves
managing their own support workers and managing their access
to other forms of support.

It would be a “disservice” to not support the development of
each student’s personal autonomy.
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Managing expectations
Perhaps the greatest part of the job of a disability
advisor is managing the expectations of others:

student

academics

other students

in-house support workers

their parents

their teachers

out-sourced support workers &
their managers

their friends

line manager & senior
management
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Examples of expectations

A disabled student may have particular beliefs about who
should be their support worker … or about whose job it is to
manage the work of their support worker …

their parents may have expectations about how their “child”
will be supported (e.g. 5pm Friday phone call “who will be
going to the Halls to take [newly arrived blind student]
shopping for food?”).

[school] teachers may make inaccurate positive or negative
assumptions about the support available for disabled
students in Higher Education.

the friends of a disabled student may assume they have a
responsibility to advocate on the disabled student’s behalf.
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
academics may assume a physically disabled student will need
additional academic support …

other students may assume they have a right to know about /
discuss the details of a classmate’s impairment

in-house support workers can sometimes believe that ensuring the
quality of what they do is someone else’s role …

out-sourced support workers & their managers can make
assumptions about whose responsibility it is to undertake certain
aspects of a student’s support (e.g. assuming that the Disability
Advisor will act as a “go between” when a mentor needs to
communicate with an academic)

line manager & senior management very often have inaccurate
beliefs about what a Disability Advisor’s role should / does entail.
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Disability practitioners are not immune …

We can make assumptions about what a specific
course (or academic activity within a course) entails…
when perhaps we should ask more questions of the
academics or even ask to observe an activity …

We could believe that academics know nothing about
disability issues … but it is always possible the
academic has personal experience or a family member
with a similar impairment …

We can sometimes believe we always know best and
that it is our role to persuade students to accept our
advice … when perhaps instead we should present the
arguments for and against a particular action and allow
the student(s) to decide for themselves …
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Be wary of assumptions

about the individual student’s level of intelligence and likely
achievements (and also about the likely achievements of the
group of disabled students)

about what the individual student’s needs may be in a particular
situation (and about the needs of disabled students “at large”)

about what form(s) of support the individual may prefer (and what
support disabled students in general will prefer)

about what “levelling the playing field” means in an individual case
(and in general terms)

about our own level of expertise … is there a risk that sometimes
our confidence sometimes exceeds our competence?
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Persuasive communication
One of the key skills for any Disability Advisor:

Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding
people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational
and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving
strategy, and relies on "appeals" rather than force.

Dissuasion is the process of convincing someone not to believe or
act on something.

Persuasion is often confused with manipulation, which is the act of
guiding another towards something that is not in their best interest
by subverting their thought processes. Persuasion is meant to
benefit all parties in the end.
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Persuasive_communication
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Attitude change through persuasive
communication
based on the work of Carl Hovland (Yale University, 1950s &
1960s)
1. Target Characteristics: the characteristics of the person who receives
and processes a message.
E.g. highly intelligent people (such as academics) are less likely to
be convinced by a one-sided argument.
2. Source Characteristics: the major ones are expertise,
trustworthiness and interpersonal attraction or attractiveness. The
credibility of a perceived message has been found to be a key variable
(Hovland & Weiss, 1951).
E.g. this is one of the reasons professionalisation of the Disability
Advisor role is positive, since it should encourage others to see us as
experts.
3. Message Characteristics: the nature of the message has a role in
persuasion. E.g. presenting both sides of a story may be useful in
changing attitudes.
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Attitude change (continued)
4. Cognitive Routes: a message can appeal to an individual's
own cognitive evaluation to help change an attitude.

In the central route to persuasion the individual is
presented with the data and motivated to evaluate the data
and arrive at an attitude changing conclusion.
E.g. If meeting resistance to making adjustments for Medical
students with dyslexia ,a Disability Advisor can present the
genetic / biological evidence for dyslexia to the Medical
School, the academics there can evaluate that evidence for
themselves …

In the peripheral route to attitude change, the individual is
encouraged to not look at the content but at the source.
This is commonly seen in modern advertisements that
feature celebrities or experts such as doctors are used.
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The six “weapons of influence”
(based on the work of Robert Cialdini, 2001)
Reciprocation - people like to “return a favour”.
If a Disability Advisor can help an admissions tutor to recruit a
prospective student with excellent grades; or help a Course
Co-ordinator to obtain the necessary approval to start a new
programme, then later the academics may be more willing to
be persuaded (e.g.) to make an unusual reasonable
adjustment.
Commitment and Consistency - Once people commit to what
they think is right, orally or in writing, they are more likely
to honour that commitment, even if the original incentive
or motivation is subsequently removed.
E.g. an academic department which has pre-agreed a set of
reasonable adjustments for a disabled student is likely to
honour that commitment, especially once the student has
arrived on their course.
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
Social Proof - People will do things that they see
other people are doing.
For example: if the Disability Advisor can say “the
Chemistry department had a blind student who
successful completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s
degrees” other academic departments may find it harder
to refuse to make reasonable adjustments for other blind
students.

