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For many of us the study problems of disabled students are only confronted occasionally and seldom come to the top of our personal lists of immediate areas of concern. Consequently it can come as something of a revelation to discover how much is possible in this area and how much effort has already been put into developing techniques for making Open University courses accessible to disabled students.
In 1972 Geoffrey Tudor was appointed as a Senior Counselor at Walton Hall, with special responsibility for disabled students. In this paper he summarises the main kinds of difficulty experienced by disabled students and the many very practical ways they have been tackled. He makes it clear just how important a role the Open University can play, given the necessary resources and sufficient flexibility, in meeting the needs of some people who would otherwise find study almost impossible. And he presses for continuing support and effort in this area to meet what is likely to be a growing demand. This paper was produced for a seminar and display of equipment, which formed part of a briefing and training programme for central and regional staff held in June 1976.
There are at the time of writing (June 1976) about 750 students in the Open University who have identified themselves as disabled and in need of some form of special provision or support. This does not include disabled students following post-experience courses1 or the substantial number of students with a disability who for one reason or another do not identify themselves. One can assume that about one student in fifty has a disability serious enough to impede one or more aspects of study.
From its inception in 1971 the University set out to accommodate the special needs of disabled students and indeed to offer a special scheme of admission, so that any special facilities could be provided. In April 1975 the University's attitude was described more fully in the Statement of Policy on Disabled Students (Appendix 1). In this the University undertook to 'continue to take all possible practical steps to enable full participation by disabled students in all aspects of University life'.
'Enabling full participation' is an admirable aim, but difficulties of interpretation arise as soon as the University begins to convert principle into practice. Enabling every disabled student to take part in every aspect of University life is clearly impracticable: the University has neither the staff nor the facilities to make this possible. What is needed is a continuing effort to ensure that:
- individual disabled students are in a position to study as efficiently as possible.
- the Open University's teaching materials and learning can be adapted to the specific needs of such students.
Student efficiency for disabled students: the contribution from outside
This is an area where the Open University needs outside support. It may be that there is a need for qualified advice or assistance if a student with epilepsy or with a mental disorder is to be helped to study as normally as possible. Local authority help may be required if a student needs an item of equipment such as an electric typewriter, or even some less obvious item such as a remote control switch for a television set. There is no clear and obvious demarcation line between a study aid and a living aid. Some severely disabled students (tetraplegics for example) would not be able to study without thorough planning of environment and support services.
Advising on living efficiency and study efficiency in such instances is a task for a technical expert. Few disabled people and few of their medical advisers know what equipment is available and what would be appropriate for a particular individual. Nor can Open University senior counsellors or assistant counsellors be expected—at present—to possess such expertise. The University therefore employs a consultant to investigate and draw up a report in the relatively few instances where study difficulties are exceptionally severe.
It could be argued that such intervention should not be the University's responsibility, though if the University does not shoulder it who will? The need for such a service was clearly seen by the National Bureau for Handicapped Students, one of whose objectives is:
'to offer a consultancy service capable of providing or arranging specialist advice on the handicapped for educational institutions and for individuals requiring help'.
Diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions is of limited value without proper channels for implementing such advice and here there is still a serious gap. Provision of study equipment (in its broadest sense) for disabled Open University students is a shadowy area where social services and education departments, the Manpower Services Commission and voluntary agencies all have an interest but nobody has a clear responsibility. The one exception is the service provided for blind and partially sighted students by the Education Department of the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Until proper guidelines are established there will continue to be administrative confusion and disabled students will lack the services they need. Here is another area when the National Bureau's intervention will be needed.
Study efficiency for disabled students: the Open University contribution
The Open University has not only attracted a large number of disabled students, it has also been remarkably successful in retaining them in the system: recent investigations have shown a drop-out rate markedly lower than for the general student population. This implies at least some success in ensuring that disabled students can study efficiently, and the following services have all been important:
Advisory service to applicants
The Admissions Office sends out to Regional Offices advisory notes for all applicants who declare a disability and this is normally followed up in the region by an advisory session in the applicant's home. This advisory service is neither specialist nor comprehensive, yet it fulfils the basic need of ensuring that both the applicant and the University have realistically considered the implications of enrolment.
