[senco-forum] Disability Equality Policy

I went on a good county course and we have started preparing the

One of my pet gripes about most of the Disability Equality Policies
I've seen published by most schools is the fact these concentrate
almost exclusively on 'the material provision of facilities' and make
no mention of the 'managerial systems and policies' needed to make
these work well in practice. These also fail to address the attendant
need for staff training and adequate information dissemination.

For example; it's all very well ensuring disabled students have
reasonably easy access to disabled toilet facilities from every
classroom they are time-tabled to work in. But room-changes can and do
take place, often at very short notice. If through ignorance staff who
arrange these changes fail to take account of disabled students needs,
then the school's disability policy is likely to be inadequate. The
issue here is the need for pre-planning, testing and making sure all
staff are mindful of any limitations regarding the school's disabled
provision.

Why is testing important? Well to answer this, simply reflect on how
many fire drills it's deemed necessary for your school to have during
the course of a year, despite the fact these drills are totally
disruptive to normal academic functioning.

Another example; in many schools disabled toilets are normally kept
locked so they won't get used (and messed up?) by able bodied
students. Disabled students can of course be supplied with their own
key on request. However in some schools it takes more than a week for
such a key request to be processed and a new key cut. Furthermore, in
the meantime newly or recently identified disabled students are
expected to use the regular student facilities because no one had the
good sense to ensure an adequate supply of spare keys are kept always
available from the school office.

In one school I used to work in students were unaware their school had
any disabled facilities for students, not surprising given the door to
these facility was unmarked and always kept locked. Even worse, most
of the school's office staff were also unaware of it's existence and
they didn't have a spare key for loan to students at short notice.
Thus when I discovered a student had been coping with severe bowel
problems and tried to secure him access to the only labeled disabled
facility in the school, they insisted this was reserved strictly for
staff and visitors only!!! By way of some background up until the time
I identified this student's disability needs he was in the habit of
'holding out' until he got home and ended up requiring a major
operation to repair his damaged bowel as a consequence!!! Needless to
say the inadequacy of this schools fairly standard 'facilities only'
focused disability policy was not even commented on by Ofsted during
their recent inspection.

So what's your experience in your school? Does your disability policy
specify all students must be made aware of your school's disabled
facilities, and does this specify access to these can be secured
almost instantly where necessary simply by enquiring at the school
office.

Furthermore if your disabled student facilities are normally kept
locked, how you test this provision by going to the school office and
seeing how long it takes them to come up with a spare key. In my
opinion if this takes more than 30 seconds then your systems are
woefully inadequate. School offices should have to hand at least two
spare keys available for use by students at short notice, as it's
simply not on to expect a student to wait outside the office until the
previous user returns the only key.

Do please let me know how you fare with this simple test ...oh and
even better how about asking one of your able-bodied students to make
this request while you observe what happens from a discrete distance.
You might be surprised or even shocked (as I have been on many
occasions) at the inadequate response they receive;  such as...

  "Why do you want that [said accusingly]? ...you don't use a
  wheelchair"!

David Bowles

> I went on a good county course and we have started preparing the
> document  (secondary schol).  So far we have met as a working group
> made up of students Year 8-12 with a variety of need and a parent,
> deputy head and me.  We put together a questionnaire for pupils and
> wrote an article for our school newsletter inviting interested
> persons to help us put the policy together.  Next meeting soon to do the next bit.

> Barbara