Policy Number:  3.40.6
Contact Officer:  Academic Registrar
Date Approved by Senate:  26/05/2005
Date for Next Review:  26/05/2008

Related Policies:  3.40.7

 POLICY  RESCINDED SENATE 26 JULY 2007

Overview
1.1 The University of Queensland's Equity Plan and Strategic Plan confirms the University's commitment to providing equal opportunity for all students and to promoting inclusion through valuing diversity. In particular, the University has a longstanding commitment to assist students with disabilities. A University of Queensland Disability Action Plan has been developed to guide the University's activities in providing for the needs of students with disabilities. The policy statement, below, articulates the principles on which these activities and related policies are, and will continue to be, based. The principles also conform to the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) Guidelines Relating to Students with Disabilities (December 1996).

Description

The Policy
2.1 To be proactive in providing students with disabilities the opportunity to fully participate in University life and to realise their individual goals and potential by:

1. fostering a teaching and learning environment free from discrimination on the ground of disability;
2. making reasonable accommodations (such as academic adjustments, variations in procedures, and specialised support services) to meet the needs of students with disabilities, while applying one academic standard to all students;
3. providing adequate resources to ensure that appropriate equipment and support services are available to students with disabilities;
4. fostering an environment in which interactions between staff and students are grounded on rights to dignity, privacy, confidentiality, and equitable treatment;
5. integrating the principles of equal opportunity for students with disabilities into the University's wider policies, procedures, decisions and operations;
6. ensuring that students with disabilities have access to equitable and well-publicised grievance resolution procedures

3. Administrative procedures required to implement the policy

1. The goals and actions set out in the Disability Action Plan will be regarded as instruments for continuous improvement. The Plan will be reviewed every twelve months.
2. A dedicated committee that reports to the Vice-Chancellor has been established to oversee the implementation of the Disability Action Plan.
3. Specific procedures, endorsed by Senate, are outlined in:

• The Provision of Alternative Academic Programs for Students with a Disability
• Special Arrangements for Examinations for Students with a Disability