Legislation
An education in equality Access within higher education Higher education institutions have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled students and visitors to access their services; yet many remain inaccessible. With a new academic year about to begin, Vivien King and Mónica Grinfeld explore the implications of access at university and ask how what is reasonable can be determined in a higher education setting The legal framework Part IV of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) enforced upon education providers the duty to make adjustments, interpreted as ‘reasonable’ for the purposes of the legislation, to integrate disabled people. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) widened the non-discriminatory provisions of the legislation to include higher education. A later revision, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, consolidated and extended the duties of bodies responsible for education and other related services contained in Part IV of the Act; these were further clarified and expanded by the Disability Discrimination Act (Amendment) (Further and Higher Education) Regulations 2006. This proactive legislation set a framework for good practice by requiring that higher education institutions treat disabled students, visitors and staff no less favourably than their non-disabled peers, and that reasonable adjustments be put in place to aid such users. The successor to the DDA, the Equality Act 2010, was pushed through its final parliamentary stages in April. Although the outgoing Government intended to begin implementing this Act on 1 October 2010, at the time of writing the Codes of Practice had still not been published; however, the current Government has stated its intention to initiate the core provisions of the Act in October. Part VI relates to education: Chapter 1 concentrates on schools and Chapter 2 on further and higher education. Within the latter context, the admission and general treatment of disabled students, the recreational and training facilities
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Access by Design Issue 124
offered to them and the premises from which the university or college operates all have to be considered. Although the relevant Code of Practice is not due for publication until 2011, the provisions of the legislation follow closely the principles established by the DDA, and the duties of service providers remain largely unchanged. Governing bodies are legally responsible for ensuring their institution’s compliance with equality law. This encompasses individual rights for staff and students, as well as the proactive ‘public sector duties’ that apply specifically to higher education institutions. There must be no discrimination exhibited by the appropriate governing body, be it a local authority, educational authority or board of governors. It has statutory duties to make reasonable adjustments to its admission policies, the courses offered, its facilities and accommodation, among other things. A college or university may offer services to the public in addition to services exclusively for students. For instance, it might allow its premises to be used for exhibition purposes or its library, theatre or sporting facilities to be used by the wider public. In such cases, the governing body will be a service provider within the definition of the Equality Act. It will also be an employer, might manage property or even operate a private club from its premises. Each role will impose upon the governing body additional and at times differing duties and, because of the extensive procedural requirements of the legislation, there is always a danger that issues of equality turn into exercises in bureaucracy. Clearly, then, access