Research Project Unveils Able 4 College Website for Students with Disabilities
Posted on: 02 December 2005
Marking International Day of the Disabled, (Saturday 3 December) the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin TD launched a new web service, Able 4 College, to provide advice and support for second level guidance counsellors and students with disabilities.
The new web pages are the end result of a Trinity College Dublin and Institute of Technology Tallaght joint three-year research project, funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), on improving the retention rate of students in third level education and supporting students with disabilities in their career choices and employment options.
Guidance counsellors, parents and students can access the web pages for information such as the type of support potential students can expect from their prospective college, as well as information on different types of disability, disability etiquette and various teaching and learning techniques. The website is being hosted by the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD).
The project was established to help identify issues that exist for students with disabilities in the third level sector. Through the project research, guidance counsellors confirmed that the second level sector is poorly prepared to cater to the needs of students with disabilities, including a lack of awareness among staff in general as well as an absence of school policies toward disability. Many guidance counsellors said they felt limited by a lack of preparation in their professional training to understand or accommodate the needs of students with disabilities. They also highlighted an information gap between themselves and services at third level relating to students with disabilities.
“For students with disabilities, many felt that their second level experience was less than satisfactory, and reported a low level of awareness and appreciation of their needs, ” says Claire Byrne, Project Officer, Careers Advisory Service, TCD. “As well as an absence of systemic provision to address their requirements, disclosure of disabilities is still a very difficult issue at second level for many. In essence, the project has identified some of the real barriers that exist for students with disabilities in second level. A final report will be sent to the National Access Office later in the month, which will recommend how we, as a society, can start to take some of those barriers down.”
As a direct result of these findings, a number of key recommendations were made, including the identification of best practice in the provision of information and the establishment of better links between second level and third level to facilitate the sharing of information. As a result the project has also developed a module entitled “Working with students with disabilities”, for the MSc Degree in Educational Guidance & Counselling TCD, and this is expected to be made available to other universities where similar postgraduate programmes are being offered.
A distinct feature of the project is the partnership established between TCD and the IT Tallaght, which allowed access to a cross section of students, teachers and third level staff, with a range of different experiences.
The website, to be hosted by AHEAD, may be found at www.ahead.ie/able4college