Learners with Disabilities

Tutors need to make reasonable adjustments to make learning accessible for learners with a disability.

Disabled learners may declare their disability at enrolment, at interview, or on their Individual Record of Learning at the start of the course.

However, many learners don’t declare a disability, particularly hidden disabilities, as they don’t want to ‘stand out’ or don’t believe they need any adjustments. Their disability may only emerge during the course.

Many tutors feel anxious if they have a learner with a disability in their class in case they can’t help, or get something wrong. This is natural. You may not get everything right first time, but the student will value the fact that you are listening to their needs.

If the learner has declared their disability at enrolment, you will have been contacted by the access team with support ideas. The department may also provide an additional support worker, or special support sessions,.

Otherwise:

• talk to the student first about what would help. Don’t assume you know what they need!

• avoid making the student feel ‘different’. E.g. if you adapt handouts for them, give the adapted handout to everyone and not just the student concerned.

• contact the access and inclusion team for support: support@citylit.ac.uk

• visit the access and inclusion support hub for ideas on how to support students with particular learning differences or disabilities. This can be found here.