Disability Equality Scheme
Oxford Brookes produced its first Disability Equality Scheme in December 2006. The scheme was developed with the involvement of disabled people (including staff, students and interested stakeholder groups within Oxfordshire). and was reviewed by a range of committees within the University including Executive Board, Learning And Teaching Committee, Student Disability Group and Employment Committee. The scheme is available online, Oxford Brookes Disability Equality Scheme (Word document, 1.3MB) in hard copy and in alternative formats on request. If you would like to receive a copy please contact Michelle Montgomery.
Annual monitoring of the Disability Equality Scheme
Key to the new legislative duty is a requirement to monitor and evaluate the progress of the action plan and to regularly report on that monitoring. The University reviewed its action plan and progress with external stakeholders in September at event run in collaboration with Oxford University, Oxfordshire County Council, and Oxford City Council and undertook its first DES monitoring in October 2007. The results are summarised in the Disability Equality Scheme Monitoring report and appendix A which provides details of progress against the action plan.
- Summary report (Word document, 67KB)
- Appendix A – details of progress against action plan (Word doc, 638KB)
- Revised Disability Equality Scheme action plan 2007/08 (Word doc, 635KB)
Consultation and further information
Oxford Brookes will continue to review its Disability Equality Scheme on an annual basis and continues to welcome feedback on any aspect of it. If you would like to offer feedback it can be sent to the University in any form but for ease of use you may like to use our feedback form (Word doc, 33KB)
Feedback should be sent by post or email to:
Michelle Montgomery
Equal Opportunities and Diversity Manager
Oxford Brookes University
Directorate of Human Resources
Wheatley Campus
Wheatley
Oxon
OX33 1HX
email: mmontgomery@brookes.ac.uk
Background to the development of the scheme
The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 sets out general and specific duties. designed to ensure that universities and other public sector bodies adopt an approach to disability that focuses on actively promoting equality of opportunity for disabled people and celebrating diversity. The general duty means the University must work to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote equal opportunities for disabled people. We must also work to eliminate the harassment of disabled people, to promote positive attitudes and to encourage the participation of disabled people in the life of the University.
Reflecting the specific duty the University has produced a disability equality scheme. The scheme focuses the University’s attention on areas of our activity of most relevance to disabled staff and students and on areas where the potential impact on disabled staff and students is most significant.
In the process of producing our disability equality scheme we have:
- Involved disabled people in producing the scheme and developing the action plan. This work has included focus groups and face to face interviews, developing questionnaires for staff (PDF, 146KB) and students, producing a leaflet to widen awareness amongst staff and students (PDF, 86KB) and hosting a Disability Equality Duty consultation event at Headington Hill Hall with invited key representatives of local charities and user groups.
- Identified how we will gather and analyse evidence to inform our actions and track progress
- Set out how we will assess the impact of our existing and proposed activities on disabled people
- Produced an action plan for the next three years
- Identified how we will report on our progress every year and review and make appropriate revisions to this scheme at least every three years
For further information on the legislation and the responsibilities on public sector bodies visit the disability pages of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.