Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
49. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if his Department will commission an audit of buildings and teaching practices in third-level institutions to determine the accommodations that must be made for students with a disability. [5972/22]
View answerI ask the Minister whether his Department will commission an audit of buildings and teaching practices in third-level institutions to determine the accommodations that can, and must, be made to enable greater access to students with disabilities.
I thank the Deputy for the question, which is very timely. I have some positive news and perhaps we can build on it. Inclusion is a core goal for my Department, for the House and for Members on all sides of this House. It is about ensuring that there is access and equity of access for all students of both further and higher education. It is most likely that we will publish a new national access and inclusion plan with a budget of €5 million to deliver on measures in 2022 in March.
While higher education institutions, HEIs, are autonomous, the approach of my Department has been to offer a range of supports that enable them to meet national objectives, including those relating to inclusion and supports for people with disabilities. Last year, for example, we provided €5.8 million in funding for initiatives in 24 HEIs aimed at supporting students with disabilities to access and engage with higher education. That has delivered a variety of projects, including sensory spaces, training of staff, development of assistive technology, mental health supports, development of wayfinding apps to help students with disabilities navigate their way around campuses, and capital accessibility improvements to campuses. This strategic projects fund was additional to the standard fund for students with disabilities.
As regards the specific question on buildings and estates, I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the Higher Education Authority, HEA, is in the process of finalising what it describes as a detailed space survey of the higher education estate. As part of this survey, HEIs have been asked to indicate the compliance of their buildings with part M of the building regulations, which addresses access for people with disabilities. The survey will be regularly updated and progress on the issue will be monitored and reported going forward. Institutions can address issues of non-compliance - of course, people have to be helped to become compliant - using funding from devolved capital grants, or as part of a broader building upgrade project. In this respect, I am pleased I will this week launch a new phase of capital investment calls that will include an emphasis on alignment with universal design principles and fostering inclusion in all its facets.
The Deputy is onto a very important issue here. The space survey will be a foundation on which we can build.
I am delighted to hear the news hot off the press that a space survey will be carried out by the HEA and that the Minister will launch the new phase of capital investment calls later this week. It is welcome that will include this emphasis on universal design principles. What both I and the Labour Party spokesperson on higher education, Senator Hoey, have been hearing is that many students and potential students who are not even counted in figures kept by universities and colleges on students with disabilities require greater levels of accommodation and support. It is thought that as many as 20% of students currently in higher education have a disability. That is a sizeable minority of students, not all of whom may have indicated to college authorities that they are in that cohort. There are potential students who would like to go to college but need greater encouragement, facilitation and support to do so. My experience of engagement as a college tutor for many years with the disability office in Trinity College Dublin is that the office is superb but students with disabilities do not want to have to raise concerns about access at every interval. That is why universal design principles are so crucial. They should be accommodated in building design so that students do not have to keep asking. I ask the Minister to elaborate on the capital funding allocations.
I find myself in full agreement with the Deputy. To be honest, one of my concerns in respect of the national access plan, which has achieved a great deal, is exactly what she and Senator Hoey have identified, that is, there are people with disabilities not counted within those figures. I think of students with autism or those with intellectual disabilities or dyslexia. There are others who are not counted. There is more work to be done in respect of students with visual impairments and the likes. I had a very good meeting recently with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, and the Dyslexia Association of Ireland regarding some of the assistive technology they introduced during the pandemic and how they wish to now make that permanent and spread it. I have had very good meetings with, and visits to, the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, which the Deputy knows very well. It is quite an inspiring place.
Alongside the capital plan, she should expect a more comprehensive definition of a student with a disability in the national access and inclusion plan, as she and Senator Hoey are suggesting. If something is not measured, its progress cannot be monitored. Although there has been progress in respect of disabilities, the definition has been too narrow, quite frankly.
I thank the Minister. The NCBI told us recently that lack of access to curriculum and learning materials is one of the main factors preventing students with visual impairments from reaching their potential. Building on the remarks of the Minister, it also reported that the number of students with disabilities in third level is growing, which is very welcome and largely to do with the successful access programmes and disability offices and centres such as the inspirational centre at Trinity College Dublin to which he referred. However, the number of students with sensory disabilities, visual or hearing impairment or severe speech impairment is not growing at the same rate. It is clear the access programmes for students in those particular groups are not having the same effect and that needs to be examined. There are several related issues in respect of facilitation in studying abroad and engaging in work placements, all of which would be of significant support and benefit to any student who is able to participate. Again, of course, those with disabilities may find additional obstacles facing them in taking up places on Erasmus+ programmes, internships or work programmes. I ask that in rolling out programmes on access for students with disabilities, account is taken of these perhaps hidden issues and facets of college life.
I will absolutely take that on board. I present the issue as two separate and distinct but very much interdependent parts, as does her question, in fairness. There is the capital piece, on which I expect we will make further progress through both the existing fund we have in place for students with disabilities and the drawdown of that fund to provide facilities such as sensory rooms that are beginning to roll out. In addition, our capital calls, which can be expected later this week, will involve a focus in the criteria on inclusion, universal design and the likes, that will mean that projects coming forward will begin to rectify this.
The second part of the Deputy's question is even more interesting, perhaps, because alongside the bricks and mortar, it is about things like teaching methods. Many students in general, but particularly students with disabilities, have told me they would like things that became commonplace during the pandemic, such as recorded lectures, to become embedded. Obviously, that requires discussion with staff representative bodies but we want it to happen. I refer to initiatives such as the wayfinding app, where people have been able to use assistive technology. It is very much about the bricks and mortar alongside the use of technology and the teaching methods. We are committed to funding and progressing both but also, crucially, trying to measure in our new plan disabilities that have not been measured in previous national access plans.
