Together we can make Newman friendly for everyone
Hi, my name is Jayden, and I am running for accessibility and inclusion officer.
I am a disabled, neurodivergent student, who is in my third year studying psychology and counselling.
In my time as student ambassador and course rep it has become very apparent to me that there is a lot of improvements that need to be made to increase accessibility for all students.
In line with this I aim to do the following while in post of the accessibility and inclusion officer:
- Improve wheelchair accessibility
- To do this I plan to:
- Work with estates to improve the maintenance of lifts around campus
- Ensure new building plans are wheelchair accessible
- Improve campus accessibility for visually impaired students
- To do this I will:
- set up focus groups and endeavour to have conversations with visually impaired students to find out changes would improve their university experience to ensure they are listened to and heard
- I will then campaign for changes such as more braille around campus and floor guides to help visually impaired students navigate university campus independently.
- Increase accessibility of resources for dyslexic students
- To do this I will:
- Work with the library to provide coloured paper options for printing
- Promote the use of audiobooks in the library
- Create more quiet spaces around the university.
- To do this I will:
- work with the SU to create a sensory space for students in line with the motion brought forward in student forum last academic year.
- Increase accessibility to course resources:
- To do this:
- I will work with the academic officer to promote recording of lectures to increase accessibility for students who struggle to attend or process all information.
I recognise I am limited to my own perspective and experiences, and want to ensure that all students are heard. Therefore, to ensure I am including all students perspectives I aim to:
- Set up focus groups to hear different perspectives from a wide range of disabled and neurodiverse students
- Set up suggestion boxes to enable students who do not feel comfortable talking to someone to bring forward issues and have their voices heard.