Available onlineInclusive education for all 2002-2011
(page 2 of 3)Written by the Students Association Digital Exhibition project team
| Image : | OUSA Disabled Students Group logo |
| Date: | 2022 |
| Image : | Disabled Student Group members Billy Docherty and Cherry Day |
| Date: | 2018 |
The foundation of the Disabled Students Group
The OU Students Association has focused on students with disabilities and strived to empower them to study with The Open University from as early as the 1975 Conference. Here, the Association urged close liaison with national bodies who could advise on different educational needs depending on disability. Those attending Conference wanted to know what support the OU could offer for its courses in terms of the different disabilities of its students.
It was not until much later that the Disabled Students Group (DSG) was born. In the first instance, the forum Disabilities, Opportunities and OutReach, known as DOORway, existed to support students with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Then in 2003, at the OU Students Association Conference, the Disabled Students Group was founded after an overwhelming majority voted to pass a resolution to create a group that would provide a representative body for students with disabilities.
A key difference with the formation of this Group was that it evolved to provide support for students who had both seen and un-seen disabilities. This was important to ensure that the OU provided, and continued to provide, inclusive education for all its students. The formation of the Disabled Students Group ensured that students with disabilities were democratically represented in the Students Association and to ensure this was achieved, the Group was set up to be chaired by students who had disabilities themselves, which really follows its unofficial motto of ‘students supporting students’.
With the creation of the DSG, the Group and committee welcomed more and more students who found themselves needing support with their studies, or those who would value some interaction with students who share their experiences. According to statistics from 2019, The Open University has the largest single population of disabled students in Europe and the DSG helps these students to connect irrespective of geographical location. The DSG achieves this by linking students across a multitude of social platforms and forums ensuring that students feel supported, and have their needs catered for.