Counseling service
It is easy to underestimate the importance of the counseling service as an aid to the study efficiency of disabled students. There may be basic educational disadvantages due to inadequate or interrupted schooling in addition to the learning problems imposed by the disability itself. These will need identification and appropriate action.
Less easy to diagnose are the additional educational needs of students, especially those who are house-bound or whose social and cultural contacts are severely restricted by such impairments as blindness or deafness, lack of mobility, or speech disorder. It is not just that the student lacks certain functional abilities: equally damaging may be the narrowing circle into which his life has been confined. Such educational impoverishment presents a substantial study problem: continuing contact with the counselling service provides a personal link with the outside world.
The counselling service also finds itself called upon to deal with the anxiety that may hamper efficient study. Such anxiety commonly forms part of the pattern of adjustment to a disability or to the onset of chronic illness. It might well be regarded as a symptom of neurotic disturbance, but it is more likely to be the response to the challenges imposed by a new pattern of life. For example, the person concerned would probably never have pursued degree-level study but for the disability: it is understandable that facing up to new and unknown situations causes anxiety and distress. Assisting disabled applicants and students through such a phase can produce important positive personality growth and improve general study efficiency.
In many regions the appointment of assistant counsellors to work mainly or exclusively with disabled applicants and students is an interesting development.
Study efficiency courses
The typical disabled student does not join the Open University direct from school but following injury or the onset of chronic illness as an adult. Not only is there a need to learn new skills (e.g. typing or studying from tape) but also a need to develop an entire strategy for studying effectively as a disabled person. This may well involve such matters as:
- selection and use of equipment;
- efficient use of personal assistance;
- access to information through the use of tape, photo-copies, tactual diagrams, etc.;
- filing and retrieval systems;
- working methods, both for course work and examinations;
- methods of using (with assistance if necessary) home experiment kits.
This adds up to a heavy demand on disabled students. At a time of life when adjustment is more difficult for all of us they may well also suffer from the general decline in competence that affects many disabled people, but in particular, the home-bound. Decision making is rare, and hence study decisions take on a forbidding importance and complexity.
There is no doubt that many of these students need more help. Recently the Association of Blind and Partially-Sighted Teachers and Students carried out a survey into the working methods of 27 of its student members in universities and colleges of education. It was found that most of them had muddled their way through to a working system by a form of trial and error.
It was to meet such needs that the Open University has held special day and residential weekend courses in study methods for hearing-impaired and visually-handicapped students. These have proved valuable, and similar guidance in achieving efficient study methods would be helpful to students with other disabilities and different needs.
Provision of equipment
In the past equipment has usually been supplied to meet an emergency need and has been on a relatively short-term basis. One example is the student who is temporarily unable to write due to accident or operation, or the blind student unable to type who has no amanuensis available. Compatible tape-recorders have been lent to students and tutor-counsellors so that assignments can be completed and assessed. In other instances, where typing is possible, a typewriter has been loaned from the Summer School kit.
Equipment may also be loaned for evaluation. One example of this is the personal hearing-aid developed by the Open University and RNID, designed to meet the needs of a hearing-impaired student during group discussion. In another example tape recorders have been loaned to visually-handicapped students in order that the value of tactual diagrams supplied to them can be readily assessed.
The most important use of equipment is with deaf students at summer schools and one-day schools. The visual communication system, inductive loop and other equipment represents a substantial investment in hardware and operators. The use of equipment to improve study efficiency needs increased attention.
Providing opportunities for group discussion
'The loneliness of the long-distance viewer' holds a special meaning for the disabled student, probably more limited than most in his social contacts. It is not enough to ensure that he can study efficiently in isolation, even if this isolation is tempered by visits or telephone calls from a tutor-counsellor. There is also a need to ensure that if he wishes he can be brought into contact with the University community.
Sometimes if the disability is severe, there is no possibility of attending a study centre. It may still be possible to encourage the formation of a self-help group which will meet at the disabled person's home or institution.
Another possibility lies in the extension of teaching by telephone. Through the use of the telephone conference call the Open University is in a position to provide a 'regular form of group contact relatively cheaply' and is convinced that the telephone can play a major role as an alternative to face-to-face tuition to provide remedial teaching, advice and opportunities for student interaction. For some disabled students telephone teaching could become the major antidote to study isolation.
