By law – since the Equality Act 2010 came into force – every school must write an Accessibility Plan to make it possible for disabled children and young people to access school facilities and be part of their school community. Until now, there have been no studies to find out if Accessibility Plans are effective in supporting Disabled pupils’ inclusion at school. Only 18% of local authorities contacted provided information about schools’ Accessibility Plans in their area and it’s not clear whether families are even aware of Accessibility Plans at their children’s schools.
The Alliance For Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) has launched a questionnaire which aims to find out how families and education professionals feel about accessibility in English secondary schools. The survey is partly funded by Disability Research on Living And Learning (DRILL).
Dr Armineh Soorenian, a researcher for the organisation, said: “So far we have had really interesting responses coming through. We hope to receive as many viewpoints as possible, so that we can build a bigger picture of people’s diverse experiences of School Accessibility Plans and access issues generally. Finding out about people’s real-life experiences will help us create compelling research findings.”
There are two versions of the survey, one for parents and one for educators and professionals.
The survey will close at the end of February.
