Working Group on Disabled & Special Needs Support Meeting Notes

Notes from the meeting held at the University of Westminster.

Present: Anne Poulson (SOAS) (Chair), David Archer (LSHTM), Tim Cullen (University of Greenwich), Liz Kerr (University of the Arts), Eileen Nazha (Queen Mary), Judith Preece (UEL), Margaret Robinson (Kings) , Colin Smith (University of Surrey), Margaret Smyth (University of Kent), Nikki Trigg (University of Westminster)

Apologies: Jo Knight (British Library), Mark Walton (British Library)

Margaret Smyth (University of Kent) was welcomed to her first meeting of the group, replacing Carole Pickaver. Our thanks to Carole for her work on the Group were expressed, and best wishes for her new post at Kent.

1. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

1. Tim Cullen, Margaret Robinson and David Archer had been welcomed as new members – in fact they were already members, but had sent apologies that they were not able to attend the meeting.
4. It was mistakenly minuted that Anne was working on a paper for CURL to present to SCONUL.

Matters arising: 2.2.  Anne would email CPD25 to arrange possible dates for an Exchange of Experience seminar which would not clash with anything they were doing. Action AP

2. Report on Visit to Bulgaria (AP)

Anne reported on her visit to Bulgaria to speak on disability at a seminar, dealing particularly with visual impairment. The seminar had covered buildings assessment and equipment in higher education. There had been a display of equipment, including JAWS, and a tour of the university to demonstrate their facilities. This was part of a project, which will end in March, when a union catalogue, similar to Revealweb will have been set up. Perhaps someone could be invited to come and talk at our Exchange of Experience seminar?

3. Training Events

The Exchange of Experience Seminar would be an annual event, probably in June.  We should email our list of contacts to see if they wanted to be involved. Action EN

Liz and Judith had attended an Assistive Technology conference at Southampton University and found it very useful. Some points that had come out of it were that assistive technology should be embedded in all curricula, and that assistive technology tends to help others as well, e.g. widening participation for English as a second language. We should contact other groups, CLAUD, Open Rose Group etc. to see what they were doing.

4. Website management and content

David Archer volunteered to be our contact with John Gilby on our content in the M25 website.

5. Publicising the WG

The M25 Annual Report had just been published and Anne had written an item on the work of the Group. The M25 Consortium had instituted an e-bulletin to members, and Anne had written about training sessions. She would  also write a report on her Bulgaria trip. M25 Website – we should make sure that information on the Group is up to date. Action DA

Access policies in M25 institutions – there should be a disability policy template. No other M25 group was working on this, and it was particularly a contentious issue with regard to “enhanced?? services to external users who were disabled, e.g. longer loans, more renewals etc. Identification of external users who might need help was also an issue when it came to evacuation in case of fire alarms. Liz volunteered to work on this with others from the group. Action LK and ??