Disability Resource Centre (DRC)

What colleges and departments can do to support disabled students

Attending, and encouraging your staff to attend, the disability equality training sessions run by the Disability Resource Centre will help you support your disabled students.

Confidentiality about a student's impairment and health should always be respected (also click here). It is always likely to be helpful for certain people to know if somebody has an unseen impairment or a chronic illness, but such people should only be informed with the student's agreement. Porters, and sometimes, the college nurse, are key people who can ease things for disabled students.

Remembering the need for confidentiality, these are some of the actions the college might take:

General

Consult students before they come up to ascertain their support requirements
Ask students if they wish to start a few days early so that they can have longer to familiarise themselves with the new surroundings and be introduced to department and university facilities, such as the library
Implement suggestions made in other parts of this guide, including the section on teaching
Ensure that the student knows what options and support (practical and financial) are open to him/her - refer them to the Disability Resource Centre for specialist advice
Arrange help for those who need it with regular tasks, such as laundry
Ensure that the college nurse liaises with a student who has medical needs
Ensure porters are aware of the student's impairment or condition, when appropriate
Arrange at least daily contact by a member of the college staff during periods when a student with a chronic condition is confined to bed

In and around the college and department

Ensure that, where possible, physical adaptations are made to rooms and the college and departmental environment
Ensure that signs and labels are clear and easy to read - in the buttery, on notice boards, in the library, on pigeon-holes for example
Ensure the website meets access standards
Enable students with a visual impairment to have a telephone installed in their room; they will need it to contact supervisors, lecturers and readers, and to arrange Braille transcriptions
Accommodate visually impaired students in a large room, possibly with extra lighting, certainly with a large desk and plenty of shelving for equipment, tapes and bulky Braille texts; ask bedders not to move things around as this can be very disorientating
The student will need help to work with an orientation trainer, especially in the first few weeks. The trainer will need to learn from you the routes the student will use regularly and need guidance to prioritise them
E-mail is extremely useful for Deaf students, and it would be helpful if colleges could ensure their rooms have network connections to facilitate it
Supply a text phone (often referred to as a Minicom, a brand name) for a deaf student: it has a keyboard and a display; another text phone user reads typed messages at the other end; Typetalk is a confidential relay system that allows communication between a hearing person with a voice phone and a deaf person with a text phone
Install a text phone in the college or department and train the staff to use it
Ensure the library is accessible, see below

What libraries can do

Encourage staff to attend disability equality training
Provide a low counter for wheelchair users
Ensure that people in wheelchairs can reach the swipe card reader that lets them enter the library
Make your signs and notices very clear
Provide your library guide in large print, Braille, on disk and on tape
Make your web page accessible to visually impaired people
Provide a range of magnifiers
Consider installing specialist equipment, e.g. scanner system, Braille printer, a voice-synthesiser, closed circuit television reader, screen-reading software, screen magnifier
Make your catalogue accessible via a screen reader or magnification software
Be flexible over loan periods: a disabled student who needs a lot of time to get ready in the morning may not be able to meet the deadline for an overnight loan; people with visual impairment or SpLD may not be able to read quickly enough to get them back in time
Fetch books and other items from shelves
Install a low-level photocopier — and be ready to assist with photocopying

The built environment

Cambridge has its problems: ancient buildings that can't be adapted, narrow streets and pavements, cobblestones, traffic, and cyclists on the footpath all make life hard for people with mobility, hearing and visual impairment. Cambridge has its advantages: flatness, pedestrian areas and a non-stop programme of new building and refurbishment throughout the University and Colleges that gives the opportunity to provide the highest standards of physical access.

How you can help

Be aware of how a poor working environment makes life difficult for disabled people and compromises everybody's health and safety - so try and get obstructions in your office moved
Don't assume that because you work in an old building there's nothing you can do at all - get advice from the Disability Resource Centre
The law requires that new buildings, extensions, or refurbishment projects must take into account the needs of disabled people
Please be flexible and creative - don't turn down a disabled person for a job or academic place because of access difficulties, find ways of solving them
Make use of the University Access Guide
Be aware of the access provisions of the Equality Act (2010)

Laboratories

If you are admitting or appointing students or staff to places in potentially hazardous environments such as science labs, don't assume that it is impossible to appoint a disabled person. They will be motivated to solve the problems and will probably have good ideas on solving them. You can help them by being flexible and looking for ways to enable access and to include them. The Disability Resource Centre holds a book called Able Scientist, Technologist; Disabled Person. Below is an extract detailing an adaptation in a university laboratory (not in Cambridge):

It was necessary to meet with the student care services and the admissions tutor for chemistry to ascertain if it would be possible for him to cope with life in the science department… In the science faculty there were very few adaptations that needed to be made. The science block has facilities such as an adjustable height laboratory bench with electric button control.

Hopkins, C and Jones, A V, Able Scientist, Technologist; Disabled Person (1999)

Independent Living Support

The Disability Resource Centre has information on independent living. Contact Margot Chadwick/Sally Ivens (see Contact Us page) for a copy of the ‘Guidance notes for independent living within the University of Cambridge’.