Where I work
I am an area manager for the local council's Employment, Education and Skills team. I am responsible for two adult learning centres, the courses that run from these and the tutors who teach for us. We are a provider of further education offering a range of services, of which 19+ adult education is the biggest.
When learners register with us, we ask them whether they have a disability and if so, what kind of disability they have. We know that we have some learners who either don't disclose their disability or have an undiagnosed disability and we try to work on the basis of getting to know each learner as an individual and providing them with the support they need to enable them to learn effectively. Whether or not they disclose a disability is largely irrelevant, though it is helpful to begin with all the information.
The majority of our learning takes place face-to-face, in the classroom, however we have a virtual learning environment (VLE) and we encourage learners to use this to extend their learning outside of the classroom. The success of this varies across the different subjects and tutors. As far as I know, we have never specifically looked at the accessibility of our VLE, though we have consciously improved the physical environment to improve the accessibility of our centres.
What I hope to learn
As a physically disabled person, I consider myself to know a fair bit about mobility issues and accessibility. I am less confident with supporting people with a whole range of learning disabilities to access further education. Having said that, I have some personal and previous work experience with autistic spectrum conditions, such as Asperger Syndrome.
What I have noticed in both physical and online environments, is that there can be conflict between the different needs of people with different disabilities. The main thing I want to learn, is how I can effectively balance these varying needs, so that all learners get a good learning experience.
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