Learning for All (Inclusivity)

At the University of Worcester, we are focusing on creating web based resources to promote ‘learning for all’ focusing mainly on the needs of disabled learners. To achieve this aim, we have been conducting research into the learning experience of disabled/dyslexic students in HE, and have also worked with academic and support staff to identify their support needs in relation to developing inclusive learning, teaching and assessment practices.

An inclusive approach to learning and teaching avoids a viewpoint which locates difficulty or deficit within the student and focuses instead on the capacity of the university to understand and respond to individual learners' requirements. It moves away from labeling students towards creating an appropriate educational environment. By ‘appropriate’, we mean a learning environment where learning, assessment and  the organisation’s practices have been redesigned and/or adapted to become more flexible in order to meet the learners’ needs; for example, introducing new content to courses, adapting access or changing delivery styles. This approach is quite different from offering courses and then giving students with difficulties some additional human or physical aids to enable them to participate.

‘By inclusive learning we mean the greatest degree of match or fit between the individual learners’ requirements and the provision that is made for them.’ (Tomlinson, 1996, Summary of the report of the Further Education Funding Council Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Committee)

Up until the last decade, university education in the UK was seen as the reserve of the academic elite, but Widening Participation initiatives, strengthened by the Government’s determination to ensure that 50 per cent of all 18 – 35 years olds are undertaking Higher Education (HE) courses by 2010, have resulted in a substantial increase in the numbers of students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds now admitted to HE.

With the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act, Part IV (aka SENDA, 2001), which brought all education providers under the law, HEFCE allocated considerable sums of capital funding to help HE Institutions (HEIs) make their campuses more accessible; however, making teaching more accessible and inclusive has proven rather more difficult; many academic staff continue to report that they lack the knowledge and confidence to meet the needs of disabled students appropriately.

In order to inform the development of resources that will support academic staff and benefit the learning needs of (mainly) disabled students, we have been concentrating on the following three key questions:

1. What constitutes an inclusive curriculum?
2. What do disabled students perceive to be the barriers to learning in  Higher Education?

In  addition to the work supported by the LearnHigher CETL, CILS has succeeded in gaining additional project funding to supplement the CETL work. This has resulted in a number of web based resources that support staff in higher education,  further education and adult education. Please click here for a list of projects currently in progress.