Lots of interesting equality and diversity news from last week – disability discrimination case ruling says no sliding scale for determining ‘substantial’ effect of impairment, new Centre for Research in Race and Education launched at Birmingham University, and how a lecturer decided to embrace her partial blindness and take it to the classroom to her students.
An interesting case of disability discrimination came to our attention last week. A station assistant, Aderemi, was dismissed on capability grounds because his back pain prevented him from standing for long periods of time. Aderemi brought a disability discrimination claim reasoning that his condition had a substantial adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The claim was upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The EAT made two important points – one, that in assessing such cases, the employer should look at what the claimant cannot do, rather than what they can do, and two, that there is no sliding scale to judge ‘substantial’ effect of an impairment, that is, unless a matter can be classified as ‘trivial’, it must be taken to be ‘substantial’. Read more about Aderemi vs London and South Eastern Railway.
It is widely known that black students are less likely than white students to get top degrees at universities. Data released by the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) for 2011-12 shows only 6% of black British students secured a first class honours degree as compared to 19% of white British students. This has been the motivation behind setting up the Centre for Research in Race and Education at Birmingham University. Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, launched the centre last week. Professor David Gillborn, director of the new centre, said: “There is a widespread assumption that racism is no longer an issue in education but across the board…there remain significant ethnic inequalities.”
There was a brilliant article in the Guardian about how a lecturer decided to make her partial blindness an integral part of her teaching and research. As Hannah Thompson took steps to embrace her partial blindness, she also started thinking about alternative strategies for engaging with her students. She asked her students to shout out questions and comments rather than raise their hands. Though at first reluctant, her students have become more confident about this interactive way of learning. Hannah also started bringing issues of disability and representation to her literature class. As she puts it, “For most students, the only exposure they have to disability at university is when it is addressed as a pastoral or educational support issue. But by bringing it into the classroom through both teaching style and course content, students become much more knowledgeable about and accepting of disability.”
Came across something interesting? Let us know – Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.
