Investigating the additional access work of disabled students with physical impairments through diaries and interviews
About the Research
This project is on the extra work which physically impaired disabled students have to do to make life accessible to them. Whether that is organising care, checking the accessibility of venues, arranging assistance for travel, or filling in the forms in order to get support.
All of these things require effort by the disabled person and take up time that could be used elsewhere. As a disabled student myself I know that in my experience these tasks can sometimes feel like they absorb whole days of your life. My research is focusing on finding out how much time physically impaired disabled students spend on these tasks, what impact it has on them, and what the experience is like.
Disabled students appear to find themselves having to carry out work in order to ensure that accessibility arrangements or appropriate support services are in place. The project aims to understand the how much and what type of work which is done by disabled students and how the extra work they do affects them.
This project received University of Leeds ethical approval on 08/03/21
How is it going to work?
The research takes part in two phases a diary phase and an interview phase.
If you take part you will be asked to record in a diary for seven days every time you do something to gain or maintain support or access.
After you have completed your diary, I will interview you (online) in order to develop a deeper understanding of their experience with access work.
Can I take part?
Unfortunately recruitment for this project has now finished but please subscribe to this website or email me on ss20rmb@leeds.ac.uk for updates about the project or information about future research.
That sounds great where can I get more information?
The participant information sheet has all of the information about the project, you can download that in either pdf or word version below. Or you can contact me by emailing ss20rmb@leeds.ac.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as extra work?
Extra work, or access work as it will be called in the research, is anything you have to do to enable access or remove barriers created by disability. The type of task will vary depending on what your particular impairment is and your circumstances.
For example; Hannah is a wheelchair user, she wants to visit a museum she has not been to before. She isn’t sure if the museum is accessible so she looks on their website, business online listing and eventually phones them to check. This is a form of access work.
Lucia has a guide dog which enables her to travel independently. However she must also put time into the dog’s care and training. This is a form of access work.
Dan is deaf and needs captions for his online lectures. Sometimes the staff forget to turn these on or to edit them so that they are accurate. Dan has to email them to remind them about it. This is a form of access work.
Nina has a chronic illness and needs help at home. She receives a personal budget from her local authority and hires Personal Assistants (PAs) to meet her care needs. Nina is responsible for advertising, hiring and timetabling when her PAs will come. This is a form of access work as it enables her to live safely at home.
Shaun has a mobility impairment and walks slower than other people. They got frustrated using the maps on their phone as the estimated journey time for walking was not accurate for them and they were late to appointments. They looked up what the app’s walking speed is and timed their own walking speed. They now calculate their journey times manually using this information. This is a form of access work as the app is designed for a “normal” walking speed.
Hebe has a condition which causes pain if she sits for too long in unsupportive seating. She is told to apply for Disabled Student’s Allowance to get the appropriate equipment for her needs. The form takes her a long time to fill in and she has to collect evidence from different medical professionals. This is a type of access work.
I’d like to take part but have an access need that might make it difficult with your current set up. Can you be flexible?
Yes! While there are some restrictions in the way the project will need to run there is flexibility inbuilt for access needs. Please email me to let me know what it is I can do to facilitate you taking part in the project.
Why are you only looking at people with physical impairments?
At the moment this is a very small project with a short timescale. Hopefully it will inspire other projects which are able to look at this from a pan-disability perspective.
I have experience of doing extra work because I am disabled but not in the last month. Can I still take part?
Unfortunately not right now. At the moment we are only looking for people with recent experience of doing access work.
I have concerns about this research, who should I contact?
If you would like to contact me you are welcome to do so by emailing ss20rmb@leeds.ac.uk
My supervisor is Alison Sheldon, her email address is A.Sheldon@leeds.ac.uk
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Rebecca Boot 