Business Project: Disability Support at Sheffield Hallam University

This business studies project investigates how Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) manages and resolves issues related to students with disabilities, particularly those with communication and language difficulties. The study builds upon a previous project (BSP1) and focuses on the management's role in supporting these students, including staff support, training, and the implementation of assistive technologies. A qualitative questionnaire survey was conducted with both teachers and students to gather feedback on the effectiveness of the university's support systems. The findings highlight the importance of a well-structured management approach, dedicated support staff, and the use of modern teaching methodologies to ensure the success of disabled students in their education and future employment. The project emphasizes the university's commitment to providing person-centered care and fostering an inclusive learning environment, supported by data analysis and ethical research practices. The formation of the Disabled Student Support (DSS) team, comprising student representatives, teaching staff, and specialized council members, is presented as a key initiative to enhance educational support and disabled student management within SHU.

Running Head: BUSINESS STUDIES PROJECT 2
Topic- An investigation to examine how management resolve problems related to students with
disabilities (communication and language) within Sheffield Hallam University
Student name
University name
Author notes

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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the research work is the result of my individual endeavor and is an extended
work of my previously prepared Business Studies Project 1. The topic is same as before and this
paper is based on original research carried out within the Sheffield Hallam University. This is my
solo research work based on context application of both qualitative and quantitative business
approaches.
Student name
Signature
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to thank Almighty for his unforeseen support and I would also like to
thank my family, friends and close acquaintances. Special acknowledgement to my professors
and classmates who have constantly encouraged me to finish this project with courage and full
potential. Their support has helped me in the completion of the project work on due time and in
the most convenient manner. Thank you all.
Student name
Signature
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The paper is an original research work carried out as an extension to support Business
Studies Project 1 (BSP1) and is called as BSP2. Here management issues on the support of
students with disabilities (communication and language) within Sheffield Hallam University is
considered and solution is recommended to mitigate the issue to the extent possible. For better
understanding the issue of staff support for disability education is considered and solutions have
been discussed on how the university is able to encourage its staffs to be helpful in supporting
students with communication and language disability among students. Staffs were reluctant to
have increased job role as the challenge of teaching disabled students is wider and more difficult.
Also, remuneration for such specialised staffs are not as per their work load and emotional
disturbances caused. In order to mitigate this problem, the management along with student help
and specialised advisory council have joined hands with the teachers in supporting education for
disabled students. And for this the Disabled Student Support (DSS) team is formed which have
both student representatives, teaching staffs and specialised council of disability support
members. This increases the effectiveness of the educational support and provides better disabled
student management. Various benefits are awarded to such privileged students and education is
imparted by the use of latest technologies conducive for their understanding. Teachers are
provided with timely training on educational equipment usage and modern teaching
methodologies that can be undertaken so that their ultimate aim of supporting disabled students
in their education and employment becomes successful. All facts were supported both by
theoretical backgrounds and present data statistic support. A qualitative questionnaire survey is
carried out on both teachers and students to have their feedback on the disabled student
education and their responses are sued in data interpretation to find how the previously

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mentioned issue has been resolved by the management team. Open ended questions (with the
usage of Likert 5 scale rating in some questions) were mainly used for primary data collection
from university staffs and students only and no breach of data usability has been supported and
all ethical aspects research work were maintained to the extent possible.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................7
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................................7
BACKGROUND OF THE UNIVERSITY.....................................................................................9
SUPPORT AVAILABILITY..........................................................................................................9
BUSINESS PROBLEMS AND ISSUES......................................................................................10
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL SUPPORT.....................................................11
COMMUNCIATION: THEORIES AND PRACTICES...........................................................11
CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS IN TEACHING DISABLED STUDENTS..............13
OVERVIEW OF TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES............................................14
TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION AND SPEECH
IMPAIRMENT..........................................................................................................................15
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY...............................16
INTERPRETATION OF COMMUNICATION DISABILITY IN STUDENTS FROM
SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY PROSPECTS................................................................16
FEEDBACK ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION.................................................................18
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................29
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................30
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................33

