Dr Catherine Walter

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Dr Catherine Walter Equal Opportunity and
Diversity in ELT connecting with disability
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Connecting with disability

• Catherine Walter
• Institute of Education, University of London

Sub-brand to go here
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Definitions and obligations

• Legal definition
• Legal obligation
• Social definition

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How aware are we?

• Activity 1
• What kinds of disabilities have you encountered
  in your experience with learners?
• What sorts of adjustments have you made for these
  learners?
• Where would you go to find out about making
  adjustments for these learners?

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My own experience

• Dyslexia, dyspraxia, hearing impairment, visual
  impairment, blindness, deafness, epilepsy, sickle
  cell anaemia, Crohns disease, diabetes, asthma,
  mobility impairment, attention deficit disorder,
  bipolar syndrome, depression, coeliac disease,
  post-traumatic stress disorder, carpal tunnel
  syndrome, repetitive stress injury, arthritis,
  biliary tract spasm, heart disease,

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How do we educate our teachers?

• Activity 2
• At what stages in the application process would
  you encourage certificate or diploma applicants
  to disclose disabilities and ask for adjustments?
• What points would you want to cover in
  encouraging applicants to disclose disabilities?

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How do we educate our teachers?

• In the ELT sector, we are behind
• See requirements for PGCE providers
• Who enters the profession is vital

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How do we educate our teachers?

• In the ELT sector, we are behind
• See requirements for PGCE providers
• Who enters the profession is vital
• No printed word, nor spoken plea
• Can teach young minds what they should be.
• Not all the books on all the shelves
• But what the teachers are, themselves. (Kipling)

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How do we support our teaching staff?

• not very well
• Smith 2008 qaire to 194 UK-based teachers and
  teacher trainers 15 semi-structured interviews
• Working with disabled learners either in the
  language classroom or in the training classroom
  is by no means an unusual situation, but it is
  one for which the majority of ELT professionals
  in this study consider themselves to be
  under-prepared.

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What do our materials tell
teachers and learners?

• Activity 3
• Look at the materials. How present are people
  with visible disabilities?
• Look again. Would these materials present any
  problems for people with visual impairments or
  dyslexia?

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What can we do?

• Activity 4
• Brainstorm ideas for what we could do to make our
  classrooms more inclusive
• Choose one or two ideas and write down what would
  be the first steps towards achieving these
  changes.

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Some resources

• Equality and Human Rights Commission
• JISC Techdis
• TDA Able to Teach (for PGCE but useful)