Earlier this week, we published an anonymous article, which prompted a heated debate, by a notetaker asking who cares about the education deaf people are receiving in higher education.
Further on the same story, this site has also received the following email, again from someone who wishes to remain anonymous, about cuts to Disabled Student Allowance and the support deaf and disabled students receive. Here it is:
I am a deaf student and my disability officer has drawn my attention to a very worrying threat to disabled students allowance.
The proposed changes apply to those starting university from 2015-16. I am not proposing to write something myself for Limping Chicken (I wish to remain anonymous for now), but I do hope that you could write something and publicise this?
My disability officer said this could mean an end to funding for notetakers and to funding of computers – you will be expected to buy your own and there will be no insurance or warranties paid for. They will provide insurance/warranties on some specialist equipment/software, I think.
David Willetts, the Universities and Sciences Minister made a written speech on 7th April, in which said they want to look at: “whether strategies can be put in place to reduce the need for support workers and encourage greater independence and autonomy for their students.”
I think the emphasis will be on equipment, rather than human support, ie. SLI’s and notetakers.
I also quote: “We no longer expect assistive technology and non-medical helper support to be provided for the same purpose. This is regarded as double-funding. The DSA needs assessor should identify which form of help is the most suitable for the student, taking into account the aim of enabling the student to become an independent, autonomous learner’. Link here: http://www.practitioners.slc.
co.uk/media/744663/ssin_01-15_ apr2014.pdf I am including further links to information:
http://www.practitioners.slc.
co.uk/policy-information/ student-support-information- notices.aspx Here is a petition against the cuts: http://epetitions.direct.gov.
uk/petitions/63748
donaldo of the wasatch
May 1, 2014
Again a case where we need to be smarter, not whinier. That means sitting down and INTERACTING and teaching others what needs to be done and not done. Signing petitions is generally ineffective. You have to get in the face of the decision makers and make your case compelling and that means communication competency. A Terp cannot communicate your passion, just cannot. You have to make yourself indispensable. Now, presently int he United States, this is not a an issue like in Great Britain. But, we have to become articulate, in any way we can. If we cannot articulate a sane and worthwhile concept – then why are we there? Again, the problem is real, the answer – Deaf people and their support teams have to advocate and advocate sanely, smartly and effectively. Sitting mute on the sideline will not achieve that. We have to make numbers talk (ironic?).
pennybsl
May 1, 2014
The NDCS has already sent a clear and firm response to the Government about the issue; like the rest of us, it demands an Equality Impact Assessment and further consideration of the dangers of a ‘one size fits all’ philosophy.
Again and again, the Government, its departments and ministers have not respected taxpayers’ expectations of fair processes.
Again, charities and professional bodies are having to use a great deal of hard-earned money and energy to fight such proposals, which seem to have been written on a dinner napkin without regard to the essential outcomes of Deaf & Disabled university graduates in the UK.
There is more financial wastage through blotched ivory-tower thinking than messing about with the DSA.
It is a huge insult to all of us…… Educators. especially Deaf Education, BATOD, Deaf-led organisations enabling positive Deaf identity in young deaf people, families, carers, schools, professionals to see our young people’s unreasonably stalled in post-18 Education by those ‘behind the walls’ proposals.
If Conservative MPs have young Deaf & Disabled children entitled to DSA, the proposals would not have been made in the first place.
Natalya D
May 1, 2014
I wrote two blogposts about the DSA changes cos I am a university disability adviser myself and considered to be a bit of a nerd about the many flavours of DSA.
Blogposts:
1) The main funding changes: http://natalyad.dreamwidth.org/10553.html
2) More info about what people can do and press releases from disability orgs etc http://natalyad.dreamwidth.org/11093.html
While I do agree the changes are worrying it is worth noting a few things.
A) Equipment is difficult. While institutions will not specifically say a computer is required, this is increasingly becoming the status quo – it starts to become like not having a notepad and pen or in the 90s people paid for their dissertations to be typed or bought a typewriter… I am in a few minds about whether this should be DSA funded for students when non DSA students have to purchase their own. On the other hand disabled students are more likely to be poor, less likely to be able to work, have to do more hours to keep up (cos deaf people have to compensate for what we don’t hear directly or incidentally) and experience concentration fatigue etc etc… Equipment is the area most of our students are worried about. I also agree it’ll end up like Access to Work where the support is agreed but the equipment to access it won’t be agreed – leaving the deaf/disabled person in the middle. This might be a case of DSA funding something which isn’t technically its responsibility of “academic related costs which a disabled person faces because of disability”… There might be other avenues of funding for this required… I also agree it’s a logistical nightmare as non-DSA computers are hideous, often old, often break, are so many different specifications that software doesn’t work… I hate as techie at my place handling non-DSA computers for students, DSA ones can currently be returned to supplier for repair or replacement… Difficult, but a not unexpected cut/change even if it is based on the dodgiest Endsleigh study ever, counteracts other research and so on… Feedback on this area specifically about why students couldn’t afford their own cos of disability would be very useful!
2) Notetaking (and all other band 1 and 2 non medical helper support like sighted guides etc), this will fall to institutions to fund. Many institutions are adopting lecture recording systems which I know from personal experenceare NOT accessible to deaf students, but are an improvement to say 50% of students who need notetaking for other reasons like handwriting impairments, fatigue or concentration issues etc. In theory some students who need notetaking won’t need it if lecture recording systems are in place cos they link the video to slides and stuff. Some lecture recording platforms have access to human captioning of the entire content within 5 days of the lecture going up for $2 per minute of audio. This makes the ‘text’ of the lecture searchable and would for many deaf students resolve notetaking issues too. Universities may decide to start captioning when they work out it’s not that expensive, or there is a deaf student on the course… In many ways if this was the default as is happening in Australia I believe this would be a great inclusion by design. No more “singled out by the notetaker” effect, no friends whining that it’s not fair that YOU don’t have to take notes, but the same access for everyone. In social model of disability terms – this is ideal if it happened.
