Perspectives on diversity and equalities in Adult Education

Last week was the second session of the course and I was very glad that we were joined by two new classmates, adding a lot to the diversity of perspectives in the room.

Our tutor, Tudur, addresses the Award in Education & Training class

In week 1 we had been asked "what does it mean to treat someone equally?" - the answer being to treat everyone differently according to their individual needs, rather than treating everyone the same (what I call a minimal or anaemic definition of equality). This lead nicely onto the second session, which focused on legislation that impacts upon the post-16 education sector, particularly Health & Safety, codes of conduct and Equalities legislation.

The first task we were given was on risk assessment. We split into two groups and Glyn (a trade union activist of long standing - I choose my allies well!) and I worked together to complete a Health & Safety check list for the classroom environment. We went down the list identifying and taking action to mitigate the issues that we found in and around the Conference Cube (the perennial problem of trailing power cables and an uncovered floor power point being the two most pressing, both mitigated by making everyone aware of the risk).

The Health & Safety Executive's classroom checklist

It's certainly a good discipline to get into as it forces you to think critically about the environment within which you teach.  Not only "is it safe to teach here?", but also wider issues such as "is it comfortable in here?", "is the venue it accessible to all?" and "can everyone see the screen without getting a cricked neck?". And I came to understand more clearly that, as Tudur pointed out, there are some risks that you cannot control; the biggest risk for us in attending our course on these dark Autumn evenings is the drive or cycle to and from the venue, which isn't something that he as a tutor or WEA Cymru as a provider can do very much about short of providing us with clear directions. This brought to mind the futility of corporate ICT systems managers (sometimes with the full support of trade union reps) blocking access to useful online tools in the workplace in order to eliminate the risk of staff misuse.

Tudur then lead the discussion onto the history and current operation of equal opportunities legislation in the UK. As something of a constitutional scholar and because I'd been on a fantastic training course with the Equalities and Human Right Commission (EHRC) who oversee compliance with equalities legislation, I was able to contribute significantly to the section on the Equalities Act 2010 and outline some of the differences between it and the Acts it superseded. The most interesting features of the Act are that it specifies 6 characteristics (gender, age, race, religion and beliefs, sexual orientation and disability) that are given rights protecting them from discrimination, that it requires anyone providing a good or service to comply with the legislation (by making reasonable adjustments) and protection from discrimination extend to those associated with someone with a protected characteristic (to the carers of people living with disabilities, for instance).

We also discussed the interesting idea that reasonable adjustments made by service providers, such improvements in accessibility to buildings made by businesses and public services in the wake of the Equalities Act). This was interesting as we reflected both upon how it took legislation to make people and organisations take action and change their behaviours and how compliance  has had positive effects on people not directly targeted by the Act - the clearest example adjustments made to allow disabled access to buildings helping millions of parents pushing babies in buggies to move around. A win-win-win situation.

The second bit of group work asked us to think beyond the Equalities Act itself to consider how we design and deliver inclusive educational experiences that take account of the equality and diversity of adults. Here are the notes on our discussion, displayed on a Prezi presentation.



The session has made me think a little deeper about the accessibility of the work of the DigiSkills Cymru project that I manage, the resources we produce and the learning opportunities that we deliver. Inclusivity, particularly digital inclusion, are central themes of the project and I'm already trialling the innovative Browse Aloud inclusivity app on our website. But I'd be interested in learning more and continuing to make our project more accessible, and perhaps I should invest in the e-learning course produced by the EHRC,which takes a deeper looks at web inclusivity.

And, building on the theme of design that also underpins much of my everyday work, I'm also very interested in the concept of Human Centred Design and it's application in education. On first viewing,  by adopting these processes, addressing matters of equality and diversity will become integral to everything we do. Today I have a meeting to discuss proposals for a new workplace Digital Learning Hub with a 3rd sector social care agency dedicated to supporting people who live with learning disabilities. The space needs to work for both the staff and the people supported by the agency, so issues of equality, diversity, inclusiveness and accessibility will be front and centre of our design process.