Home
 
 
You are here:

Disability Statement

We recognise the importance of providing all of our students with high quality tuition and support. You should expect to study in an environment that positively encourages equality of opportunity and refuses to tolerate discrimination, in any form.

To achieve this, the College has Equal Opportunities, Race Equality, Gender Equality and Disability Equality policy statements and Codes of Practice which seriously challenge discrimination and commit us to ensuring that all applicants, students, employees and users of our facilities and services receive equal treatment, dignity and respect.

The Policy is reviewed annually by the Equal Opportunities Sub-Committee of the College's Academic Board. Copies are available, on request, from the Curriculum and Quality Development Unit in the Student Information Suite on the 7th floor of the Summer Row site and from this website.

Our Policy has been reviewed in the light of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended by Special Education Needs and Disability Act 2001, the Disability Discrimination (Amendment) Regulations 2003, and the Disability Discrimination Act 2005). The Special Education Needs and Disability Act 2001 imposed duties in relation to access to education that came into effect in stages from September 2002, and the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 ( DDA ) places a general duty on the College, as a public authority, to promote disability equality. Under this new duty, and through all relevant functions, the College is required to have due regard to the need to:

  • Promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people.
  • Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the DDA .
  • Eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disabilities.
  • Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people.
  • Encourage participation by disabled people in public life.
  • Take steps to take account of disabled people's disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled people more favourably than others.

Definition

The legal definition of a disability as detailed in The Duty to Promote Disability Equality: Statutory Code of Practice, England and Wales, Disability Rights Commission 2005 paragraph 1.6. is:

A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Admission Arrangements

The College has developed a system of diagnostics and referral to enable students with Specific Learning Needs (disabilities/learning difficulties) to make informed choices about a proposed programme of study.

We will provide you with an honest assessment of how suitable a particular programme might be for you including how easily you would be able to cope with the College's buildings and details of specialised facilities (including student residential accommodation) and staff appropriate to your needs. We will also assist in the identification and provision of specialist equipment required to support your learning.

You are encouraged to identify your own particular requirements in your application or by speaking, confidentially, to your interviewer. It is important, if we are to offer appropriate support, that we are made aware of your needs at the earliest opportunity. This will help you adjust quickly to life at the College.

We, for our part, will endeavour to make any reasonable adjustments to our facilities and/or procedures to help you to successfully follow a programme of study. Our ability to carry out such adjustments will depend on their practicability, available resources (including grants from other organisations) and the degree of disruption which may be caused.

Download the full Disability Statement