DCG News Bulletins
May and June 2013
The group is in the process of agreeing and setting an action plan in 2013-14. The theme currently being proposed and explored is Accessibility-
In terms of its University wide implications- focused activities are planned in terms of a range of teaching materials and resources for students- also to include the website, resources for teaching on-line and availability of transcription services.
The group noted that HR Disability Factsheets to support managers and employees with disabilities are now on the Equality and Diversity website.
A message has also been sent to the leadership group to alert them about this and a notice had been posted on UDo.
The group had a very successful away day on 3rd June- two training sessions were delivered
- one by a member of the University Wellbeing team, Kuldip Tatlah on mental health training aimed at both student and staff - The group is keen to consolidate this session with further training in mental health first aid.
- as well - a session was provided on dyslexia training-delivered by an outsider trainer- Amanda Davis- specifically addressing the condition from the perspective of how a dyslexic student might experience the HE landscape
- Ben Bailey also provided the group with an update on his review of the DCG in light of the on-going University disability project.
The DCG noted that their budget for 2013-14 has been reduced to £2000.
March 2013
The group noted that the role of the academic Disability Co-ordinator was being reviewed as part of a project ran by Ben Bailey. Each DC was being interviewed by Ben with a view to finding out what they do and making the role more consistent across the University. It was appreciated that one size would not fit all and that the roles might have to be adapted for each Faculty.
The DCG approved a series disability factsheets produced by the E&D team giving basic facts on different types of disability. The factsheets were produced to support managers with disabled members of staff and have been published on the E+D website:
http://www.derby.ac.uk/hr/diversity/factsheets
The finalised Personal Emergency Evacuation Procedure (PEEPs) Co-ordinator list has been published on the equality and diversity website.
www.derby.ac.uk/hr/diversity/personal-emergency-evacuation-procedures-peeps
The Disabledgo website has been updated in the light of their auditor's visit to the University in January. Disability Co-ordinators have been asked to check that the information held about their Faculty/Department is accurate.
http://www.disabledgo.com/en/org/university-of-derby
It was agreed that Leek would be included as part of next year's audit so that it could include any new builds.
DCG noted that a list of issues arising from the Disabled Staff Consultation Group meeting held on 13 February had been circulated to key people at the University to action. Once all responses had been received, the list will be circulated to the consultation group to close the loop and assure them that action was being taken where possible.
The group received a report entitled Accessibility and Learning Technology from Laura Hollinshead (LEI). It was felt that more awareness training was needed for academic staff on providing teaching materials in alternative formats for visual and hearing impaired students. The group were going to look at the issues in more detail at the next meeting.
January 2013
Zuzia Goddard was appointed as Disability Co-ordinator for the School of Education within EHS.
There is still no Faculty DC for EHS.
A Disabled Staff Consultation Group meeting will be held on Wednesday 13 February at 2pm in Room T005.
The DCG approved a series of Disability Factsheets aimed to help managers of staff with disabilities. The factsheets will be taken to the Disabled Staff Consultation Group meeting for consultation and then will be published on the E+D website. The EDC and DCG will be asked to help disseminate this information to their Faculties and Departments.
Disabled Go visited the University on 28-29 January 2013 to update the information they hold about us. They looked at the new lifts in East Tower, the gym in the Kirtley Building, Britannia Mill, the studios at the Markeaton site, Buxton and the Student Housing offices. A new webpage has been set up on the E+D website to link to the information on their site to help disabled staff and students get around the campuses more easily.
Lee Knapton came to the DCG meeting to discuss the accessibility of the University website. Comparisons were made to the Open University's website. Lee Knapton agreed to take the DCG recommendations for improvement to the website to his project board meeting including the recommendation that Marketing should have a representative on DCG.
The project of giving access to Peoplesoft to academics and support staff is moving on. Test 1 has been designed and is with UDSU for consultation. The team are concerned with confidentiality issues so these are being tightened up.
An issue was raised about parking for disabled staff who are not blue badge holders (ie some might be temporarily disabled after an operation, or others might have mobility issues that are not counted as a disability). Estates had reported that they are bound by the Council's environmental policies on parking and national guidelines on disabled parking and cannot offer more spaces. HR are looking into this issue to see what other HEIs do.
Date of the next meeting is: Wednesday 6 March 2013. Please contact your local DC if you wish to raise any issues
October 2012
Jo Bishton (ADT Disability Co-ordinator) has been voted in as the new Chair of the Disability Co-ordinators for 2012-13. Nominations are being sought for Deputy Chair.
The group would like to formally thank Jenny Thompson for chairing the group from 2010. Chris Warren is being contacted to see who the new "lead" Disability Co-ordinator for EHS will be in future.
It was noted that Andrew Elliott (Student Experience), Torri Crapper (UDSU) and Charles Metcalfe (Disabled Students Officer) had left the group over the summer and they were thanked for their contributions. Replacements are being sought. The group welcomed Paula Shaw to her first meeting as UDOL representative.
