I got confirmation from the disability advisor for the performance course that she is available to be interview on Monday 8th January. To get the most data out of the interview I need to think about my questioning. I do not want to have leading questions but there is particular information I need. Unfortunately, I have not been able to access any one to one disability support myself due to being too busy with work, and its been a while since I was able to speak with an ARP tutor to talk this over with. Thankfully my colleague who is a dissertation tutor looked over my questions and agreed that they were suitable to ask. They are the following.
- At what stage do students usually approach you in regards to ISA’s or adjustments?
2. Is it common during open days to be approached by students with physical disabilities or mobility impairments?
3. How important do you think it is having accessible equipment, furniture and machines already in place during open days for potential students to apply?
4. If a student with physical disabilities or mobility impairment are unaware of potential barriers that may be in place on a practical course, say for example sewing machines they may not have seen before, what is the process of discussing this or discovering these barriers?
5. If they were to start the course and they think that, OK, I’m happy with the equipment there is because it feels like it’s going to be accessible equipment to me. But then say three or four weeks down the line they then discover that there are more barriers. Is there like another opportunity to come to you to discuss those with you?
6. Is there a timeline for courses to get equipment adjustments in place?
7. Is there funding available for courses to make specific adjustments and what is the process of accessing that?
8. Are there any common barriers that get discussed with you in terms of equipment and machines for students with physical disabilities?
9. Is there anything you think is important to add?
I plan to use Microsoft word dictate and my phone recording devise as a back up. As I have dyslexia, transcribing will be too time consuming and challenging. By using the dictate function to type for me, I can cross reference with the audio recording if there are any errors.