Do further education disability departments receive Autism training?

There are some colleges with staff who are knowledgeable about Asperger syndrome and are able to provide help and support to students. I think universities are behind the curve and are also hindered by ingrained academic cultural practices. Some university lecturers are reluctant to change their styles of teaching to accommodate SEN because doing so is anathema to a traditional academic.

My own experience from college is that students with AS benefit more if they understand the system and exam technique. Traditionally SEN support has overwhelmingly focused on the subject studied. Many students with AS are alleged to throw away much of their potential because they lack knowledge of how the system works and have poor exam technique despite possessing strong knowledge in the subject they are studying. 

A subscript to this is the wider lack of public understanding of what disability means. In theory the DDA was supposed to get this across.

Although rather unconnected with autism the red pull cord alarm in toilets is a good illustration of what tends to happen.

The principal is that the chord hangs down to the floor, so that if a disabled person falls on the floor they can reach the pull chord to raise the alarm.

However the pull chords are seen as a nuisance, especially by cleaners, so they get looped up so they are well above the floor, and therefore out of reach of someone who has fallen on the floor.

I used to check all the toilets where I worked to spot and rectify situations where the chord was no longer within reach. I've even found this is a regular problem in hospital toilets.

Some hospitals have introduced a plastic strip instead of a chord to prevent them being shortened.

There hasn't really been that much progress in public understanding of disabled needs.

Largely there is a problem of lost momentum. When the implications of the Disability Discrimination Act first hit universities and colleges, there was panic. If we don't get this right we could be prosecuted or sued, and worse....we could drop down the league tables!

The trouble is very little has happened to institutions that failed to make provision. So we are currently in a new phase where institutions are prepared to gamble a bit (sometimes a lot) that their insurance can cover any prosecutions, in the unlikely event. So provision has been slackening off, and one of the victims, because it is difficult to understand the needs, has been autism.

Institutions that were slow at implementing the DDA have been particularly quick to go into reverse.

The provisions have also been damaged by the confidentiality rules. Institutions were more worried about legal action against them for breach of confidence, and that still holds sway. So staff were informed of a student disability on a strict need to know basis. That often meant staff who really ought to know weren't included in the information,. So a student would believe he/she had told the university they were on the autistic spectrum would then find key staff knew nothing about it.

Worst hit often are the lecturers and tutors. There is a prevalent theory that all you need to do for disabled students is "level the playing field" - hence providing measures supposed to compensate for difference - coloured paper handouts, verdana type face (to avoid serifs even though some people with dyslexia need the serifs), extra time in exams. It was then argued that as the students were now on a par with their peers, the teaching staff didn't have a need to know about them.

Another widespread anomally is that if a student is being taught across several subject areas, only the staff in the principal study area are told; the other subject teachers apparently not having a need to know.

All I can say is that most places are doing a good job supporting disabled students. But the mechanism for dealing with defaulters has largely disappeared. As I say, good subject matter for a NAS awareness campaign

longman said:

So it doesn't surprise me that you've encountered someone whose only insight is what her Dad's like. Fact is many institutions have failed to take it seriously. They just provide note takers, extra time in exams, coloured paper handouts....supposedly to create a level playing field.

They won't give me a note taker or coloured handouts. They claim it's an issue of cost and not needing a note taker. I've been to two different unis and a different college. (which I can't attend any more because of distance) I got a note taker everytime with no problem. Yes, I had to ask at the first uni; but they were happy to provide one with no fuss. And that was way before my Autism diagnosis.

Not sure what I'm meant to do about note taking - I can't listen and write at the same time. I can only either write or listen. Not both. They have told me to use my dictaphone; but I need my notes in written form. And it's no good if I'm in class and ahve to refer to my notes.

"longman"

Is that an unfinished post or a statement of dissaproval or disbelief?

It might sound incredible but there really are some daft goings on out there.

That does seem rather a bad experience. There should be a body of knowledge in most FE and HE institutions by now. Having been involved in disability support at academic level in HE for about a decade, I helped, or supported colleagues to help a number of students on the spectrum. They were all very different from one another. The big problem is getting good support material on supporting students on the spectrum.

When I started doing this about 2001 there was only one guide available within my discipline, written by a new university which had had ONE AS student, and they centred their entire guide around him. You would hope things have moved on.

There are a number of problems with training. In many institutions support staff do not get training in disability needs unless they pay for it/find time to attend in their own time. Courses are often provided for teaching staff, but they often cannot get away because if they are not teaching they are stuck in meetings.

Courses are seldom in house but bought in, which is costly. Such sessions too often are discussion based (you sit around in fours discussing what you don't know, and then the facilitator demonstrates he/she knows nothing either).

So it doesn't surprise me that you've encountered someone whose only insight is what her Dad's like. Fact is many institutions have failed to take it seriously. They just provide note takers, extra time in exams, coloured paper handouts....supposedly to create a level playing field.

That said, there are many institutions that are doing it right. Trouble is you usually have to go to your local FE establishment and if its a naff one you're stuck. Or increasingly its a subsidiary after a take-over and the main disabity support staff are on the other campus in another town.

NAS this might be one for a fresh campaign?