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INTRODUCTION
This research work is the next step of Business Studies Project 1 (BSP1) where the
research plan has been developed on the context of how Sheffield Hallam University (SHU)
supports its students having disabilities, specially communication and language disabilities. BSP
1 research plan focuses on students having communication issues, language difficulties and
physical disabilities as well ("Types of Learning Disabilities", 2019). It is evident that SHU
provide meaningful support to the disabled students and provide them courage to understand
their worth value. Their person-centered care plan will provide examples to other institutions and
academic organizations and thus disability learning will be encouraged holistically. Disability
learning providence includes a well-developed curriculum set up, clearly articulated teaching
plan support and guidelines teachers need to follow in order to develop a long-term relationship
bonding with the students ("What are some signs of learning disabilities?", 2019). Students with
linguistic difficulty and communication problems need extra care and support than other
students. For this reason, every academic institution needs to have a well-supported management
structure, well integrated work culture and good support staffs.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
 This paper aims at discussing about the management of disability learning in SHU and
highlights the various issues and problems that are linked to it.
 In addition to this the paper will also focus on how the University solve its issues by
application of contextual decisions and other approaches to problem-solving.
 The identified problem area will be deciphered by critical understanding of the issue and
relevant management theories will be discussed and demonstrated as per their
practicability.

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 Appropriate technique of data analysis will also be used for both quantitative and
qualitative data analysis, however, the paper will be based on mainly qualitative data
analysis.
 The discussion section will support a logical development of the coherent issues that will
help in the development of the ultimate solution to the research question.
 For adding depth to the research, the issue of staff support is considered as the main
management problem for supporting disabled students’ education in SHU.

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BACKGROUND OF THE UNIVERSITY
Sheffield Hallam University is an esteemed public University located in Sheffield, South
Yorkshire in England. The institution is well known for its explicit range of academic course
offerings for graduate, postgraduate and undergraduate curriculum. It is the 11th largest
University in UK. Besides all these achievements the University has a differentiating factor from
other Universities which is its learning disability support ("Specific learning difficulties |
Sheffield Hallam University", 2019). A specialized service support management team is formed
in the name of ‘Disabled Student Support’ where disabled students were provided education
based on their need. Main focus is given to students suffering from long term disabilities like
dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficient hyperactive disorder and other mental health
complications and physical disability issues (Newhall, 2019). Here learning is supported by the
use of the most technologically advanced education impart techniques, assistive teacher support
and providence of person-centered care. The university provides additional support to such
students in their academics in areas of cost advantages and other privileges and student
allowances for disabilities ("Disabled Student Support | Sheffield Hallam University", 2019). A
learning contract is provided to the disabled students, only the students need to register
themselves online for the same. More than 2000 students with disability are assisted every year
through the learning disability contract scheme.
SUPPORT AVAILABILITY
Disabled students can avail a number of supports via the learning disability contract like
they can have reasonable adjustments to their academic courses in terms of extensions such as
providence of extra time during examinations, provided with a support staff every time for
mentoring in organizational needs and providing personal assistance in mobility ("Learning

