Our disability service system is passive.
The current system is a giant mechanical system with only one gear providing the force, and a small one in particular. UAL has indeed a well-rounded package offered to disabled students, but this package is not given. Students have to recognise they are eligible and ask for it. Not all disabilities are visible and apparent, like dyslexia, not all disabilities are recognised as disabilities in every cultural context, like a long-term illness. Not everyone realises or wants to admit they may be disabled. How do you search for something when you don’t know that something exists?
I had a student whom we suspected to have autism spectrum disorder. She caused inconvenience or even danger to other people and herself, and had multiple emotional breakdowns. We could see that she wasn’t merely being difficult. There was no guidance for staff on handling students who may have disabilities. Maybe she doesn’t have autism, but she was visibly stressed. She wasn’t eligible for any disability support or any other as she was an adult and didn’t report her condition voluntarily. The whole experience has me wondering if help should be provided or asked for.
Another aspect to look into is cultural differences. I have lost one kidney since I was small. I never think of myself as disabled, but I do fit the criteria of a “long-term health condition”. “Long-term health condition” doesn’t count as a disability in my home country. Therefore I don’t consider myself to be disabled and won’t try to seek help as a disabled either. Am I disabled? Should I benefit from the support? I still don’t have an answer.
While the current system needs people who want to get help to be proactive and self-aware, how can we be more actively involved as a facilitator to make the support truly inclusive? The way we view disability and offer support is still through the lens of an able-bodied person. As Christine Sun Kim’s work has shown us, disability doesn’t need to be a limitation. As Khairani Barokka has proved to us, disability can be overcome. Moral support is equally important as financial support. If we cannot change the system yet, at least we should try not to see them as ‘dis’abled, and acknowledge that they are more than able.
2 responses to “Passive Inclusiveness = Exclusiveness”
This is a really thought-provoking post Joanne, it would be interesting to talk about some of the issues you raise. In my limited experience at UAL, I see the Disability Service as a really positive force, but I guess that’s because I encounter members of staff whom I admire and who are knowledgable and supportive in the areas where I need information, and it’s primarily information I need. I’m not generally in your position of seeking support for individual students, and then not getting it. I’m familiar with this though from my previous college where I found the Disability team to be a closed room, although brilliant if you managed to get (your students) inside.
It’s interesting what you say about knowing if you have a disability within a particular culture, and knowing how and where to seek help, and working out if you want it and who you want to open up to. Some of our work is meant to help with this information but I’m not sure it does. I wonder if you have experience of a better system? I see your point about the questionnaire, but I would be concerned that it opens up the door to quite a lot of misdiagnosis and possible labelling just because it’s so difficult to write those things.
Hmm, I don’t know what the answer is here, but I think it might be somewhere in the idea that services are under-resourced and imperfect and only staffed by people which means they will not meet the needs of some students and staff. I agree that information is key, perhaps we just need to look at that more fully, and not just give it once at the start of term, and not in the same formulaic, didactic ways. More dialogic space between course teams, students and support service staff to make students’ experience richer?
Your experience was insightful, I as a teacher haven’t come across a situation like that. Unclear if a student has autism or something else. And what is a good support process for the student and teacher in this situation/crisis?.
I know in recent years it has been very difficult to get appointments to be diagnosed on the NHS because of the pressure it’s under. When students arrive at UAL, how easy is it for them to access the UAL Disability Services, and more importantly how do students recognise that they may have a disability. The UAL Disability Services webpages do offer these services but I can imagine in practice they may be under-resourced.