In 1995 the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) became law. Since then, colleges and universities have made great strides towards increasing the intake of disabled students and improving their experiences and educational outcomes. However, education providers still need to be aware they have a duty to provide for the educational-related needs of disabled students under the DDA and the disability equality duty (DED). 

One of our major concerns is that providers may have created barriers to disabled students’ participation in FE due to a lack of clarification regarding agency responsibility, including the absence of a specialised system of funding support for disabled students. Many disabled people aren’t encouraged to go into further education or simply don’t see college as an appropriate option for them.

 
We’re calling for more clarity of agency responsibility to remove barriers to participation in further education for disabled students. Furthermore, we believe disabled students should receive impartial information and advice to support them in making learning choices.

This year, we’ve begun researching the needs of disabled students in further education by collecting evidence about what affects their participation. We plan to use this research to campaign for improvement in disabled students’ participation in further education by lobbying for a change in the funding systems available to them.

 
We’re collecting information on disabled students/learners’ in further education. We’ll also be aiming to identify disabled learners in FE who could not continue with their chosen course of study and explore the reasons behind this. As a solution to the issues raised, we’re also developing policy recommendations where they relate to disabled learners in FE.

Contact our campaign team  if you'd like to take part.