3) At this time communication support such as Sign Language Interpreters, lipspeakers, STTRs etc is not under threat. SFE the main English funding body specifically takes STTR out of the new funding bands for Non Medical Helper (NMH) allowance cos they know it varies. Deaf students already face issues with DSA overspend as undergrads get 20k ish NMH allowance and postgrads get about 10k total (whether full or part time). Deaf students’ support costs more that DSA provides “DSA overspend” and it should be up to institutions to top this up if it is a genuine third party recommendation which shows the deaf person cannot access university study via cheaper ways. Don’t let them fob you off. If the support offered is inadequate, complain, in writing, challenge it… If the institution says it is unreasonable, challenge that. If that doesn’t work try the Office of the Independent Adjudicator or taking legal action. Not fair, but the reality is we need to establish somewhere what is and is not reasonable and where the law draws the line cos at the moment universities are guessing and hoping no one sues/complains hard.
4) Double funding – we don’t have enough information at this point to determine what BIS means by this. Already under existing rules I have struggled to get my deaf or HOH students things like a radio aid AND notetaking, but I can justify this as TWO separate functions. A radio aid increases signal to noise ratio and reduces the distance squared law decrease in sound loudness effect. It makes it easier for some deaf people to understand speech in a large room (but in my experience isn’t terribly useful in a very noisy room). A radio aid could be useful for increasing real-time access to a lecture or say tutorial session. Notetakers are primarily for record of the session because deaf students cannot take notes AND lipread at the same time, it is for post lecture followup.
I have also at one point had a student who was refused a sign language interpreter for seminars (group discussions) because they had a radio aid. Suffice to say my response this once I’d stopped swearing about stupidity was to write a very stern set of emails outlining the differences between the two provisions to the funding body. Again it was a bit of an argument but our recommendations prevailed and the student was able to use radio aid and a terp.
Many of the changes are really vague as all heck. That’s half the issue, we don’t know what we’re up against or how it will be implemented in reality for students. Institutions will definitely have more responsibility to fund some stuff, so it might be instead of SFE or NHS or Research
Council etc that students will need to hold their institution to account for disability related academic support. It will come down to disability advisers and DSA needs assessors to make strong and justified recommendations and be prepared to complain where a particular individual or group of students is disadvantaged.
Please do sign the petition listed in this article above.
Give feedback to National Association of Disability Practitioners at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/143wrLGqbIaiVhKQD5yS24uuVltQFyaTyynEfx9i67cY/viewform
If you can find time, write to your MP about what support you had and why it was vital for university.
Fingers crossed the multiple groups challenging this will have some luck in reducing the impact of some of it. Applicants to university should not worry about not being accepted on places any more than present – i.e I can’t promise it doesn’t happen, but it should NOT happen if that makes sense.
If people here want to ask questions in comments then I will try and answer them later after work as and when I can. There are some things I can’t say cos they haven’t been made public or they are “in discussion” but I shall do my best to identify what is unknown and what is being challenged.
Graham Turner
May 2, 2014
Quality information, Natalya, thank you You should be the main article in Limping Chicken!. Could you offer a model letter people could send to their MPs via writetothem.com?
Natalya D
May 1, 2014
Donaldo, I’d say petitions alongside other methods of kicking off are worth a try. They certainly do no harm and if we can get 100k signatures on the gov petition we can then challenge them to discuss this properly in parliament…
Tim
May 1, 2014
Don’t think that this neo-liberal ideological war on Deaf and disabled people stops at the gates of unemployed Deaf and disabled people. As we have seen with PIP and other in-work benefits and more recently with Access to Work – it is a barely-disguised social-darwinist attack on ALL Deaf and disabled people.
Pretend-friends like Malcolm Bruce claim the ‘deficit [is] unsustainable’ yet lay up to spend vast amounts on Trident, tax cuts for millionaires, 11% pay rises for MPs and now at least £40 billion on HS2. This is NOT an exhaustive list; there is much more.
Resistance and solidarity are the important responses that I think are needed.
P. Roberts
May 1, 2014
….If Conservative MPs have young Deaf & Disabled children entitled to DSA, the proposals would not have been made in the first place…..
Penny, can you clarify the meaning of this? Children the best of my knowledge, unless I have missed something, children are not entitled to DSA as it is an award for higher education. As someone who is on DSA myself, I believe you have to be sixteen or over.
Natalya D
May 2, 2014
@Graham (I can’t thread for some reason here)
I do need to try and write an article for LC.
I need to write to my own MP still so I’ll try and do a guide if not a template – we’re trying to avoid identi-kit MP letters.
I may also call out for anyone who can do BSL to help put some of this info in BSL cos my sign is no way up to it and I haven’t seen anything in BSL about these changes yet.
Natalya D
May 4, 2014
Pennybsl can I check you mean DSA (disabled students’ allowance) or DLA (Disability living allowance)? I think you mean D L A which is a non means tested benefit from the DWP for children with disabilities.
DSA is from BIS govt department and is to fund the additional academic costs incurred by disabled students because of their disability e.g. notetakers and bsl interpreters…
This article is about DSA although I agree DLA changes for deaf children are problematic.