14 | SEN ISSUES | INSIGHT
M
ost university campuses have largely been built for the young and fit, being large places spread
over multiple levels that need a fair amount of time and effort to navigate. Their facilities tend to make certain assumptions: with use of audio and visual aids, signage and learning materials largely designed for those who can see and hear. Course structures, too, can be gruelling, with litle ‘slack space’ in the timetable for those who struggle to keep up to speed. Indeed, higher education as a whole
has traditionally been seen as something of a deliberately testing ‘rite of passage’ obstacle course, designed to identify and reward the most able. Trying to disentangle intellectual
prowess from physical abilities is not something to which most university senates devoted much thought before the Warnock Report. It was Baroness Warnock’s ground-
breaking 1974-78 study on special education that first coined the term SEN, with its recommendations for ‘statementing’ for special support for a significant group of children and young people who needed something different from or in addition to the education offered to their peers. While confined to primary and
secondary schooling, the Warnock Report was a wake-up call for education as a whole since, by implication; anything needed in any part of the education structure must be applicable across the whole spectrum.
What is SEN? SEN students are normally defined as those with physical disabilities (blindness, paralysis, etc.), specific learning difficulties, like dyslexia, or chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis (MS). Most universities have policies that
such students should be selected for courses on purely academic criteria, regardless of physical or medical needs. Once at university, of course, maintaining
a level playing field becomes more difficult and the University of Southampton, for example, while welcoming SEN applicants also cautions them: “If you have a disability, sensory
impairment or a chronic medical condition, including a mental health difficulty, you should make sure that the facilities and support offered at Southampton will suit you before making an application.”
TOP: Baroness Warnock coined the term SEN in a 1970s study
Most modern campuses long ago
became compliant with universal access requirements for wheelchair users, along with provision of disabled parking, toilets and other facilities. Even a ‘traditional’ institution, like
Keble at Oxford, says most of its college buildings, including the Porters’ Lodge, the library, bar, common rooms and chapel are accessible to wheelchair users, either via flat access or removable ramp, with wheelchair access to the dining hall. Keble reserves a number of ground-floor study-bedrooms plus one study-bedroom with purpose-built, en suite facilities,
for physically disabled students, with provision for a carer to be accommodated nearby with direct phone link.
The statement model Over the years, there has been increasing unease with the ‘Warnock Model’ of statementing for SEN support. Part of the debate has been about the
terminology and whether SEN students need special schools or should be included in mainstream setings. “What has not altered is that these
children and young people are still experiencing difficulties accessing an
LEFT: The Dining Hall at Keble, Oxford. RIGHT: Sean Stockdale (left).
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