Excellence Gateway
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) London on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Adult and community learning
Keywords: Teaching and learning; recognising and recording progress and achievement; asylum seekers; dyslexic learners; ethnic minority; home-bound; learning difficulties; physical disabilities; virtual learner; adult and community learning (ACL) provider; community development; family learning; improving teaching and learning; improving responsiveness
Harrow has adopted a whole-organisation approach to accessibility. Tutors and staff follow a development programme that gives them the confidence, knowledge and access to advice to enable them to support all learners. “Accessibility is incredibly important to us as an organisation,” says Harrow's Karen Bhamra, Adult and Community Learning Programme Development Officer. “It has helped shape who we are, the type of employer we are and the models of disability that we use to deliver our services.”
Harrow Council provides courses in adult, community and family learning across the Borough. It is a mixed delivery service that is part contracted-out. Courses are delivered via a range of organisations including Harrow and Stanmore Colleges, a number of voluntary organisations and the Council itself. Harrow also works in partnership with other providers of adult education in Harrow, including the Workers Educational Association (WEA) and the University of the Third Age (U3A) to provide a comprehensive lifelong learning programme across the Borough.
An historically low-funded service, Harrow's direct provision is nevertheless growing, with learning opportunities that include:
In their 2007 OFSTED inspection the Service achieved Grade 2 (Good) in all areas/themes inspected. Particular praise was given to the family and community learning provision.
Harrow's Adult Community and Family Learning Service comprises a small team of 11 full-time equivalent staff and sessional tutors. The team has a successful record of attracting external funding for project work.
As an historically low-funded service, Harrow has invested heavily to provide the infrastructure necessary to enable learners with disabilities to access their services.
A further challenge for this relatively small service, which employs predominantly sessional staff across a variety of locations, has been to develop awareness and skills in delivering an inclusive curriculum.
Most organisations have accessibility policies but few offer any practical help, Karen observes. Staff can be “scared of saying and doing the wrong thing and this can stop them doing anything.” Harrow set out to teach tutors the language around social models of disability and to back it up with resources.
Karen has worked with disabled learners for some years and in the past has experienced situations where specialised equipment is purchased, only to be put in a cupboard and never to be seen again:
“Learners don't know it is there, so struggle to use unsuitable equipment, and staff don't know how to plug it in or use it with confidence. At Harrow, we decided that there would be no cupboards in the learning centres. All equipment is kept out on display. This approach encourages learners to mention any accessibility needs they have, and to go on to try things out.”
Dual connectors are also fitted to give ease of access to the equipment.
When Harrow started direct delivery, staff quickly realised they had to be very creative about the way they provided support to learners with disabilities and the way that they prioritised and planned programmes for them. Staff awareness sessions based on the social model of disability were introduced, and Harrow has also benefited from its relationships with organisations such as You Can Do IT (an organisation that provides IT training using volunteers), AbilityNet and Adapt IT. Another driver has been the series of projects run with the Middlesex Association for the Blind and the Harrow Association of Disabled People. Both of these organisations run IT learning centres in Harrow.
Staff development
Tutors at Harrow take an access awareness course, which takes a broad approach to inclusivity. The course is mandatory for all tutors, forming part of their portfolio of staff development. To meet the needs of sessional tutors, Harrow have also introduced an online training package. This resource starts with an overview of current legislation such as “what does making reasonable adjustment mean?”. It also includes:
All direct delivery staff at Harrow are trained to use Jaws and SuperNova software for visually impaired learners.
Quality assurance
Karen and her colleagues audit all classroom and web resources to ensure that they are fully accessible. Use of the online course is also audited as part of the staff development process.
Resources
An important part of making Harrow's accessible policy happen is the provision of online resources accessible to both learners and tutors, such as the following.
“Accessibility is incredibly important to us as an organisation, ” says Karen. “It has helped shape who we are, the type of employer we are and the models of disability that we use to deliver our services. One of the things that is important to us is that we stretch people's preconceptions about working with disabled people. This means we look at the individual learner.”
For example, Harrow have successfully offered a digital photography course to blind and visually impaired learners by making use of large plasma screens and MP3 players.
Another outcome for Harrow is the significant number of volunteers supporting learners in their centres and the effect this has in creating a sense of belonging and engagement amongst their learners. Specialist centres also teach non-disabled learners and some of these people go on to work as volunteers in the centres. Harrow pays for volunteer to do courses such as British Sign Language, finding this a cost-effective means of supporting learners and providing the volunteers with a valuable skill.
Feedback from tutors indicates that they value the resources online and the access they have to further advice to support their work.
Harrow's drive to support their own tutors working with learners with disabilities is also providing the wider educational community with valuable resources.
The Learn in Harrow website serves several purposes as a course listing, student gallery and an open access resource for managers, tutors and learners. As many of Harrow's teaching staff also work for other providers across various college and community venues, this is an effective means of sharing information and good practice. Tutors benefiting from shared resources are also more likely to adopt the same ethos.
The website, which was funded by Local Government Online, also provides communication tools such as an open forum and mailing lists for users who create an account.
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You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/207113.
