Target Group: Academic Staff members
Duration: Notional Hours: 150, Contact Hours: 50 (16 weeks)
Course Description: This course introduces academic staff members to the basic frameworks, models and socio-cultural discourses of disability. It provides opportunities for faculty to re-think their understandings and assumptions of disability through interactive activities and encounters. It acquaints faculty with the basic tenets of disability etiquette, university procedures and protocols in order to create an in inclusive, respectful and enabling teaching and learning environment. The course will be supplemented with a University Disability Handbook. Faculty members will be well acquainted with the content and provisions of the handbook upon course completion. The course equips faculty with the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of diverse individuals including students with varying impairments through practices like Reasonable Accommodation and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It enables faculty to introduce the core principles of equality, equity, dignity, rights and responsibilities to their teaching ethos in order to maximize the participation and engagement of students with disabilities. The course provides faculty with an overview of the disability related services, personnel and programmes available at the university. It will provide a solid understanding of the wider structural and procedural supports available to students with disabilities. Such knowledge would better equip faculty to support students with disabilities and refer them to suitable services if the need arises. Faculty who follow this course may potentially become disability champions at the university by advocating for access, inclusivity and de-stigmatization in the wider university community.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify and analyze different models and socio-cultural frameworks of disability
- Apply disability etiquette and best practices when interacting with students and staff with disabilities
- Understand key legal and normative frameworks of disability
- Actively foster inclusive and diverse environments and practices in all stages of teaching and learning
- Identify key university procedure, personnel, regulations and frameworks concerning disability
- Gain knowledge and skills to support students with disabilities in a proactive and equitable manner
Course Content
| Disability: Fact or Myth |
| Understanding Disability: Models, Concepts and Frameworks |
| Diversity and Inclusion |
| Disability Etiquette |
| ‘Unfair Advantage’? : Disability Simulation and Q&A |
| Mental Health and Wellbeing |
| Equality, Equity and Diversity |
| Disability Rights: Policy and Legal Frameworks |
| Reasonable Accommodation |
| No Pity: Cultivating Enabling Classroom Practices and Environments |
| The role of Personal Assistants and Assistive Technology |
| Universal Design of Learning (UDL) 1: Course design, instruction and assessment |
| Universal Design of Learning (UDL) 2: Standardization of university systems and procedures |
| Rights and Responsibilities of Faculty, Staff and Students |
| Disability Officers: Roles and Functions |
| Ask Me, Don’t Assume: Human Library Session, Experiential Activities |
Methods of Teaching and Learning
- Workshops
- Lectures
- Academic Staff Presentations
- Student Mentoring
- Human Library
- Video Presentations
- Mock Access Audit/ Disability Simulation
- Discussions/ Q&A
Resource Persons
Ms. Niluka Gunewardena
MA, University of Leeds, UK
Course Coordinator
Ms. Dinusha Wickremesekere
MSc, Heriot-Watt University, UK
Lecturer, Royal Institute of Colombo
Ms. Rekha Aththidiye
Clinical Psychologist
MPhil, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dr. Shyamini Hettiarachchi
PhD, City University, UK
Senior Lecturer, Department of Disability Studies, University of Kelaniya
Ms. Lasanthi Daskon
Attorney-at-Law; MA, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Deputy Country Director, The International Foundation for Electoral Systems
Ms. Manique Gunarathne
Manager, Specialised Training & Disability Resource Centre, The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon
Mr. Madushan Lankathilake
BSc, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka
Library representative of the Faculty of Technology & Faculty of Nursing
Mr. Kasun Nayanajith
BA, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka
Temporary Computer Instructor (Special Needs), University of Sri Jayawardenapura