University students with disability now account for more than 10% of the domestic total and enrolments will increase in the near future, with schools reporting 25% of students with disability.
However, a new study of recognition and responsibilities as presented on university websites demonstrate managements have work to do, both in supporting this huge component of their community and demonstrating they are valued.
“In many areas of analysis, disability does not feature prominently in key university webpages,” Matt Brett and colleagues warn in a new report.
Universities must also must address how they recognise disability, as it evolves away from of physical and sensory stereotypes, with more students disclosing a “hidden” disability, disclosing autism, neurological and mental health conditions.
They need to, because students with disability have lower rates of satisfaction and higher rates of perceived discrimination.
There are reasons for that. “In many areas of analysis, disability does not feature prominently in key university webpages or policies. As a fast-growing subcategory of disability, references to autism and neurodivergence were even less visible,” they warn. When they can be found at all. Disability, autism, and neurodivergence are “almost entirely absent from universities’ core governance documents, including university acts and council charters.”
A stocktake of documents across universities finds most have statements of good intentions, with less specific information and support in the detail. No university meets digital accessibility standards for its strategic plan, annual report, and disability action plan and just 7% referenced disability on their main admissions page.
And while the authors do not state institutions are ticking required boxes, they do state, the “dominant paradigm” is “accommodating students with disabilities through provision of legally compliant reasonable adjustment rather than active concern for dismantling barriers within learning environments.”
The paper proposes nine disability inclusion improvements at institutions including:
- An accessible “digital front door”
- Available consultation
- Policy commitments to physical access
- Disability inclusion embedded in teaching and learning policies.
And they call for recognition of autism and neurodivergence as an “explicit dimension of disability inclusion: and not “an implicit subcategory,” warning their policy stocktake identified no standalone strategies.
Overall, universities must recognise disability in many of their students, the authors say. “Despite representing one in eight current students, and one in four potential students, disability is yet to feature as a key consideration in three quarters of Australian university strategic plans.”
Comment – Tim Winkler
Recognition of disability amongst students and prospective students within HE is the core focus of this report, but the issues with HE and disability go much further – with a significant attention gap when it comes to staff.
Government policy and university practices in relation to disability have an almost exclusive student focus, where they exist, ignoring the importance of recognising and including staff with disabilities in strategies and operations.
FC has heard from a few staff with disabilities about the challenges of winning and retaining work, due to institutional misconceptions about the cost of hiring staff with disability – and also the difficulty in being heard, due to both the small number of staff with disabilities and also the lack of institutional focus on including or employing them.
The barriers to career pathways for students with disabilities and the widespread failure to recognise the cultivation of staff with disabilities as a key to the success of the Accord has prompted a session at the Future Campus HE People & Performance conference in June, looking at the lack of attention in addressing under-representation of people with disabilities, Indigenous people, low SES people and regional people in staffing tertiary institutions.
The current ‘You Can’t See It and Maybe You Can’t Be It’ approach to inclusion in terms of careers for people with disability in the sector is a significant issue to overcome if the Accord’s vision is to be sustainable and achievable.