Disability and participation in the professions: examples from higher and medical education

Abstract

Learners with disabilities remain under-represented in higher education and courses, such as medicine, that grant access to ‘the professions’. National and professional legislation, policy and guidance have changed over the last few decades in response to reforms in the way disability is viewed and valued by society. Principles of equal rights and equality of opportunity inform the negotiation of widened participation in the professions. However, drawing on the example of medical education, it is possible to see that widening participation agendas may be insensitive to the needs of learners with disabilities. Analysing the development of practice and policy from a participation perspective suggests that tokenism may have played a role in deprioritising the voices of individuals with disabilities, rendering policy disconnected from the needs of marginalised groups. The concept of participatory parity may provide an opportunity to readdress this misrepresentation.

Keywords:

• higher education
• the professions
• disabled learners

Acknowledgements

Thanks are owed to Prof. Brahm Norwich for his detailed comments that helped develop this paper.

Notes

1. Langlards (2005) defines the ‘professions’ as architecture, engineering and technology, dentistry, law, medicine, social work, teaching (and teacher training), and veterinary medicine. This list neglects the many other vocational subjects that may well consider them a profession (e.g. psychology, nursing, physiotherapy).

2. ‘Constructive ambiguity’ is originally attributed to Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State 1973–1977 (for example, Moore 2011).

3. A term borrowed from Arnstein (1969, 216), although she used it in a wider context rather than referring specifically to HE.

Additional information

Funding

This work was undertaken as part of the author's doctorate of education (EdD), which is supported by a studentship from the University of Exeter.