What are Reasonable Adjustments?

Reasonable adjustments exist to level the playing field for disabled students - sometimes literally

Children and young people with disabilities face many barriers to their full and equal participation in education. Recognising this, the Equality Act 2010 ("the Equality Act") requires all schools and colleges (including independent ones) to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled students are not placed at a disadvantage compared with their non-disabled peers. For more information on what constitutes a disability under the Equality Act and on disabilitiy discrimination more generally see this blog post.

The barriers that reasonable adjustments are designed to overcome assume a variety of guises. Some affect a child's physical environment, such as a lack of wheelchair accessibility or the absence of hearing aid loop systems, whilst others impact a child's mental wellbeing, such as rigidity of teaching techniques or the blanket application of uniform or homework policies. Installing ramps and lifts is an obvious way to improve access for students with mobility isuses, but other adjustments are less intuitive. For children with visual impairments, increasing the light of the room, or having learning resources available in other formats such as Braille are examples of reasonable, and inexpensive, adjustments. Similarly, learners with hearing impairments are likely to benefit from increased carpeting of the classrooms, or acoustic tiling.

As well as the physical environment schools, need to be made more accessible for sensory and needs arising from disabilities; particularly hidden disabilitis. Some autistic students for example, may prefer starting class at a different time to their peers, or being pre-taught materials, or being excused from having to wear a tie or a blazer. Whilst there is no legal definition of what constitues a reasonable adjustment, and much will turn on the nature of the adjustment being sought as well as it's cost and the resources of the school/college, all of these are likely to meet the definition. The Equality and Human Rights Commission ("EHRC") has produced helpful (and detailed) guidance for schools on meeting their duties under the Equality Act, which can be found here. Crucially, the duty to make reasonable adjustments is a positive duty, which, unlike most other types of anti discrimination provisions, involves actively treating disabled students differently from non-disabled students.

If your child or young person requires reasonable adjustments to be made for them, SEND Advocacy can provide expert advice and support. If you need someone in your corner to help you secure the education your child or young person needs and is entitled to Contact us today.