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Disability | Psychology Today", 2019). There are a specialized set of equipment for learning,
assistive software for education and other technological supports like digital recorder, text
software or speech software. The on-site assessment center called Sheffield Regional Assessment
Center is developed to carry out study need assessment for the disabled students. A group of
disability specialists are there for supporting such students every time. Maximum support is
funded through the Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) ("Disabled Student Support | Sheffield
Hallam University", 2019). However, the disability of the students is kept confidential to the
extent possible to help them have a normal life and bright future career. The Equality Act is
abided by holistically and Disability Discrimination Act is superseded by it.
Actually, disability is not meant to be physical disability every time, it includes a larger
section of impairment like autism spectrum conditions, deafness and hearing impairment, long
term medical conditions, mental health difficulties, speech language and communication needs,
Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, specific learning difficulties, visual impairments and other
social and emotional health needs (Koslo, 2019). Production of proper medical evidence will
avail students the support they deserve. Moreover, support for students with caring
responsibilities is also provided by monetary aid and other financial rewards.
BUSINESS PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
The core values of SHU include academic ambition, being practical and applied,
supportiveness and inclusion, collaborative, flexible and innovative thinker, honesty, integrity
and high professional standard maintenance ("Specific learning difficulties | Sheffield Hallam
University", 2019). Disability support is one of the major aims of SHU where disabled students
are treated equally in the eyes of law and provided every possible benefit, they require to have a
brighter future. But supporting such students is not an easy job and requires both courage and

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financial stability and also well supported staffs. That is, the management need to be well-framed
and should have a developed sense of integrity to support such noble causes holistically
(Jacobson, 2019). Students in SHU are supported extrinsically through disability allowances and
intrinsically by constant motivation and encouragement with a positive sense of boosting self-
confidence in the disabled students.
A number of problems crop up in the disabled students’ education curriculum and
learning processes. Some issues include classroom challenges faced by students with
communication difficulty, difficulty in using technologically upgraded tools and software by
disabled students and difficulty in implementation of the social interventions for students having
learning disabilities ("HELPGUIDE.ORG", 2019). Actually, disability learning support is
actually a challenging role taken by SHU in recent times and is facing a number of hurdles in its
operational mode in terms of both financial and academic pursuit ("Disabled Students
Committee", 2019). For better understanding of the research work the issue of teacher-based
classroom challenges is considered which includes communication and support difficulty as a
whole. Various aspects of this issue will be discussed mainly from University staff management
prospect and some aspects of disabled students.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL SUPPORT
COMMUNCIATION: THEORIES AND PRACTICES
No communication is complete and effective until and unless both sender and receiver
are equally involved in the process and proper understanding of the message send is necessary to
give the right feedback (FernáNdez-LóPez et al., 2013). If one party have problem, the
effectiveness of the communication process will be hindered and there will be a gap of
understanding which can be fatal in future interaction. Communication is basically a shared

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feeling and understanding. The process allows exchange of thoughts and ideas by the help of
speech, signals, writings, conduct, gesture and behavioral actions. It can also be some electronic
format of message delivery (Mason, 2013). Communication has eight major components namely
source, sender, channel, receiver, destination, message, feedback and content. Other three
components associated includes entropy, redundancy and noise (Istenic Starcic & Bagon, 2014).
Communication can be of various forms like interpersonal, intrapersonal, group dynamics, public
or mass communication, organizational communication and cross-cultural communication.
Based on medium used it can be verbal, non-verbal and graphic communication. Communication
theories can be classified basically as rhetorical theory, semiotic theory, phenomenological
theory, cybernetic theory, socio-psychological theory, socio-cultural theory and critical theory.
The seven C’s of communication that help in effective interaction includes clarity, credibility,
content, context, continuity, capability and channels. The Hawthorne effect emphasis on the fact
that there is no need to communicate physically all the time instead change in work environment
can do the job. The more prominent the ‘we care’ message the more improved will be the
process of communication (Federici & Skaalvik, 2014). Attitude and value are very important in
communication. Collective dynamics of communication works best for classrooms where the
general mass sentiment or the social consensus is kept intact. Agenda setting theory is effective
in classroom communication specially for disabled classroom learning where a set of issues are
considered first and based on that required solution is designed. A pre-planning of the teaching
approach needs to be developed to increase level of understanding in the impaired students
(Milic Babic & Dowling, 2015). Teachers may take the help of diffusion theoretical support for
better analysis of the learning need of disabled students and will help them decide upon the best
communication strategy for accomplishing the major change required. Word of mouth of the