Environments that support disclosure

Through disclosure, information about a specific condition and the way it might affect a student's work and/or learning can be shared in writing or verbally. Disclosure might take the form of a conversation as well as more formal declaration of information and requires the student's consent.

Optimum environments to encourage disclosure, adapted from a study by Howlin et al (2014):

Positive and welcoming, encouraging students to be proactive about their learning.

Timing a meeting

Timing has been identified as crucial with regards to disclosure of disability, this is supported in the literature (Hill and Roger 2016).  Pre-placement meetings may be a useful consideration and have been deemed as essential from the student and educator perspective (Howlin et al 2014, Hill and Roger 2016).

Pre-placement discussion

Pre-placement discussion can be very helpful. This allows challenges to be acknowledged and adjustments to be identified and where possible implemented in advance. As noted above, this best practice approach is regarded as anticipatory adjustment. This fits with the Social Model of Disability which recognises that individuals may have a disability, but proposes that the difficulties they experience are not the the result of the disability but caused by communication, attitudes or the physical environment.

Sharing information

In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (2018), consent needs to be obtained from the student to share a learner's adjustments. Consent should be agreed and documented accordingly using appropriate disclosure documentation. The student's education institution may have an example of disclosure documentation. If not, the example of disclosure documentation accessed below can be referred to as an example. Remember, local policies and procedures should be adhered to in relation to storage of this documentation.