Equality and Diversity blog

A message from Sue Meads, Head of Disability Services:

Disability Services is supporting disabled students directly as well as working closely with Faculties to provide training, advice and support for staff to ensure a positive experience for all disabled students. This includes those with dyslexia, mental health difficulties and health conditions which affect their capacity to study to their full potential. Our services are the Disability Advice Team, Support Worker Service, Dyslexia Service, Wellbeing Service and Access West of England (AWE), and the Study Needs Assessment Centre.

New policy agreed this summer requires that Disability Services approves all reasonable adjustments for disabled students, including additional exam arrangements. Students are encouraged to contact their Faculty Student Advisers in the first instance, but they are also welcome to contact the services direct. A programme of training for staff will be available shortly.

Dyslexia
We are delighted to announce that we are recruiting two Specialist Dyslexia Advisers. This means that we can work more closely with faculty staff and provide a new dyslexia screening service. Students who think they may be dyslexic can have this free screening which indicates very accurately how likely they are to be dyslexic, before they commit to paying the fee for a full diagnostic assessment. The Access to Learning Fund (ALF) will contribute £150 to the cost of the full diagnostic assessment for eligible UK students. Other students should also contact us (dyslexia@uwe.ac.uk) to apply for help with this cost.

New Disabilty Support fund
There is a new fund to help provide disability support for students who are not eligible for the Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) which will benefit international disabled students and those studying less than 60 credits a year, contact us at disability@uwe.ac.uk.

As a new Head of Service, I am looking forward to working collaboratively and proactively to achieve excellent disability support for our students and work enthusiastically towards a fully inclusive university culture.

Sue Meads, Head of Disability Services

Disability Services Contacts
Email: disability@uwe.ac.uk
Phone: 0117 32 82564
Fax: 0117 32 82935
Minicom: 0117 32 83644

We have an ambition to make UWE a university where disability is no barrier to success or to a positive experience of university life. To help us do this we are drawing up a new Disability Equality Scheme to guide our actions over the coming three years. We have made a great deal of progress to date but we know there is still more we can do. We want to hear from disabled staff and students and anyone with an interest as to what they feel are the most important actions we can take to make a positive difference to current and future disabled staff and students at UWE.

The university has commissioned GEM, an independent local equalities and human rights consultancy, to undertake this work on our behalf this term. GEM will be arranging a series of meetings with key groups and individuals and they would like to hear from as wide a range of disabled staff and students as possible. If you would like to be part of this work please contact GEM consultants Penny Gene or Diane Bunyan. Any contact with the consultants will be kept confidential. 

Penny Gene - 0117 9083063
Diane Bunyan - 07940 623804   

If you want to find out more about disability equality issues for students and staff in Higher Education, please visit the Equality Challenge Unit website.

Some people may be curious as to what Equality Impact Assessments (EIA or EQIA) are and why the University is required to carry them out. UWE is a public body which has a duty to promote Equality across all protected characteristics, Gender, Race and Ethnicity, Age, Sexual Orientation, Religion and Belief and Disability. One way of ensuring this duty is met and that we remain compliant with equality legislation is to ensure the institution’s policies, practices, and functions are fair and equal to all students, staff and contractors. As stated on the EIA page of the E&D website, Equality Impact Assessments is not about finding fault to apportion blame but is about looking for ways to improve the situation for equality target groups. There is also the opportunity for those taking part in EIAs to think outside of the box, think about a situation from someone else’s point of view, engage with people who they may not have normally engaged with and gain an understanding of how Equality and Diversity can benefit everyone and help create a healthy and inclusive environment.

UWE is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and conducting EIAs on all policies, practices and functions is just one of many activities taking place to ensure that there is no unlawful discrimination and that the institution is taking positive steps towards making UWE better place to study and work for everyone. If you have any questions about EIA, please contact Richard Stokes, Equality and Diversity Advisor (0117 32 81718), at the Equality and Diversity Unit.

For more information see the Equality Impact Assessment information page on the Equality and Diversity unit webpages.

The world of equality and diversity is changing. Well, it’s always changing! However, we are about to witness the most far reaching change in equality law the UK has seen since the 1970 Equal Pay Act or the 2000 Race Relations (Amendment) Act.

The Equality Act truly is a piece of adventurous legislation designed to bring together all equality focused legislation/public duties and European Directives under one roof. The Equality Act also clarifies and extends a range of public sector duties to cover different equality groups (or as the act now states – protected characteristics) such as marriage & civil partnership and pregnancy & maternity.

If you would like to find out more about the Equality Act and how it affects you, your work or your studies, please visit http://www.ecu.ac.uk or http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/legal-and-policy/equality-act. The E&D Unit will be organising a series of workshops and lectures on the new Equality Act, please look out for further publicity for dates and times.  

UWE have extended the range of baby changing facilities across the Frenchay campus. From September 2010 additional baby changing tables will be available in the following areas:

2B19a – Opposite B Block Lecture theatre
2F012 – Outside Red Bar
2D67 – Opposite Glendenning Lecture theatre
2S812 – Within Street café area
2E28A – One Zone R Block Phase 2, level 0
0SC014 -  Opposite climbing wall in the Centre for Sport   photo

courtesy of c r z