Additional counselling and tuition sessions
In 1976 each region was allocated a 'Regional Fund' of between £5 000 pounds and £9 000 pounds to supplement the normal provision of counseling and tuition. In the regions which have allocated sums to specific purposes, between £500 and £2 500 pounds has been allocated for the benefit of disabled or 'disadvantaged' students. This works out at somewhere between £8 pounds and £40 pounds for each disabled student. The disparity between regions is interesting. Partly it stems from the priority accorded to disabled students in relation to other 'at risk' categories: it may also stem from an inability to diagnose the specific learning problems of many disabled students.
Special arrangements for summer schools and examinations
The BA Degree Handbook 1976 makes the following comment on attendance at summer school: 'In its educational value and in the opportunity it provides to make membership of the University real and enjoyable, your summer school can be worth the sacrifice you have to make in time and money to be there'. If this is true for the average student it applies with much greater force to a disabled student, and the Open University has developed a range of special procedures and provisions to ensure that 'the maximum number of safe and satisfactory allocations may be made'.
It is not just a question of getting there: steps have to be taken to ensure that disabled students can study efficiently on arrival. For some students this means that equipment such as a typewriter, a tape-recorder or a special microscope is available. For others the main need may be for a study assistant to act as reader or note-taker. Deaf students have special difficulty during large group discussions, so in some cases they are grouped together and supported by a communication team.
Course information (including vocational implications)
Choosing the 'right' courses is an important element in a disabled student's study efficiency. He often comes to the Open University with fewer than average credit exemptions, and he is probably working at a slower pace: he can, therefore less easily afford to set off into an intellectual cul-de-sac. Notes on Course Choice for Disabled Students have been available for the past two years and each Course Team has appointed a liaison member who can discuss more fully the study problems to be faced by a disabled student and possible solutions.
Deaf students depending on transcripts and blind students using taped material have a further restriction on course choice. They are strongly advised against following a course in its first year of presentation because of possible difficulties caused by materials arriving late.
Some disabled students are studying with the Open University with a view to occupational advance or occupational change. Clearly they need information and advice if they are to combine Open University provision and subsequent professional training in the most effective way. Currently some attempts are being made to identify all students whose Open University studies have vocational implications and to steer them towards appropriate advisory services. A service of this kind will be especially helpful to disabled applicants and students in the efficient planning for their study.
Information flow
The first task is to identify all students with a disability serious enough to impede some aspect of study—to get the message across: 'If we don't know you, we can't help you'. The next is to devise a system for the collection, recording and flow of information to all those in the Open University system who need to use it. In the past information about disabled students has often been inadequate, a matter of too little and too late.
The implicit message is: 'if we know more about you, we can help you more efficiently',
Adaptation of Open University teaching materials and learning systems to meet the specific needs of disabled students
Course units and supplementary material
The main requirement has been to put material onto tape to meet the study needs of visually-handicapped students. Such students are at a disadvantage in the Open University system because printed units replace the normal university lecture. Even when put on tape the material forms a clumsy and inconvenient method of study, particularly because of the difficulty in looking up references. At present (June 1976) the RNIB has recorded eleven courses on talking book cassettes and the set books of a further 15 courses.
This inevitable limitation on courses covered on talking book led to a search for other ways of putting material on tape. Some use has been made of voluntary recording societies, but the main service supplementing the RNIB has been the pairing scheme hitherto administered by the Open University Students' Association. Under this scheme a visually-handicapped student is put in touch with one or more sighted students following the same course. The University supplies a stock of tapes and lends a tape-recorder if necessary. After that the students are left to follow the guidance notes and check back only if they run into difficulties.
Steps are now being taken to discover blind students' study expectations for three years ahead so that the taping programme can be planned and publicised well in advance.
The RNIB—owing to the terms of its charter—cannot supply cassettes to people with other forms of handicap. Thus a small number of severely handicapped students, unable to hold books or turn pages or hold their head still, needed tape for study but could not be supplied 'through the usual channels'. Such needs are now being met through a pairing system.
Diagrams and statistical material present a special problem to visually-handicapped students dependent on tape. Describing a diagram verbally is not an easy art, and at best is only a second best. Tactual diagrams can help, but skill' is needed in re-interpreting the original diagram and blind people vary widely in their ability to form concepts from tactile information. During 1976 the visually-handicapped students following the Social Sciences Foundation Course (DIOI) were supplied with a selection of the course diagrams so that their value as a teaching method can be evaluated.
