Search results for ‘Subject term:"physical disabilities"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 1 of 1
Barriers to training for disabled social work students
- Authors:
- BARON Steve, PHILLIPS Rena, STALKER Kirsten
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 11(3), September 1996, pp.361-377.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Disabled people wishing to enter Higher Education are confronted with a number of barriers, yet relatively little research has been carried out to identify the level and nature of such obstacles. The short study reported here was designed to examine policy and practice within a number of social work training institutions in Scotland. Interviews were held with disabled students and ex-students, course tutors and practice teachers. Barriers to training are identified in five main area: first, the disabling physical environment; secondly, problems of typification (whereby global assumptions of impairment are made about individuals); thirdly, failure of equal opportunities policies; fourthly, the practice of treating all students in the same way, resulting in discrimination against a few; and, finally, self-censorship on the part of students. It is argued that the reluctance of some students to 'declare' an impairment is a rational response to the disabling policies pursued, albeit inadvertently, by institutions. The implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.