Learning and Teaching Centre

Macquarie Accessibility Services

How the West Was Won
A Successful Partnership in Equity

Helen Makeham has spent the last five years with the Equity Office at Murdoch University, Western Australia. In her role as Disability Liaison Officer, and currently Acting Equity Manager, she looks at assisting students with access needs across all three Murdoch campuses. Each student who uses the service undergoes a fairly individualised programme to assess their needs in relation to their course of study and then a programme of support is structured around them.

Helen Makeham

About twelve months ago Helen received an e-mail from Macquarie University's Centre for Flexible Learning outlining a new service, Macquarie Customised Accessibility Services (M-CAS). The M-CAS philosophy and model of delivery sparked Helen's interest immediately. 'We had been working with a number of visually impaired students at that time,' explains Helen, 'and I thought that M-CAS might be able to alleviate some of the pressure from our staff.' Helen was particularly interested in seeing what M-CAS could offer to the existing package of services her team provided for students, especially in the often vexed area of conversion.

For many students, even very experienced ones, conversion of course materials is the biggest issue they face in pursuing their studies. As well as being able to access an adequate amount of the texts for any course there is the added concern caused by uncertain delivery timelines. It's not unusual for students to be waiting to access set texts many weeks into their chosen study unit.

After contacting Jennifer Bainbridge at M-CAS Helen soon became aware of the value M-CAS was able to add for both staff and students at Murdoch. This manifested mainly in having access to specialised staff with certain technical skills, and M-CAS's networks for providing alternate versions of texts. In an environment where she was hearing more frequently of finite resources and larger classes, Helen found the M-CAS approach very refreshing.

While appreciating that working with M-CAS takes pressure off the Equity team, Helen is very clear about the team's role. 'We are still responsible for provision of services,' she says, 'but it is good to have an ally.'

Murdoch currently has six students linked in with M-CAS, including one student in Open Learning. Helen remarked on the difference working with M-CAS has made to the students. She cites a range of responses with the most prevalent being relief at knowing that conversions are possible and reliable. 'The overall effect is that students seem less stressed,' Helen says, 'and in time I hope it will just become a natural part of their studies.'

The distance between Macquarie University on the east coast, where M-CAS is physically located, and Murdoch University on the west coast has made next to no impact on the two teams working together. Helen has found the M-CAS staff to be extremely approachable as well as solutions driven and is appreciative of the seamless, full-service approach M-CAS provides.

This approach involves an educational consultant working with individual students and academics to design a programme that meets specific learning experience and material needs. This works by customising the experience of those individuals according to their access needs and educational preferences without compromising the academic integrity of the course or unit involved.

While M-CAS is very clear that it aims to work in partnership to support, rather than replace, existing services, the full-service approach it offers to universities has ramifications beyond contributing to improved academic outcomes.

Head of M-CAS, Sharon Kerr, is confident that M-CAS is also assisting universities meet their legislative responsibilities. "When a university like Murdoch uses our full-service to assist their students they will be meeting the requirements of the Disability Standards for Education under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992," explains Sharon. "They may find they only need M-CAS to meet a small part of their needs or all of the needs or it may vary from unit to unit over time. What's important is that the full range of the service is there to fill in the gaps for both the student and the academics they are working with."

Overall, as Helen Makeham and others can attest, the M-CAS full-service approach is proving a valuable asset for support staff and academics working with the many and varied access needs of students wherever they may be in universities across the country.

By Tracylee Arestides

Archived 09 February 2006

 

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