Barbara Waters is the Project Lead on the Reasonable Accommodations, Professional Placements (RAPP) Project, Barbara was Chief Executive of Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, UK. 1996- 2010. Barbara represented Skill nationally on policy issues in education and disability related to post 16 education, training and employment. Since 2010 Barbara has worked as a researcher on further and higher education and disability. She was part of the LINK European network concerned with disabled students in higher education and has undertaken research on competence standards and learning outcomes in higher education for the Equality Challenge Unit, UK, published in 2015, looking particularly at Nursing, Teaching, Foreign Languages and STEM subjects. She was the evaluator of the Erasmus + programme on Universal Design for Learning completed in October 2016, and rapporteur for AHEAD Ireland in the MappED access programme with the Erasmus Student Network in 2017. Currently, she is the editor of the peer to peer Journal for AHEAD Ireland. She has an MA in Business and Public Sector Strategy and received an honorary doctorate from the Open University, UK.
Welcome to the Spring edition of the AHEAD Journal. It’s been good to read all the articles submitted and to meet so many of you at the Dublin conference.
Renewed inspiration is always welcome, and we have that in abundance in Alan Hurst’s article on the five key influences on his working life. Why not send in your ‘desert island favourites’ – we would love to have them. An opportunity for reflection is also offered by Adam Hyland in his piece on enablement.
Transition continues to be a theme, and in this edition we have articles on students on the autistic spectrum, the latest on the Junior Cycle and inclusion, and a catch up on apprenticeships.
Universal Design, reasonable adjustments and assessment continue to be of interest. We have some practical experiences of Assistive Technology, and Caroline McGrotty gives us an important insight into the experiences of Deaf students. We are always ready and willing to receive your suggestions for articles and to help you with the process in any way we can. Just contact Lorraine at lorraine. gallagher@ahead.ie
