ACCESS TO LAW

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ACCESS TO LAW

• Paul Brown
• Director
• Scottish Disability Team
• p.d.brown_at_dundee.ac.uk
• Anne Simpson
• Head of Special Needs Service
• University of Strathclyde
• a.simpson_at_mis.strath.ac.uk
• and Manager of the Teachability Project
• http//www.teachability.strath.ac.uk

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Access to Law

• The Act and the Law Curriculum
• All aspects of teaching are services
• Discrimination by accepting disabled students
  followed by failure to make reasonable
  adjustments
• Discrimination by unjustifiably refusing
  admission
• - blanket exclusions are unlawful
• - spurious v non spurious use of academic
  standards

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Access to Law

• Criteria for reasonableness
• Academic and prescribed standards
• Financial resources
• Grants/loans
• Cost
• Practicality
• Other available aids and services
• Health and safety
• Interests of other students

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Access to Law

• Teachability Creating an accessible curriculum
  for students with disabilities
• A departmental self-audit tool providing a
  framework for a supported academic departmental
  review of curricular provision for disabled
  students.

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Access to Law

• Teachability Whats core and why it matters
• Helps with
• Accurate course information
• Programme specifications no unnecessary
  barriers to disabled people (QAA)
• Possible v impossible reasonable adjustments
• Prioritising anticipatory reasonable adjustments
• Justifiable/unjustifiable rejections on grounds
  of impairment

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Access to Law

• Code of Practice, 4.27
• The academic standards reason should not be
  used spuriously. Where elements are not central
  or core to a course, they are unlikely to provide
  a reason to justify discrimination based on
  academic standards. Nor can academic standards
  be used as justification for barring whole groups
  of disabled people from courses or services. Any
  justification has to be relevant to the academic
  standards of a particular course and to the
  abilities of an individual person.

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Access to Law

• Whats core to Law?
• What IS core to your Law course, i.e. What MUST
  students be able to do so that they can do the
  course?
• What adjustments can you make for Glynn?
• What adjustments which Glynn might require CANT
  you make?
• Can you justify any failure to make reasonable
  adjustments?

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Access to Law

• Whats core to one Law course
• Understanding and using textual materials
• Communicating
• Reasoning
• Discussing
• Participating
• Listening? or rather, taking in
• Acquiring knowledge

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Access to Law

• Representing whats core?
• The LPC is the intensive vocational training
  course for those who intend to practise as
  solicitorsFor those who are unsure as to whether
  they want a career in commercial practice, we
  have developed specialist non-commercial elective
  subjects. Whatever you finally decide to
  specialise in,LPC is designed to maximise your
  potential.

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Access to Law

• Representing whats core?
• The BVC is an intensive one-year vocational
  training course for those who intend to practise
  as barristers
• The course is very practical and prepares you
  for pupillage and practice.

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Access to Law

• Representing whats core?
• Can you identify any potential barriers to
  disabled students on the courses described in the
  handout?
• Can you identify any ways of reducing or
  removing those barriers without compromise to
  academic standards?
• Should the course descriptions or what they
  describe be changed in any way?

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Teachability

• Adapting the Geology/Geoscience curriculum,
  with its traditional image of physical challenge,
  to make it accessible to the whole range of
  potential students, is far from straightforward.
  Nevertheless, the experience gained on the
  Teachability project suggests that much progress
  has been made and with some thought and modest
  resources a lot more is achievable.