During Disability Awareness Fortnight, Giorgia Pigato (Education and Recognition Adviser) ran a training session on inclusive teaching with DDS (Disability and Dyslexia Service).
During Disability Awareness Fortnight, Giorgia Pigato (Education and Recognition Adviser) ran a training session on inclusive teaching with DDS (Disability and Dyslexia Service). The session included three volunteers from the Students with Disabilities Society and Neurodivergent Society to share their experiences on being a neurodivergent student at QMUL and suggest improvements that lecturers could implement. The session included helpful tips on various parts of teaching, including how to make group presentations inclusive, use appropriate fonts, and use neurodiverse-friendly language. Training such as this allows inclusivity to be improved at all levels of QMUL.
Here is how students felt about the training provided:
"Volunteering in the Staff Neurodiversity Training was quite a valuable experience. To have an open dialogue with staff members who are willing to listen to neurodivergent voices is great! It is always a positive to build more acceptance within university spaces for a group of often forgotten students, who deserve to have a positive learning experience at uni." - Leshay Barnett
"Last week I had the opportunity to participate in neurodivergent training for voluntary Queen Mary staff. I was able, along with a few other students, to give my neurodivergent perspective on how I study, follow lectures, learn, remember content, etc. It was very interesting to see the wide array of differences in our methods of learning between the other student attendees. But I think all of our inputs were valuable to give lecturers perspective on how to ensure their learning materials are as inclusive as possible and encompass a wide range of learning techniques and methods. I now wonder if there is training attended by all university staff that we could give our input to, as voluntary teachers are already usually more clued up into the topic of neurodiversity and more open to the idea of adapting their material to accommodate different learning behaviours." Jules Buet
The training is not limited to the DAF. Further courses on "Developing Inclusive Education for Neurodivergent Learners" are available to staff throughout the year. If
you would like to encourage the teaching staff on your module to take the course, share this sign-up link with them: Developing Inclusive Education for Neurodivergent Learners