Dina was born with congenital abnormalities of her hands and her legs. This resulted in below knee amputations on both legs when she was around one year old. She uses prosthetic legs and is fully independent over reasonable distances, however the prosthetic breaks fairly frequently and, whilst she waits for the delivery of a new one, she sometimes has to use a wheelchair. Dina has worked full time in the local Tax Office for the last six years. She loves the theatre, has a great voice, and has enrolled on an acting course run by the local college in the evenings. Dina was very excited at the thought of the course but was concerned that, in raising difficulties and/or asking for additional support, she might potentially be viewed as a difficult student so didn’t arrange to speak with anyone about her particular needs.   

As the course progressed she became increasingly disappointed that she couldn’t engage in the way she had anticipated. Eventually, she plucked up courage to approach her instructor and told him: 

“I knew the course was practical but I hadn’t realised how physical it would be.  I mean, at the start literally everyone was just running around, which I obviously couldn’t do, and so I ended up staying by myself, away from the group… I always ended up sitting on the sidelines but you didn’t seem to notice. The other thing I feel quite angry about is the fact that when you organised the field-trip to an open-air theatre you hadn’t checked out that it was accessible – that just made it seem like you just don’t care whether or not I participate in the course. I have paid my money for the course and I think I am entitled to access all of the activities just like anyone else.”

The instructor was horrified about the complaint and very apologetic that he hadn’t been more proactive about ensuring Dina’s inclusion in the group. He hadn’t worked with disabled people before and had felt embarrassed and uncomfortable about his lack of knowledge about how to approach things. He had, in fact, noticed that Dina was socially excluded by many of the activities that he frequently used, but didn’t think it was appropriate to draw attention to her. He confessed that he just hadn’t thought about accessibility issues and field trips as they’d been using that particular open air theatre for the last five years of the course.

The instructor apologised to Dina and sought out some advice from a more experienced colleague. They advised him to make use of the Disability Etiquette guide on the web (make this a clickable link) and to take advantage of the other imminent staff development opportunity offered by the college on how to make teaching more inclusive and accessible. 

Armed with new found confidence and understanding, the instructor arranged to meet with Dina in order to discuss the ways in which she could be included as fully as possible in all the learning opportunities. As the course progressed, he still made some mistakes from time to time, but he and Dina had achieved the kind of relationship where she could just remind him of what her needs were; matters were usually easily resolved and the instructor continued to learn about inclusive learning and teaching.

Two people with the same disability can experience different effects. Furthermore, the effects of one disability can be similar to the effects of another (for example, deaf learners and learners who have autistic spectrum disorders may both experience difficulties in using abstract language).