This is my first ever blog as it is not really my first choice of medium for communication - to date I have definitely been a face-to-face person, I don't even use my mobile phone very often! However, I can see that it is becoming very popular, particularly amongst young people, and as I am in education I guess I should get involved. Who knows? I might even come to enjoy it.... If only I could type!
now to Activity 1.3: I work in HE in UK and I lecture in the Geography Department. I am interested in accessibility issues with respect to our students primarily. In response to (fairly) recent accessibility legislation my institution in common with all public bodies has had to draw up a Disability Action Plan and publish a Disability Equality Scheme. Long before this became a legal requirement my institution had put in place a Student Welfare Services Department complete with Disability Office. An initiative put forward by Welfare Services ensured that each Academic School in the university appointed a 'disability liaison person' to represent disabled students in the academic environment, to help to change the culture amongst students and staff in the Schools and to liaise with the Disability Office on matters concerning disabled students and academic staff. I am that person in my Academic School.
I do not have any personal experience of disability but I have seen a number of very bright students struggling with their work and with their social skills as a result of some impairment or other. I very firmly believe that all students should get the chance to operate on a playing field that is as level as it can be. Of course, I struggle with the big issue of preferential treatment and where to draw the line between enabling a student to do their own work and a helper doing the work for them, but we cannot sit back and do nothing. One of my biggest difficulties is that neither myself nor any of my academic colleagues has very much training and expertise in this area. having read the first couple of chapters in Seale I can see that some of us are very much in the fairies and stardust category.