Disabled students' care

Added on 29/04/2009

NUS Disabled Students' Campaign is carrying out research into the barriers faced by students with disabilities. We'd like to hear your experiences.

At the NUS Disabled Students’ Conference in February 2009, a motion was passed to undertake a research project into disabled students’ experiences, with a view to identifying the barriers to participation in the current system.

This will support the Disabled Students' Campaign to run its 'Disabled Students using the PA' campaign this year. To do this, we need to know what you think.

Support services

Disabled Students often report that they feel they have to fight a system which is fragmented, complex and bureaucratic of government support services. They want to call on the NUS Disabled Students' Campaign to change this service.

They want their experience of government support services to change. Disabled students want to be free to move home without fear that their care package will be taken away. Most students express their concerns of being unable to get adequate and consistent care when they go away to study or move in and out of halls of residence because of the number of different local authorities involved. Students' experiences show that their rights, like privacy and freedom from degrading treatment, have been impinged.

Can you help us?

• Are you a disabled student?
• Do you use a personal assistant?
• Do you receive funding from your local authority social services?

If so, we are looking for those students who have had similar experience as above to be involved in research. This research will be carried out from June 2009. We will be holding focus groups and individual interviews and collecting case studies. NUS will pay you £20 for your time.

How to take part

If you'd like to take part you will need to complete this short form

You can contact Kathleen Grehan if you have any questions about the research or require this information in another format.

Degrees of Independence

Added on 09/04/2009

The University of Huddersfield is holding a two day event, Degrees of Independence, on the 16 and 17 April. It looks at how HEIs and SUs meet the needs of a diverse student membership, with the focus on disabled students. The conference aims to gain opinions and views on disabled student experiences in higher education and give disabled students the opportunity to voice their concerns on the barriers they come across at University.

The first day is ran by the a team of sabbatical officers from the North (see the programme here). The second day of the conference will offer a mixture of different sessions, with some panel sessions and several conference themes run by the University.

Sabbatical officers will only be charged for the conference and can also bring three to five students with them at no extra cost. Accommodation will be completely free so book ASAP. Please do attend and bring your students from very own institutions so this conference can make a difference to the student body and address the issues that disabled students are currently facing.

Click here for the registration form

For more information, contact Haneef Rashid on su-academic/welfare@hud.ac.uk

Private College College Accused of breaching Disability Discrimination Act

Added on 16/03/2009

A student has entered a law suit against a private college, citing the Disability Discrimination Act.

Disabled Students' Officer Adam Hyland, has more to say on the matter. Read his blog now.

If you have or are experiencing anything similar, please contact the NUS Disabled Students' Campaign.

Disabled Students' Conference 2009

Added on 04/03/2009

The NUS Disabled Students’ Conference took place in Blackpool from 2 to 4 February 2009. Delegates to the conference all self-defined as disabled people. The conference provides an opportunity for them to formulate campaign priorities relevant to their lives as students. These priorities will help shape solutions for the issues that face disabled students in further and higher education.

Motions passed at the conference form the Disabled Students’ Campaign policy for the coming year (July 2009 – June 2010). Delegates were also given an opportunity to engage with the NUS by electing the Disabled Students’ Committee and the Disabled Students’ Officer.

Adam Hyland was re-elected as the National Disabled Students’ Officer:

“I am excited to be re-elected as National Disabled Students’ Officer this year. Before the re-election I have helped lead the Disabled Students’ Campaign in a new direction as mandated by conference and I want to continue the work I have started. Policy passed at last year’s conference doesn’t get achieved overnight and I look forward to finishing the work the campaign started.”

Read more about the Conference.

Adam Hyland re-elected as NUS Disabled Students' Officer

Added on 05/02/2009

Following the NUS Disabled Students' Conference 2009, the new disabled students' officer and committee have been elected. Adam Hyland has been re-elected for a second one-year term as Disabled Students' Officer and became the first member of the new NUS National Executive Council.

Adam was previously the President of Bournemouth University Students' Union, and will be joined on the new NEC by Karena Youngson from Aberdeen College, who was elected to the disabled students' committee as Further Education representative

The full disabled students' committee for 2009/10 are:

Disabled Students' Officer: Adam Hyland (Bournemouth University)
Open place committee reps: Matthew Bond (Sheffield Hallam University) and Rupy Kaur (BPP Law School, Manchester)
Women's place committee reps: Lucy Hamlyn-Wright (Castle College, Nottingham) and Hannah Harvey (Napier University)
Further education rep: Karena Youngson (Aberdeen College)
International students' rep: Marta Rudyk (Bournemouth Inst of Art)
Black students' rep: Ziby Phillips (Middlesex University)
LGBT students' rep: Lee Bradshaw (University of Central Lancashire)