Olivia Ramsbottom is the new HE Disability Co-ordinator for UDB and Tim Birch is the new FE representative on the group. Nominations are being sought for a Leek DC.
The chair is also seeking a Marketing DC as some issues had been raised by SWS about accessibility on the new website, accessibility in their published materials and on their guidance notes to academics.
Following some uncertainty over the summer, it was confirmed that DCG will continue in its current format for the foreseeable future. It was felt that the group works well but the inconsistencies in the role of DC between Faculties needed to be looked at.
The Estates Department, in conjunction with Head of E+D, are now using a new simple equality analysis tool when planning new builds or new work to existing buildings.
The money at the University to support disabled students is being all pulled into one pot totalling £265k. The Student Wellbeing Service will administer the budget in consultation with Faculty staff. For further information, contact Joanne Jones (ext 1314)
The group recommended that academics should be given restricted access to Peoplesoft to enable them to see support plans and to reduce bureaucracy and paperwork with the support plan system. Jo Jones agreed to take this recommendation to June Hughes and Neil Williams.
DCG were pleased that lockers for disabled students were being purchased and recommended that they were put in a central location (such as reception areas) and, if possible, near lifts.
May 2012
The group met the Student Support Booking Team who are responsible for arranging support for disabled students at the University. They circulated a Information Pack on the service provided by the team. Academic members of staff are advised to read this booklet.
The group noted the University's procedure for recording lectures which was agreed at Academic Council on 17 June 2009. The group agreed that this procedure is still appropriate but it is probably not widely known. It was recommended by the group that the minute from the Academic Council should be reproduced in Module Handbooks.
Nominations are requested for Chair and Deputy Chair of the DCG as the current Chair and Deputy are standing down in June.
The Equality Analysis process (formerly impact assessment) has been revised and rolled out to senior managers at the University. The new procedure and forms can be found on the equality and diversity website: www.derby.ac.uk/hr/diversity - look under equality analysis
March 2012
The group noted that Ben Bailey was producing a Disability Strategy for the University which would incude a review of student wellbeing, admissions, support etc. It was thought that the role of the DCG would be included in the review.
Simon Bignell (Psychology, EHS) gave a presentation on the project for which he received funding from the group last year. The project, entitled "Offering Digital Equivalence for Students with Disabilities" showed how different technologies could be utilised to offer more access to courses for students with disabilities. It proved, however, that this also benefitted otehr students. Simon is hoping to further disseminate his project findings (citing them as best practice) through the usual University communication channels.
The group noted that the Love Your Mind workshops had been well received and well attended by students. More workshops were planned for the future.
The Diversity Event at the University was underway. All the staff development sessions for March were full but there were events in the Atrium on 20 and 21 March. Staff are encouraged to continue to register for courses as additional sessions will be put on throughout the year.
Tim Watson joined the grop as a new UDSU representative.
February 2012
The following new Disability Co-ordinators were welcomed to the group
- ADT (Jo Bishton)
- ITS (Caroline Murphy)
- UDB (Liz Oldfield)
The Equality and Diversity Team are working on the University's equality objectives and have gathered suggestions put forward by Faculties, Departments and equality subgroups. The objectives will be agreed by the Equality and Diversity Committee and published on the website by 30 April 2012
The group considered budget bids and put forward a list of recommendations for funding to be agreed by the Equality and Diversity Committee.
Jenny Thompson is working with LECI to develop some online resources for academics around disability such as the reasonable adjustments process, dyslexia, dyspraxia to name but a few
The group received a statistical report and noted that overall disabled students are less satisfied than non-disabled students. It was hoped that the recommendations for budget expenditure, based on some of the feedback received from students, would improve the experiences of disabled students.
December 2011
The group had an awayday including presentations from Bridget Leadbeater and Chris Allwright. Philip Plowden (E+D champion) held a question and answer session about the future of the group and the group had some deaf awareness training.
November 2011
The group felt the main equality objective on disability for the University was staff development on disability awareness. This will be forwarded to Philip Plowden for the discussion on objectives at the Equality and Diversity Committee on 29 November.
The group inputted into the new procedure on "Adjustments to Assessments for Disabled Students".
The group noted that the University's assistive software might not be compatible with the new updated software on the student computers. The group is going to investigate this further.
There is a disability conference taking place at the University on Saturday 25 February 2011 and is free to all staff. Various training sessions and key note speakers will make up the event. For more information, please contact Jenny Thompson (ext 1671).
There is currently no Disability Co-ordinator for UDB.
The group are having an away day on Thursday 15 December 2011 in the Multifaith Centre. The main agenda items are feedback on various disability research projects taking place at the University and deaf awareness training.
October 2011
Kevin Silber joined the group to outline the new extenuating circumstances procedure. The group noted that the procedure is completely disaggregated from disabled students' support plans and that a separate procedure had been drawn up for this purpose. The DCG are being consulted on this new procedure.
