Students with disability across Australia are calling for higher education institutions to offer fairer access to learning services.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Sophie Barlow is studying to become a psychologist, but her journey has been rough.
00:07 When I showed up for the first week, I couldn't access literally two out of three of my classes.
00:13 For most of the semester, this bridge to her tutorials has been blocked.
00:18 I just want to be a student. I just want to show up, go to my classes.
00:23 Melbourne student Adam Whitehead knows the feeling all too well.
00:27 He has low vision and was told his course content would be formatted so a computer could read it out loud.
00:35 But it often didn't happen on time or I would need readings outside the basic ones.
00:43 Leaving him no choice but to drop out of some classes.
00:46 You just get more and more frustrated, get further and further behind with classes.
00:51 Under the Disability Discrimination Act, universities are required to provide fair access to all students.
00:58 But there are concerns not all are stepping up adequately.
01:02 Universities have been too slow to address access needs, but it is something that's improving.
01:09 There's such a huge, huge amount of issues and parallel experiences that people with disabilities are experiencing at university.
01:21 For students like Sophie, it's more than just a degree that's at stake.
01:25 Without higher education, my employability prospects are limited.
01:30 - I'm excited.
01:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]