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Last few places available - book now!
Conference places are FREE. The conference should be particularly useful to staff in GEES departments who come into contact with students, including Heads of Departments, course leaders, lecturers, administrative staff, laboratory technicians, librarians and IT personnel, and builds on the excellent-rated national conference in supporting disabled students undertaking fieldwork held by GDN in 2001.
Making reasonable adjustments for disabled students is now a legal requirement and one which will be monitored when the Disability Discrimination Bill come into force in 2006. The Inclusive Curriculum Project seeks to assist all HE staff in GEES and related disciplines who come into contact with students to update their knowledge and understanding of 'best practice' in developing an inclusive curriculum in higher education.
The project is holding a one-day national conference in April at the TechnoCentre in Coventry, bringing together a team of disability experts from the GEES disciplines to discuss and disseminate the latest developments in this field.
The conference programme is downloadable here in pdf (58 Kb) or in Word (30Kb) document formats.
Conference sessions will cover a wide range of topics including an overview of the issues facing the HE sector and a choice of workshops based around 8 individual ICP staff guides which are being produced as part of the project. The series has been designed to offer detailed guidance across a broad range of topics and perspectives on supporting disabled students in GEES disciplines. Five of the guides focus on specific disability areas, including dyslexia and hidden disabilities, mental health difficulties, and visual, hearing and mobility impairments. Three titles cover advice for different user groups - Heads of Department and Course Leaders, Lecturers, and Support Staff. There are two additional guides, - an Overview and a guide aimed specfically at disabled students themselves. The guide authors, who will be leading the workshops, are all project team members who have extensive experience in supporting disabled students in higher education.
In addition to the opening presentations and workshops, there will be plenty of opportunities to raise specific issues, voice more general worries or share your experiences, with an open question and answer session included as part of the plenary session.
The ICP team is delighted to announce that the conference will be chaired by Dr Rita Gardner, Director of the Royal Geographical Society. Guest speakers include Mike Adams, Director of the National Disability Team. Mike has been a member of the NDT since it was established in May 2000 to improve provision for disabled students in higher education, and has extensive experience of managing disability-related change in higher education both between and within institutions. We are also pleased to welcome Mike Wray from the NDT, who will be contributing to the plenary panel. Mike has particular interests in developing and delivering professional development programmes related to disability, including production of online learning modules for teaching staff.
The project's own team of experts includes
University of Gloucestershire: Professor Mick Healey (Project Director);
Dr Jacky Birnie;
Anna Donough;
Dr Phil Gravestock;
Dr Tim Hall;
Dr Margaret Harrison;
Carolyn Roberts
Lancaster University:
Dr Gordon Clark; Rosemary Turner;
Terry Wareham
Liverpool John Moores University:
Naseem Anwar;
Dr Clare Milsom;
Sue Thompson
Middlesex University:
Professor Ifan Shepherd;
Sue Bleasdale
Open University:
Jonathan Leach
Oxford Brookes University:
Professor Alan Jenkins.
A booking form is downloadable here in pdf and Word document formats.
The closing date for receipt of booking forms has been extended to Friday 1 April 2005. Booking forms can also be obtained from the ICP Project Officer, Michele Hills, and can be returned to Michele by email, or faxed to the GDN Office at the University of Gloucestershire on 01242 543368.