Is ‘reasonable accommodation’ the best way of achieving equality? Exploring the experiences of accommodating disability within a Higher Education setting with a particular focus on the employability of students.

Employability is at the heart of many university strategies and at Northumbria University we encourage every student to have a work-related learning experience. Our business and law students imagine a future professional career and their ‘possible’ selves (Markus and Nurius, 1986) inevitably incorporates an image or perception of their chosen profession, and where they see themselves ‘fitting in’. However, a disability might set those students apart from the normative assumptions we make about a professional career and a disability statement for academic study may not fully consider the implications of the disability for placement opportunities. The ‘reasonable adjustment’
duty within section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 for work is reactive and inevitably relies upon disclosure and employer knowledge. However, a student often worries about disclosure to a future employer. My professional doctorate explores the ‘lived experience’ of disability, disclosure and the legal duty of ‘reasonable adjustments’ as it relates to student employability using interpretative phenomenological analysis. My poster sets out my research questions, proposals for the research and potential benefits.