Introduction
Disabled Students UK’s 2024 Access Insights Report summarises survey findings on disabled students’ experiences of accessibility in UK higher education, including the planning and delivery of reasonable adjustments. It reports areas where students perceive improvement as well as issues that continue to be reported across the sector. It aims to support year-on-year tracking, and to prompt practical changes in how institutions design and deliver access. In Equality Act terms, reasonable adjustments are intended to prevent disabled students being placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled students. For completeness, the duty arises where a student meets the statutory definition of disability (Equality Act 2010, s.6).
The research
The report draws on the Annual Disabled Student Survey (ADSS), with 1,200+ disabled student respondents across 80+ institutions. It compares 2024 results with a 2023 baseline and uses a framework with targets running to 2033 to support longitudinal tracking. The framework covers both day-to-day experience (teaching, assessment, culture and support) and the underlying systems that shape whether adjustments are implemented consistently.
Key findings
The report indicates that a minority of respondents agreed that accessibility is built in anticipatorily (before students need to request adjustments). It reports that 31% agreed their institution builds accessibility in this way. It also discusses how institutional processes can affect the number of steps a student must take to disclose needs, evidence those needs, and follow up when agreed support is delayed.
Assessment accessibility is a prominent theme. The report states that 48% of respondents believed they received a lower mark because an assessment was inaccessible. It also reports that 73% said they had no option of alternative forms of assessment. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of assessment design, and of clear processes for identifying when standard approaches do not work for some students.
The report also includes findings on practical and policy-related barriers. It reports that 46% of respondents living in student housing who had housing access needs said they paid extra for housing that met those needs. It also reports that 43% said disability-related absences were counted towards attendance figures. These issues are presented as factors that can affect participation and progression even where academic support is in place.
Finally, the report describes a gap between agreed support and delivery. While 77% of respondents reported having a support plan or list of adjustments, 39% reported receiving all agreed adjustments. It also reports that 62% said they went without adjustments because the time and effort required to chase them was too high.
Practical implications
Overall, the report presents accessibility as depending on two practical things: designing courses and systems to be accessible from the outset, and delivering agreed adjustments consistently in practice. It prompts an operational question for institutions: does the adjustments process work reliably from start to finish, or does it leave students having to repeatedly chase, explain and follow up to get support that has already been agreed?
Source: Disabled Students UK, 2024 Access Insights Report (ADSS): https://disabledstudents.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Access-Insights-Report.pdf
This is a neutral summary of the report.
Sean Kennedy
#Disability #DisabilityInclusion #HigherEducation #University #DisabledStudents #ReasonableAdjustments #Accessibility
