Visible images of disabled students: an analysis of UK university publicity materials

Abstract

This paper analyses the portrayal, within UK universities’ publicity materials, of disabled students and disability services. Basic public relations practices explain that an organisation should know its audiences and focus its messages accordingly. We argue that recruitment is an issue which cannot be ignored in discussions of learning and teaching. It is a fundamental aspect of higher education: without students there would be no learning, teaching or curriculum. By failing actively to recruit disabled students, universities will miss out on the diversity and valuable contributions of an important group. Our analysis indicates that recruitment of disabled students does not appear to be a priority in many universities. There are significant numbers of prospective disabled students in the community; some universities could be taking more proactive measures to recruit this group of students.

The authors are grateful to Professor Beth Haller, University of Towson, USA, for her advice about this article.

Notes

1. The authors wish to point out that their research has focussed on photographs of disabled students with visible impairments and has therefore not included students whose impairments may be non-visible.

2. Oxford University reported 626 (3.6%) of students in 2001/2002 who had identified as disabled.