actual or potential student?
5.20 Although education providers have a duty to think ahead and to anticipate what reasonable
adjustments may be needed for disabled people in general (see paragraphs 5.9 to 5.14), an education provider will only discriminate against an
individual disabled person in respect of a failure to make reasonable adjustments if:
■ it knows, or could reasonably be expected to
know, that the person has a disability and is likely to be placed at a substantial
disadvantage, and
■ the failure to make the adjustment was
attributable to that lack of knowledge.
The education provider must, however, do all it can reasonably be expected to do to find out whether this is the case. The action that it is appropriate to take to find out about a person’s disability may differ between different types of
s 28S(3)
provision. The government has issued guidance on the reasonable action an education provider should take to find out about people’s disabilities (see Appendix C). If an education provider can show that it did not know, and could not
reasonably have been expected to know that the person was disabled, it can defend the failure to make reasonable adjustments for that individual person.
5.21 An education provider should be proactive in encouraging people to disclose a disability. This might involve:
■ asking applicants to courses to declare their
disabilities on application and enrolment forms
■ publicising the provision that is made for
disabled people, or providing opportunities for students to tell tutors/teachers or other staff in confidence
■ asking students once they are on the course
whether they need any specific arrangements because of a disability
■ explaining to students the benefit of
disclosure and how this information will be kept confidential
■ ensuring that the atmosphere and culture at
the institution or service is open and
welcoming so that disabled people feel safe to disclose a disability.
A university ensures that all students who
declare a disability on their application form are given the opportunity to discuss their reasonable
should approach if their requirements change or they experience any difficulties relating to their disability that may cause them to be at a
substantial disadvantage.
5.22 The duty to take steps to find out about people’s disabilities and potential substantial disadvantage applies equally to a disabled person who is an actual or potential applicant for a course or
qualification conferred by the education provider. 5.23 If the education provider might reasonably have
been expected to know or find out about a person’s disability, then it cannot defend the failure to make reasonable adjustments on the grounds that it did not know that the person was disabled.
5.24 If an education provider’s agent or employee (such as a student adviser, or an admissions officer) knows, in that capacity, of a person’s disability, the education provider will not usually be able to
claim that it does not know of the disability, and that it therefore has no duty to make a reasonable adjustment. Education providers therefore need to ensure that where information about disabled people may come through different channels, there is a means which is suitably confidential for bringing the information together, to make it
easier for the education provider to fulfil its duties under the Act. All staff should be aware of the action they should take if they become aware that a student or applicant is disabled.
A student at a large university tells a university librarian that she has a disability. The
university’s teaching and learning arrangements
put the student at a substantial disadvantage because of the effects of her disability and the student claims that a reasonable adjustment should have been made. It would not be a defence for the higher education institution to claim that it did not know of her disability. This is because the librarian’s knowledge means that the education provider’s duty under the Act applies.
A student declares that he is disabled on his application form for his part-time college course and notes that due to his hospital appointments, he may not be able to attend all elements of the course. Although the admissions office knows that the student might have a disability under the Act, it does not pass this information on to the tutors who teach the course. The college cannot claim that it did not know about the disability and so is likely to be acting unlawfully if it fails to make a reasonable adjustment.
5.25 Information will not be imputed to the education provider if it is gained by a person providing services to students independently of the
education provider. This is the case even if the education provider has arranged for those services to be provided.
An education provider arranges for students to be allowed to use a local information, advice and guidance service in addition to its own in-house service. The agreement states that the local service is not acting on behalf of the education provider in allowing students to use the service.
of the service would not be passed on to the education provider. Therefore the education provider would not have breached the duty to make reasonable adjustments if the student had told the local service but not the education
provider that he was disabled.