Legislation and policy (Week 3 - Activity 1.3)

Does your particular organisation have a policy on accessibility or inclusive teaching? Are its policies based on national or international legislation? In your country, are disability issues addressed by general legislation about equality and human rights?


I was able to get my hands on the school's 'Disability Policy' pretty easily. It is readily accessible to staff on our Intranet. The policy is made in line with the UK Disability Discrimination Act and covers students, staff and visitors to the site.

The introduction reads, "[The School] is committed to a fair and equal treatment of all individuals regardless of disablement. [The School] will welcome applications from people with
disabilities to join the Academy community as students and staff. [The School] has been designed and built to have provision and accessibility for people with disabilities so that they may be integrated fully into [School] life. The curriculum will be delivered through the use of ICT to provide flexible and equal access to all students whether able or disabled as far as is practicable within a mainstream educational establishment."

The intent to provide accessibility and inclusive teaching is definitely there, but I am aware that there are some improvements to be made before "flexible and equal access to all" is really achieved in terms of our Online Curriculum provision. We should be taking a more 'anticipatory' approach when producing these materials but bad practice is pretty widespread and would be difficult to eradicate given that staff have little interest in the provision of an online curriculum anyway.