Access Department

BY WILL NORRISH & LUCINDA THAI-LE TRAN

The Access Department is the peak representative body for students with disabilities and student carers and disability support workers at UWA, advocating on issues affecting those with lived experiences and providing a community whereby students can grow and support each other.

This year saw a push for increasing disability advocacy and visibility on campus as we began returning to a preCOVID environment. We prioritised understanding current UWA services and policy around mental health, careers opportunities and disability support, aiming to lobby for improving and revising services to ensure financial viability and student engagement. The Carers Collective returned this year, expanding to include disability support workers and focusing on pushing for paid student carers to be eligible for disability services.

In increasing our visibility on campus, we took two different approaches – tackling both internal policy/service changes and implementation as well as increasing events and collaborations.

Our focus on establishing stronger working relationships with relevant University staff saw the Access Department increase our presence on committees and working groups, allowing us to have more opportunity to relay student feedback and have more say in access policy and initiatives. From this, we were able to push for more sufficient HDR postgraduate support, streamlining special consideration and appeals processes and to assist in the introduction of a sensory room in Reid Library and medical waste bins across campus.

Beyond this, working with external collaborators like CarersWA and the Australian Network on Disabilities allowed us to provide free/low costing and accredited training sessions to increase awareness as well as promote career opportunities for access students. These links have been successful in increasing student engagement with the Department as well as making up for lost University support services – particularly in careers and employment.

Given the importance of activism and advocacy for students in higher education, particularly in the face of further cuts to education, the Access Department sought to create policy that would make protests and activist activity accessible to all students, ensuring that students, irrespective of the barriers they faced, could defend their education without feeling uncomfortable or at risk.

Access Week was held in Semester 1 with the aim of initiating positive discourse around students’ lived experiences with disability. From low-barrier wellbeing events like a Burnout Workshop and our regular Mindfulness in Art collaboration with The Living Room, to educational training sessions with Access Plus WA; we ran a number of successful and wellattended events that showcased the diversity within the communities we represent. We also opened up our freshly renovated Access club room which has been well utilised by students.

Semester 2 saw the introduction of ASR transcription across the University after a well-received trial was conducted. Despite the overwhelmingly positive reception from students, we faced adversity from Unit Coordinators opting out of the service – leading to access students and ESL students being severely disadvantaged. We have been active in opposing this, working with staff and other student representatives on proposals and policy providing adequate support for students affected and ensuring the continuation of the service with no further disruption.

With increasing concerns around the exploitation and neglect of people with disabilities, we followed the National Union of Students in creating our own submission to the royal commission. We surveyed students and created interactive art installations to understand their experiences in living with disabilities and accessing tertiary education. The Royal Commission submission and our efforts in defending the ASR transcription service has seen the Access Department be an important centre point for advocating for a better overall student experience and more accessible education. This has affected the ways we present Student Leadership Training and has led to revisions to our guidebooks.

We hope this increased presence and consultation continues to foster important connections and engagement next year. Likewise, our increased collaboration network and events proves that Access is an ever-increasing portfolio which we anticipate will continue to prosper in 2022.