The group agreed a common Personal Emegency Evacuation Procedure (PEEPs) procedure to be rolled out in all Faculties. The procedure will be posted on the health and safety and equality and diversity intranet/internet pages.
The group were asked for equality objectives around disability for the University's equality strategy. The University's equality objectives need to be published by April 2012. The objectives will be discussed and formulated by the Equality and Diversity Committee in November 2011.
The group noted that good progress had been made on the accessibility issues that had been reported to the Estates Department by DCG but that there still some outstanding issues to be resolved.
September 2011
Phillip Plowden, new Pro Vice-Chancellor, has been confirmed as the Equality and Diversity Champion for the University. PP is going to be invited to a future DCG meeting to outline his vision for the future of E+D at the University.
Jenny Thompson has been voted as Chair of the DCG for another year and Hannah Futter as Deputy Chair this year. An article about the group will appear in Connected shortly.
The Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans procedure has been finalised and the Health and Safety Team have agreed that they are responsible for publicising the procedure. Rob Woods has undertaken to ensure that information about the PEEPs procedure is advertised in relevant and important documents at critical points throughout the students' lives at the University.
The group received a response to its report on issues with student support plans. First feelings are that the group are happy with the response. An extra meeting has been arranged between the Disability Co-ordinators and Student Wellbeing team to discuss the report in more detail.
A living library event is being held at the University (Atrium) on Monday 10 October 2011 to mark World Mental Health Awareness Day. The event will include 40+ stalls to support mental health awareness (including stalls from the University's Equality and Diversity, Student Wellbeing, Health and Safety teams, Occupational Health and nursing students). In addition, there will be a living library where you can hire a human "book" for 20 minutes (or speak to someone about mental health conditions). A wide variety of titles are available.
The Equality and Diversity team have also asked Derby County Football Club to return to the University and re-run their popular mental health awareness training course on that day. If you are interested or would like to find out more, please contact Nicola Adler, Equality and Diversity Team on extension 1440.
Get Ahead - the induction event for disabled students is taking place on. Thursday 15th and Frioday 16 September 2011. Halls are accepting students from Wednesday 14th.
Three members of the group have attended a disability conference in Poland and learned that the University of Derby (and indeed all of the UK) are far ahead of the game in terms of support for disabled students
A report on the Faculties' issues with support plans had been forwarded to the Student Wellbeing Service (SWS). The Head of SWS had agreed to respond to the report and to meet the Chair of DCG in the first instance to try to resolve the issues
The group agreed to copy the BCL model for ensuring that students who need a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) get one
The University is holding an event on mental health awareness on Monday 10 October 2011 in the Atrium. Disability Co-ordinators are going to put forward ideas from their Faculties and Departments on how they can contribute
The group's remaining budget had been spent on additional laptops and assistive software for disabled students.
The group noted that the Equality and Diversity Team were reviewing the merits of the Two Ticks system (where any disabled job applicant is guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria)
The group put together the first draft of their action plan for next year (2011-12). Once this plan has been agreed by the group and the Equality and Diversity Committee (EDC), it will be published on the intranet
April 2011
The group agreed to fund a bid from the Admissions Team for money to support disabled students in the interview stage of the admissions process. This was subject to provision of this type being built into the Admission Team's budget for next year.
The group noted the latest Admissions reports with regard to applications from disabled students split by Faculty.
The group agreed to an awayday in June where disability equality training will form the main part of the day. The group will also review its terms of reference, role description and action plan as part of the day.
The group noted new estates issues - B Block doors and Markeaton site reception doors. The chair will discuss these issues in a meeting with Head of the Estates Department
The group noted that there were no major differences in the average and median salaries of disabled and non-disabled staff at the University. The HR Department had carried out this analysis as part of its Equal Pay Audit 2011.
March 2011
The group discussed the admissions process and the timetable for the admissions team informing faculties about disabled students. It was agreed that Olivia Ramsbottom would attend future DCG meetings to keep the group up to date.
The group discussed Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans for disabled students as it had been discovered that students had not been taking responsibility for contacting the Faculty DC (or named contact) to agree their own personal evacuation plan in the event of a fire. The group are looking into ways to improve the system.
The group noted the comments from disabled students in the Library Users Survey results. It was noted that their comments were no different to comments in general.
The group agreed funding for the following bids:
- EHS: IT Project offering 'Digital Equivalence' for students with disabilities
- EHS Bedford Height Adjustable Bench
- NADP Conference attendance for 4 x disability advisers (2 Derby, 2 Buxton)
January 2011
A research project will fund one day where academic DCs can meet and work out inconsistencies between their roles. The Student Wellbeing Service will also be invited to attend the day.
The DCG has asked the Student Wellbeing Service for further clarification on the new support plan system as some academics are confused as to which tier of support their students are on. Reports were received of staff not being able to get through to the advisors by phone.
The Disabled Students Group are running an ABC campaign in the Atrium on 14 March to highlight awareness around mental health.
