reasonable adjustments for disabled children in UK schools
Abstract
The paper seeks to analyze a social group, disabled children, and the area of discrimination that this group faces. The area of discrimination under focus is the failure of learning institutions to make reasonable adjustments to ensure the smooth learning of disabled children. Research identifies that disabled children face various challenges to keep up with other children in school due to the failure of the schools to make reasonable adjustments. The failure of schools amounts to unlawful discrimination. Concerning this discriminatory behavior, the paper applies the Equality Act 2010 and the DD (Disability Discrimination Act) 1995 to identify the possible solutions for these challenges. Moreover, the article looks at two case laws related to the above legislation to support this area of discrimination mentioned above.
Introduction and Background
The social group chosen for this research is the disabled children. The area of discrimination facing this group regards the failure to make reasonable adjustments, especially in school settings. Disabled children face various challenges in learning environments, which puts them at a substantial disadvantage. Therefore, you find that the disabled children tend to lag in terms of educational outcomes compared to other students. For example, a student suffering from “severe manual dexterity difficulty” would find it difficult to copy large amounts of texts from the board using hand. The writing difficulty makes this student much longer to copy texts on the board compared to other students. Therefore, putting such a student in lessons requiring copying large amounts of texts from the board puts him at a substantial disadvantage. The student would fare in classrooms that do not require handwriting. The example highlights the importance of reasonable adjustments in learning instruments. These adjustments are essential in making the learning environment conducive for children. However, analyses suggest that disabled children face substantial discrimination when it comes to making reasonable adjustments to the learning environments.
Relevant Legislation
Research identifies that there exist two major relevant legislations that address reasonable adjustments for disabled children in UK schools. These legislations include the Equality Act 2010 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The Equality Act of 2010 protects disabled children against any form of victimization or discrimination concerning the provision of essential services, such as education (Fraser Butlin 2011: 430). Section 149 of this Act provides that public bodies such as schools and local authorities should eliminate discrimination by implementing the necessary positive actions to promote equality. The Act identifies that schools must make reasonable adjustments to create a learning environment that favors disabled children (Fraser Butlin 2011: 433). Some of these adjustments include providing support assistance to students that use the wheelchair to enable them to move around with ease. For the children suffering from restricted growth syndrome, the school should make reasonable adjustments like providing an extra step to allow the children to reach their desks, especially in critical areas like science labs.
The Equality Act 2010 identifies that reasonable adjustments are aimed at reducing the disadvantage that disabled tend to experience in typical learning environments. Keeffe-Martin (2011: 26) indicates that the Act stresses that the steps that any learning institution should be practicable. In this regard, the Equality Act stresses that reasonable adjustments should address the immediate effects of the child’s disability. For instance, in cases where the children have visual impairments, the school should provide printed in a larger font to enable the student to see the writings easily. For children who have dyslexia (difficulties reading texts in white paper), the school provides the children with yellow paper handouts to enhance their reading (Keeffe-Martin 2011: 28). However, the reality of things on the ground tends to be different. Most of the learning institutions find it difficult and expensive, developing and implementing student-specific learning adjustments.
In most cases, you find that learning institutions make general adjustments to cater to the needs of all disabled children (Porter et al. 2011: 120). For instance, in a class comprising of visually impaired and dyslexia children, the school may decide to provide documents with large fonts as “reasonable adjustments.” The Equality Act indicates that such adjustments amount to discrimination against other disabled children in the class (Porter et al. 2011: 121).
The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) 1995 is another legislation that addresses discrimination relating to reasonable adjustments for disabled children. Section 3 and 4 of the DDA indicate that all the institutions providing child care services, be it educational or non-educational, should “make reasonable adjustments for the disabled children” (Hannon 2000: 29). Besides, the Act provides that treating disabled children “less favorably” amounts to unlawful discrimination. According to the DDA, unfavorable treatment relates to treating disabled children “less favorably” for reasons relating to their disability (Hannon 2000: 32). For example, if a pre-school decides to leave a child with learning difficulties behind as the other children go to a puppet show, it would amount to discrimination relating to the child’s condition. The DDA provides that the pre-school should consider the fundamental approaches to help the child understand the show (Hannon 2000: 33).
According to the DD Act, learning institutions should implement reasonable adjustments for disabled children to help with their learning process (Fredman 2017: 124). For example, if an educational center learns that children with learning impairments are going to be admitted at the center, the center should train its staff on the use of radio aids and increase the illumination of its classes. Another reasonable adjustment would be changing the policies of the school to ensure that they do not discriminate against disabled children (Waterman and Bell 2013). The DDA indicates that the main aim of implementing the adjustments is to ensure that the disabled children in schools are “not at a substantial disadvantage.” However, the modifications do not include making “physical changes to buildings and providing auxiliary services.” According to Section 3 and 4 of this Act, failure to provide reasonable adjustments amounts to discrimination against disabled children based on their disability (Fredman 2017: 126).
Case Law
The Equality law and the DDA have been applied in various court cases to overturn decisions that were deemed to be discriminatory against children with disabilities. The case law of Hoggan v The State of New South Wales provides useful insights into the application of the DDA in discrimination cases involving disabled children (Keeffe and Ghosh 2017: 317). In this case, Mr. Purvis, a complaint on behalf of Daniel Hoggan, complained that the state and Daniel’s school violated the provisions of the DDA by suspending on multiple occasions and eventually excluding him from the school due to his behavior. According to the facts of the case, Daniel suffered brain damage in his early years, which led him to develop epilepsy, intellectual, and visual disabilities (Keeffe and Ghosh 2017: 320). These disabilities caused his behavior to vary from normal. Mr. Purvis argued that it was unlawful and discriminatory for the education authority to expel Daniel and limit his access to student benefits provided by the body. The claimant also argued that it was illegal for the body to subject the student (Daniel) to other detriments such as mental stress arising from expulsion and exclusion from the case. The Court ruled that the education authority pay a fine of $40,000 for suspending and excluding a disabled student (Dickson 2018: 356). The ruling noted that the education authority and the principal had failed to train the teacher on “disability discrimination awareness programs” to enable them to reduce their stereotypes towards and about the student.
The case law of R (S) v LB Camden (2018) shows the application of the Equality Act 2010 to quash ab unlawful discriminatory decision against disabled children (Broach 2020). In this case, the local authority had issued an amended EHC plan, which seemed to disadvantage an autistic seven-year-old boy (S). The father of the boy argued that the amendment of the policy violated the Equality Act, which required the “ABA provision in the plan” (Broach 2020). According to S’s family, the amendment of the plan did not mention ABA in its final proposal, which is essential in protecting the educational needs of disabled autistic children. About the ABA, the parents claimed that the local authority failed to consult them before moving forward with the EHC plan. Besides, the claimant indicated that the regional body was unable to incorporate the changes proposed by the FFT to enhance the ABA program (Varnham and Squelch 2018: 106). The Court ruled in favor of ‘S’ by quashing the decision of the local authority to amend the EHC plan. The Court noted that the body breached its duty to provide special education provisions for disabled children.
Conclusion
Disabled children face discrimination in learning institutions arising from the failure of these institutions to institute reasonable adjustments. This unlawful discrimination puts disabled children at a substantial disadvantage. The above case laws indicate that discrimination presents various adverse effects on disabled children. The Equality Act 2010 and the DDA 1995 come in to eliminate discrimination and ensure that disabled children have learning environments that do not put them at a disadvantage.