Course on Disability Awareness and Sensitivity for Academic Staff

Under the AHEAD Project- Faculty of Arts courses on Disability Awareness and Sensitivity for Academic and Non-Academic Staff were introduced from 6th and 8th October 2020 in collaboration with the Staff Development Centre of the University of Colombo. For the initial round 25 academic members from the Faculty of Arts and 25 non-academic staff members attached to the Faculty of Arts were selected to follow the courses. Each course will run for 18 weeks. Those who complete the course successfully engaging with the assessments and securing 80 percent participation will be awarded a certificate signed by the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the University of Colombo.

The course for academics 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.

Both courses will be offered once more under the AHEAD Project after which the Centre for Disability Research, Education, and Practice (CEDREP) of the Faculty of Arts will take over the management of the course. It is hoped in the future to open the courses to all academic and non-academic staff in the University system.