Higher Education and the Experiences of Students with a Diagnosis of Dyslexia

Sheila Riddell,

Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity,

University of Edinburgh

www.creid.ed.ac.uk

Central questions

What progress has been made by students with dyslexia in accessing higher education?

What are the experiences of students with dyslexia in higher education and how do they fare in the labour market?

What are the future challenges for students with dyslexia in higher education?

Proportion of disabled students in higher education has almost trebled since 1994– now c.9% of total UG population in receipt of DSA

Number and % of disabled students in higher education

Year Number of students (in brackets FT)

Number of disabled students Percentage

1994 - 95 323011 (273586) 11162 (9719) 3.5%

2004-05 379150 (320865) 26085 (22890) 7%

Policy drivers

Campaigns by individual disabled people & Skill (now defunct)

Funding Mechanisms - Disabled Students Allowance & Premium Funding

Extension of DDA to education in 2001

Public sector duty to promote disability equality

Quality agenda

Students with dyslexia make up majority of disabled student population

Type of disability

1994-95 2004/05

Dyslexia 15% 50%

Blind/partially sighted 4% 2.4%

Deaf/hard of hearing 6% 4%

Wheelchair/mobility difficulties

6% 2.8%

Personal care support 0.1% 0.1%

Mental health difficulties

2% 4.6%

Unseen disability 53% 17%

Multiple disabilities 5% 7.5%

Other disability 10% 10.5%

Autistic spectrum disorder

- 0.7%

– fall in proportion with physical/sensory impairments & increase in dyslexia

Over recent years, further growth in dyslexic students as % of disabled student population (currently 56%)

Number of undergraduate first year students with Specific Learning Difficulty, 2010-2011 Full-time Specific learning

difficulty Total known to have a

disability Total number of

students Female 11,410 21,290 233,540 Male 10,655 18,210 189,405 Total FT 22,065 39,505 422,950 Part-time 3,420 13,070 182,585 Female 1,950 7,540 99,850 Male 5,370 20605 282,440 Total 27,435 60,110 705,385 Full-time first year undergraduate students with a specific learning difficulty as a percentage of those known to have a disability and total student population, by gender, 2010-2011 % of those known to have a disability % of total UG population Female 53.6 4.9 Male 58.5 5.6 Total FT 55.9 5.2

Pupils from poorer backgrounds much less likely to go to university- 80% of students at pre-92 universities from middle class backgrounds; 19% from working class backgrounds – similar pattern for disabled and

non-disabled students Source: Riddell et al 2005

First year, full-time, UK domiciled undergraduates (Scotland and England) by disability, social class and type of institution, 2001

Pre92Post92 Non-university HEIs

N No known

disability67713

Known disability

2816

All70529

No known disability

40691

Known disability

2273

All42964

No known disability

15850

Known disability

1046

All1689

6

Professional 21 22 21 11 13 11 10 13 11

Managerial, Technical

47 48 47 41 41 41 43 47 43

Skilled-non manual 12 12 12 15 15 15 15 15 15

Skilled-manual 12 12 12 20 17 19 19 15 19

Partly skilled 6 6 6 11 11 11 10 9 10

Unskilled 1 1 1 3 3 3 2 2 2

But pupils from poorer backgrounds much more likely to be identified as having additional support needs/SEN

Percentage of pupils with ASN by deprivation category

0

2

4

6

8

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10SIMD decile

% w

ith

AS

N

Figures include pupils recorded as having RoN, CSP and/or IEP in Scotland, 2008.1= least deprived area, 10 = most deprived area

Pupils living in areas of deprivation are proportionately less likely to have dyslexia identified (c.f. social, emotion and

behavioural difficulties or general learning disability)

Percentage of Scottish school population within each Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile by type of difficulty (percentages in each group in stacked bar).