Transcripts of broadcasts
Deaf students have a relative advantage in the Open University system in that the bulk of the teaching is in print in the course units rather than delivered verbally in lectures. However, the broadcast element presented a problem. It has been dealt with by providing deaf students, on request, with transcripts of radio and television broadcasts.
Regulations to cover disability and sickness
The Open University system was deliberately made sufficiently flexible to meet the problem faced by many Open University students in attempting to achieve a steady output of work throughout the year. The flexibility of the regulations—e.g. on late assignments and inability to attend the normal examinations—automatically covers the needs of disabled students with periods of ill health or hospital treatment. Excusal from Summer School obligation is normally granted by the Student Progress Committee. In exceptional cases the Senate has the power of awarding credits by aegrotat.
Assignments and examinations for disabled students: some practical considerations
The completion of assignments and the taking of examinations present problems, especially to students who are blind or who have severe manual and speech inpairments. The University's assignment handling system is flexible enough to deal with most problems. and alternative assignments are provided to replace those that are impossible because of a functional difficulty (e.g. blind students asked to comment on a picture). Special problems arise with courses which have home experiment kits. Whether some disabled students can study them effectively depends largely on the nature and extent of personal help available. Students with a strong urge to study these courses will go to great lengths to find solutions, often with the help of regional counselling staff. For example, one severely handicapped student has been allowed special facilities in a hospital laboratory.
Examination problems for disabled students have been largely overcome by flexibility of provision—such as the ability to take examinations at home under the supervision of an invigilator supplied by the University. Difficulties still arise with some severely handicapped students when any form of communication—spoken, written or typed—is slow and exhausting. Clearly it is a better answer to provide equipment to speed-up communication rather than to spin out examinations to an unconscionable length. There is a need to work towards guidelines for extreme cases and this is an area where the National Bureau for Handicapped Students has an important role.
Courses with special requirements or demands Some courses require students to perform certain specific activities—e.g. observe children in school, visit libraries or archives, carry out a survey by questionnaire. Such activities may present great difficulties or even be completely impossible for a student with a mobility problem or a speech handicap. It will clearly be helpful if course teams are aware of the study difficulties of disabled students so that wherever possible alternative methods may be devised of meeting course objectives. It is better for such difficulties to be anticipated and provided for rather than dealt with as an emergency when a problem arises.
Conclusions
In its Statement of Policy on Disabled Students, the Open University has undertaken to view their problems with special consideration and 'to take all possible practicable steps' to overcome such problems. Considerable progress has been made towards implementing this policy, but there is now an urgent need to respond to two particular pressures. One is the pressure of disabled student numbers and their steady increase as a proportion of total student numbers. The other is the pressure of increased expectation resulting in part from the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act of 1970, which has found recent expression in the formation of the National Bureau for Handicapped Students.
It has been demonstrated that students with severe disabilities can study for degrees with the Open University; what is needed now is a drive to ensure that all disabled students can study with optimum efficiency.
Reference
Post-experience courses are a series of self-contained courses produced by the Open University helping to meet the needs of adults for continuing education, and variously described as refresher courses, updating courses, conversion courses and in-post training courses.
Appendix I
The Open University policy statement on disabled students
The University will continue:
- To accept its responsibility under the University Charter to meet the educational needs of its disabled students.
- To give special consideration in its admissions policy to disabled students.
- To offer continuing information and advice for full and part-time staff on means of providing any special needs of disabled students.
- To take all possible practicable steps to enable full participation by disabled students in all aspects of University life.
- To treat disabled students as equal members of the University for whatever programme of study they may be registered and to make special provisions only to enable participation (so far as is practicable) on equal terms with all other students.
- To be concerned with the occupational prospects of disabled students and graduates of the University and with the vocational opportunities for disabled people generally.
- To pay attention as part of the University's institutional research programme to the educational needs of disabled people, both because of the University's involvement and as a contribution to knowledge in this specialized area of education.
- To promote and maintain contacts with other institutions concerned with the education of disabled students, both in Britain and in other countries.
- To seek adequate financial support for this area of its work, from central and local government services and other appropriate sources.
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