Accessibility Policy

2024-25

Review Date: September 2025

Accessibility Action Plan –September 2024

1. Background

2. On 1 October 2012, The Equality Act replaced all existing equality legislation such as the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Sex Discrimination Act. It extends protection from discrimination in some areas and has placed new duties on schools.
3. The Act makes it unlawful for Co-op Academy Bebington, to discriminate against, harass, or victimise a student or potential student in relation to:

• admissions
• the way we provide education for students
• the way we provide students access to any benefit, facility or service
• subjecting them to any other detriment.

4. The protected characteristics are:

• sex
• race
• disability
• religion or belief
• sexual orientation
• gender reassignment
• pregnancy or maternity

5. There is still a requirement to have an Accessibility Plan outlining how we intend to improve access for disabled students to the physical environment, the curriculum and written information.
6. The Equality Act applies to all schools in England and Wales. (Equality Act 2010: Schedule 10, Paragraph 3 and Disability Discrimination regulations 2005) Furthermore, as Governors we are required to draw up equality objectives under the Specific Duties Regulations 2011 so that we meet the general aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty. This Accessibility Plan is reviewed every three years.

1. Disability Discrimination Act

2. The disability provisions in the Equality Act mainly replicate those in the former Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). There are some minor differences as follows:

• the definition of disability is less restrictive
• direct discrimination can no longer be defended as justified
• failure to make a reasonable adjustment can no longer be defended as justified
• from September 2012, we are under a duty to make available auxiliary aids and services as reasonable adjustments, where these are not being supplied through a Statement of Special Educational Needs or from other sources.

1. Definition of Disability

2. The Act defines disability as when a person has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on that person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities.

3. Some specific conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cancer or HIV are considered as disabilities regardless of their effect.

4. Long term is defined as lasting, or likely to last, for at least twelve months.

1. Reasonable Adjustments

2. We aim to ensure that nothing we do as a school places a disabled student at a disadvantage compared to other students. However, where we have to do so, we make sure that we take reasonable steps to try and avoid that disadvantage.

3. When it is reasonable to do so, we provide auxiliary aids or services for a disabled student, when such an aid would alleviate any substantial disadvantage that the student faces compared to other non-disabled students.

4. Where an auxiliary aid is not provided under the SEN system (ie via EHC Plan) there should be no assumption that it must be provided as a reasonable adjustment. Any decision would be taken on the basis of the facts of an individual case, including cost implications.

5. There is no legal definition of auxiliary aids. We interpret this to mean any or all of the following: helpful; providing support or assistance; and that these can be things or persons which help. We include hearing loops, adaptive keyboards, and special software.

6. Our SEND and Local Offer policy defines what provision we make available including reasonable adjustments in our school. We will consider what is reasonable in the context of our school, given the circumstances of each individual case.

7. Where the auxiliary aid has a benefit to the rest of the child’s life outside of school, it would be unreasonable for our school to make such provision; eg hearing aids.

8. We consider that effective and practicable adjustments for disabled students will involve little or no cost or disruption, and will therefore be considered as reasonable. Where substantial adaptations are required which are not contained within our three year Accessibility Plan, we reserve the right to deem these as unreasonable.

9. It is our aim to ensure that disabled students play as full a part as possible in school life and our Accessibility Plan and reasonable adjustments help support that aim. Where any adjustment would have a detrimental effect on other students, we would not consider it to be reasonable. For example, if a geography field trip were planned to involve climbing and a wheelchair user could not take part, we would carefully consider how the disabled student could participate viably, but we would not cancel the trip because to do so would be detrimental to other students.

1. Our Vision

2. We believe that every child has the right to be happy, healthy, safe and successful, valued and respected, and to have high aspirations for their future.

3. Inclusion is the process of taking the necessary steps to ensure that every young person is given equality of opportunity to develop socially, to learn and to enjoy school life.

1. Our Duty around Accessibility for Disabled Students

2. Our Accessibility Plan is outlined below.

3. Our Accessibility Plan focuses on the following areas for implementation:

• increasing the extent to which disabled students can participate in the curriculum
• improving the physical environment to enable disabled students to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided
• improving the availability of accessible information to disabled students.

4. Our Plan also includes the resource implications of implementing the Plan.

5. Our approach includes the following areas:

• Physical facilities – addressing any alterations that may be required to the structure of the building or site to secure access for students, staff, parents and visitors
• School Curriculum – including our provision for teaching and learning, the wider curriculum, extra-curricular activities and school visits
• Support Services – access to services within and external to the school to support families where disability is identified

ACCESSIBILITY ACTION PLAN

This action plan sets out the aims of our accessibility plan in accordance with the Equality Act 2010