Authority - People will tend to obey authority figures,
even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts.
For example if a very senior academic (Professor, Deputy
Vice Chancellor, Vice Chancellor) will support an unusual
reasonable adjustment, other academics are more likely
to agree to it.
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
Liking - People are easily persuaded by other
people whom they like. E.g. a likeable
disabled student will be more likely to obtain
support for their reasonable adjustments from
academics; also a current student known to the
academics is less likely to have a request
refused than a prospective disabled student the
academics have yet to meet.

Scarcity - Perceived scarcity will generate
demand. E.g. disabled students told there are
only a limited number of accessible parking bays
on campus may be more likely to apply
immediately for a parking permit.
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Tensions and power relationships
– the disability practitioner’s perspective

Academic standards must be protected - “dumbing down” is not an
option … and yet some reasonable adjustments may push the
boundary between an appropriate adjustment to the academic
assessment process and the academic standard to be achieved.

Academic freedom may occasionally limit the recommendations we
make (e.g. a colleague who lectures “off the cuff” might not need to be
asked to change their whole teaching style, recommendations can be
adjusted to take that into account)

Academics can sometimes believe that they are “not allowed” to
challenge our recommendations about the arrangements for disabled
students.

A student may occasionally become the rope in a tug of war,
especially between funding body and institution where there is
negotiation about who pays for which aspects of support.
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Examples of issues around autonomy (1)
Preparation for study in Higher Education (for any student) is much
wider than just the academic arrangements
e.g. life skills such as budgeting, using a washing machine, some basic
cooking, etc..
For a disabled student it

means ensuring the disabled student either has those life skills which
they are capable of developing or has in place a support arrangement
to meet those broader needs.

may include an adjustment to (perhaps even re-negotiation of) the
relationship between parent(s) and student

can force the development of autonomy in areas where other students
seldom need to think about it (e.g. managing personal health and
treatments)
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Examples of issues around autonomy (2)
The importance of a fully independent assessment
of needs
(i.e. independent of the institution and the funding body but also of the suppliers
of equipment / support and of the academic department and of the Disability
Advisors – the assessor should have absolutely no vested interest in the
student’s current or future support arrangements)

Helping the student to understand the distinction
between needs and wants

Helping the student to recognise and further
develop personal preferences (see below)

Empowering and informing the student about
options which may be open to them
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Examples of issues around autonomy (3)
What are the limits of confidentiality?
Disability Advisors cannot and should not promise complete
confidentiality, we must consciously acknowledge the limits of
the confidentiality we can offer:

We may be able to keep information confidential from academic
colleagues (on request) provided there are no health and safety
implications for staff or other students from such a request
However there is:
 a duty to disclose terrorist activity or serious criminal activity
to the relevant authorities

a duty of care, which occasionally overrides the duty of
confidentiality if the person is a danger to themself or to
others (this could be a physical or psychological or emotional or
financial risk)
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Examples of issues around autonomy (4)
Independent choice issues can manifest in various ways:

Is the student seeking age appropriate activities, making the most of
their opportunities and choices?

If not, it may be a role for the Disability Advisor to introduce some
ideas
e.g. prospective students who have never left home alone

Choice requires independence of thought; it’s not about what the
parents want; it’s not what teachers want; it’s what the student wants!
In a few cases the student may never have given that any thought –
perhaps because they are so used to parents taking decisions for
them, perhaps for other reasons.
e.g. advised one struggling student what her options could be
outside of University …

What fosters independent thinking?
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Examples of issues around autonomy (5)
Occasionally a student or their parents will seek to
“bring forward” a familiar support person from an
earlier educational setting.
This can be tricky, for a number of reasons
 different relationship in HE; less “support”, more
facilitation.
 appropriate professionalization of support staff and
of their relationships with students.
 the SW may not have the appropriate skills to work
in an HE setting.
 SWs can accidentally act as a barrier between the
disabled student and their peers.
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Examples of issues around autonomy (6)
“How can you assure me that my
daughter will not be bullied / socially
excluded at your University?”
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Examples of issues around autonomy (7)
[where a choice is possible] which is
“better”: Assistive Technology [AT] or
human support?

This will depend on many factors,
including the student’s personality and
some situational variables.

However for some students the key issue
is about how visible or invisible are the
proposed support mechanisms?
D.Viney
Stockholm May 2014
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Examples of issues around autonomy (8)
Why can’t you just get another student to help?

What about the impact of helping on that student’s
own studies?

Who tells them if their notes are not good enough?
Would you want to have to tell a classmate that?

What if the student-helper fails to turn up without
any warning?

Who is responsible for monitoring the quality of the
student-helper’s work?
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Examples of issues around autonomy (9)
Having those difficult conversations:

Planning ahead to optimise choice during
a psychotic break

Maintaining choice into terminal illness

What do you say to a student when their
classmates or flatmates complain that they
smell?
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And it’s worth remembering …
A lesson from my first International
Disability in HE conference:
There is a huge amount we can do to
facilitate our disabled students’
studies, but in the end
….they retain the right to fail
D.Viney
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References
Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Influence: Science and
practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
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