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Learning disability Dyslexia

Hearing impairment Physical or motor impairment

Autistic spectrum disorder Social, emotional and behavioural difficulty

Source: Scottish Government, 2009; SIMD = Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Category 1 = least deprived, category 10 = most deprived.

Dyslexic students have much greater chance of getting into higher education as a result of widening access

policies – but social inequalities persist

Disabled students now make up 8% of all undergraduates (3.7% in 1995) – represents policy success story.

Majority of disabled students (just under 60%) have diagnosis of dyslexia.

Dyslexic students are more likely to be male and from middle class backgrounds than general student body.

Dyslexic students in HE less likely to come from minority ethnic backgrounds

Issues facing dyslexic students in HE

Managing identity - Being identified as disabled may be useful in terms of accessing support, but may also be stigmatising particularly for students with hidden impairments such as dyslexia:

I don’t like it see when you say that I’m disabled. Disability – I think that sounds so bad. I mean I’m not missing any limbs or anything like that. But I suppose really, when I think about it, it’s so hard every day. You come in, you’re like, ‘Please don’t give me anything to read or write, to read out in front of everybody’. I would just pass out, you know.

I don’t like to draw attention to it, I don’t think the class knows. …I went to get assessed for the computing and he said. ‘There’s time here for some one to come and be a scribe in the class and take notes for you’. But I don’t want that, I don’t want some one taking notes for me. (Megan, 19 year old studying for HNC in Health and Fitness in Scottish College of Further and Higher Education)

Uncertainty amongst lecturers about how to support - and how much support should be

given

You know, if there was an essay from a dyslexic student I tend to try and ignore the kind of structural difficulties and try and see what they are saying and so I tend to mark them on the ideas rather than the actual presentation. But that’s totally improvised, that’s not because of anything.

I feel that in a sense Liam was disadvantaged by his dyslexia but also he was getting all the kind of special attention which I was happy to give. I don’t think it was proportional to the attention I had given to the other students with dyslexia. So I feel quite uneasy about that as well. (Lecturer in English, pre-92 university)

Issues facing dyslexic students in HE

Particular issue for dyslexic students seeking to enter professions.

Low participation rates in vocational courses (e.g. medicine, dentistry, teaching, social work, nursing).

Fitness to practise standards still represent barrier, despite DRC Formal General Investigation into Fitness to Practise Standards in teaching, education and social work

Access to teaching – disabled people make up 2% of Education courses, but around 1% of

teaching profession

Table 2: Number and percentage of disabled and non-disabled teachers on the Teacher Induction Scheme in Scotland, 2002-2006

Year Disabled teachers Non-disabled teachers

2002 12 (0.59%) 2,009 (99.4%)

2003 6 (0.3%) 1,808 (99.7%)

2004 16 (1.2%) 2,018 (98.8%)

2005 24 (0.89%) 2,670 (99.1%)

2006 31 (1.1%) 3,509 (98.9%)

Source: General Teaching Council for Scotland

Dilemmas of disclosure – experiences of trainee teacher with dyslexia

I told my teacher at the end of my first week, beginning of my second, because I had got some major things done and I thought ‘Well, she knows that I am a hard worker …’ and her expression was, I will never forget, her expression was ‘Really!’. And I just said to her ‘Yes, you know I cope’ and stuff and then the next day I went in and she was very close to another teacher in the school, and I felt like I had been discussed, and there was kind of looks being made and things, and then that teacher, from then onwards treated me like a child, and was very, very picky.

Conclusions

Widening access for disabled people into higher education should be seen as success story.

Reflects interaction between Government policy and campaigning by disabled people and voluntary organisations. The demise of Skill is a worrying development.

Extension of disability equality legislation to higher education major influence – but major reducation of EHRC’sbudget and influence.

Conclusions

But still barriers in terms of accessing higher education – dyslexia under-identified amongst pupils in socially deprived areas.

Doubts about future direction of government policy on widening access to higher education – marked decline in applications by mature students.

Discrimination still major factor in labour market, including professions.