Disability
The Scottish Government is committed to providing equal opportunities for all pupils. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 provides a framework through which all pupils, including those with disabilities should receive the support they need to benefit from education.
Pupils with disabilities have additional protection. The Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 aims to prevent discrimination against disabled people in their access to education. A schools code of practice and accompanying guidance has been produced to assist education providers in meeting their duties under the Act. In addition a post-16 code of practice has also been prepared.
The new duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people, introduced through the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, has been extended to all public authorities and a guide to the Disability Equality Duty for education authorities and grant aided schools in Scotland has been produced. Local authorities are required to publish a Disability Equality Scheme every 3 years.
Accessibility
Under Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002 responsible bodies, education authorities, independent and grant-aided schools, have a duty to plan strategically for the needs of disabled pupils, to ensure access to the curriculum, physical environment of schools and school information. Responsible bodies are required to prepare an accessibility strategy which sets out their plans to ensure access for both current and prospective pupils. Guidance on preparing accessibility strategies was published in September 2002, and is currently under review.
The Scottish Government commissioned Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and the Disability Rights Commission to evaluate the first round of accessibility strategies which was prepared in 2003. A report of the evaluation, including good practice examples was published in December 2003.