Promoting Inclusive Laboratory Teaching Spaces through a Managing Risk Assessment for Impaired Laboratory Users (MaRILU) Toolkit

Professor Charlotte Chatto, PT, PhD.

Higher Education Institutions worldwide are expected to cater for every student’s needs by embracing inclusive teaching and learning practices including the designing of inclusive learning environments. In the UK, the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), Part 4 of the Special Education Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) (2001) and the Equality Act (2010) have required Universities to make Reasonable Adjustments for disabled students and remove discriminatory practices and procedures. Many institutions have introduced some form of student support plans. The University of Bradford introduced Learner Support Profiles (LSPs) to ensure reasonable adjustments and later inclusive practices that would not only benefit disabled students but all students.

The number of students with disabilities in HE has steadily increased over the past five years and accounts for around 31% of the student population (Williams et al., 2019). Research has shown that there is a greater likelihood that students with disabilities will drop out of University early compared to their non-disabled peers if they are not appropriately supported (Morina, 2017). There is also a disability awarding gap for first class and 2:1 degrees achieved by disabled students. It has been reported that STEM first degree qualifiers with a known disability achieved a lower percentage of ‘good honours’ (Egambaram et al., 2022). This underscores the need to explore ways of promoting inclusivity in our teaching and learning practices.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on making reasonable adjustments for disabled students to teaching and assessment strategies in the non-laboratory settings. Reasonable adjustments should focus on inclusive teaching practices that promote equality and diversity in all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment (Bunbury, 2020). Biomedical Science and related courses involve a lot of practical laboratory work, and students with certain disabilities struggle with this, therefore specialized support is necessary in the laboratory setting (Boval and Kennedy, 2018). There are increasing numbers of students joining University of Bradford courses that have increasing complex needs that find laboratory work particularly challenging and require specific adjustments in the laboratory environment.

We have recently designed and developed a managing risk assessment process for disabled/impaired laboratory users (MaRILU), where reasonable adjustments in the laboratory setting can be accommodated. The need for the MaRILU assessment will be identified during the LSP implementation process for student’s with long-term impairments. Student’s that have temporary impairments can self-refer themselves. This new approach is student-centred as it places the student’s personal lived experience, wisdom and expertise of their own impairment whether permanent or temporary at the heart of the process. We aim to empower students by asking them to complete an online questionnaire which is then translated through a risk assessment process into a formal risk assessment. The recommended adjustments are not only on accessibility, they exemplify good practices in health and safety and good working practices.

Having uniform guidelines and a system for capturing and carrying out risk assessments and implementing reasonable adjustments in laboratory classes, where the information can be securely stored and readily accessed by teaching and technical staff.  This will ensure the delivery of an inclusive curriculum and improve the learning experience of students with disabilities by providing a more supportive framework to enable them to reach their full potential as well as the delivery of high quality teaching. This student centred process places the student at the heart of the activity and embraces inclusivity and diversity and empower students to work in an improved ‘social model’ of disability (Oliver, 2013). This model centres on attitudes in order to change staff perceptions of disabled students and provide practical solutions for disabled students so they can achieve their full potential (Bunbury, 2020).

It is therefore necessary that we listen and learn from the experiences of disabled students and staff to transform resources and environments (Egambaram et al., 2022). Institutions need to harness the wisdom of lived experiences by ensuring diverse voices are involved in strategic planning and inclusive student partnerships need to be encouraged. To achieve this students and staff need to be the drivers in changing the culture of accessibility and inclusion.

Boval, J. & Kennedy, S. (2018). Laboratory Safety for All: Accommodating Students with Disabilities in Chemistry Teaching Laboratories. Accessibility in the Laboratory. ACS Publications.

Bunbury, S. (2020). Disability in higher education–do reasonable adjustments contribute to an inclusive curriculum? International Journal of Inclusive Education,24, 964-979.

Egambaram, O., Hilton, K., Leigh, J., Richardson, R., Sarju, J., Slater, A. & Turner, B. (2022). The Future of Laboratory Chemistry Learning and Teaching Must be Accessible. Journal of Chemical Education.

Morina, A. (2017). Inclusive education in higher education: challenges and opportunities. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 32, 3-17.

Oliver, M. (2013). The social model of disability: Thirty years on. Disability & society, 28, 1024-1026.

Sansom, R. & Walker, J.P. (2019). Investing in laboratory courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 97, 308-309.

Williams, M., Pollard, E., Takala, H. & Houghton, A.-M. (2019). Review of support for disabled students in higher education in England: report to the Office for Students by the Institute for Employment Studies and Researching Equity, Access and Participation.

Posted by ITLSIG Member, Dr Sobia Kauser.Posted byITLSIG13th Jan 2023Posted inUncategorizedLeave a commenton Promoting Inclusive Laboratory Teaching Spaces through a Managing Risk Assessment for Impaired Laboratory Users (MaRILU) Toolkit