Teaching timetable arrangements for disabled students

This page provides information on teaching timetable arrangements for disabled students. Its content is directed at staff and students across all of the UK, China and Malaysia campuses.

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1.0 Purpose

This page provides guidance for students and staff about the University’s commitment to support disabled students, describes the procedure for seeking alternative timetabling arrangements for disabled students and provides links to additional pages about Disability Support Services.

2.0 Purpose

2.1 Global view

The University of Nottingham aims to ensure that disabled people have equal opportunities to benefit from, and contribute to, the learning and services available in higher education institutions.

In the UK the Equality Act 2010 covers all aspects of the physical environment including access to, and facilities in, teaching rooms. The Persons with Disabilities Act Malaysia 2018 aims to ensure all students based at the Malaysia have equal access to educational opportunities. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons 2018 ensures the right to equal access to educational to disabled persons. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Quality Code for Higher Education also makes reference to access to an inclusive environment for learning and aims to ensure that all students have equal access to educational opportunities.

2.2 Overview of the University's commitment

The University is strongly committed to equality of opportunity in its provision for all students, providing ongoing support with the focus being on providing accessible services and supporting students in completing their courses as independently as possible.

As part of this commitment, the University believes that teaching rooms are to be allocated and timetabled with the needs of disabled students in mind, including additional space for wheelchair users and scribes. This includes taking account of physical access to buildings/rooms, the surrounding environment (for example, parking provision) and facilities in the teaching rooms themselves.

3.0 Roles and Responsibilities

Students are responsible to contact Disability Support Services to arrange an assessment.

Schools are responsible to refer any student with a timetabling issue directly to Disability Support Services as a matter of urgency.

Disability Support Services are responsible for assessing the student and liaising with the Timetabling team.

4.0 Procedure for alternative timetable arrangements for disabled students

The procedure for making alternative timetable arrangements for disabled students is as follows:

All students requiring alternative arrangements of any nature must be assessed by Disability Support Services.
School staff must refer any disabled student with a timetabling issue directly to Disability Support Services as a matter of urgency as the further the timetabling build progresses, the more constrained the scheduling is and the more difficult it is to find timetabling solutions.
Disability Support Services will assess student needs and pass recommendations for timetabling arrangements to the Timetabling Office where rooms will be allocated/reallocated accordingly.