How the Education Standards work

How the Education Standards work How the Education Standards work

In each Part, the Education Standards set out:

These three areas aim to ensure that students with disability can participate equally in education and training courses.

Rights

These are the basic entitlements that a student with disability can expect from an education provider. The most basic right is that a student with disability has the opportunity to participate in education on the same basis as students without disability.

Obligations

These are the things that education providers must do to respect the rights of students with disability. For example, an education provider must make sure that students with disability can apply to enrol to a course. This may mean that they have to take reasonable steps to make sure students with disability can access all the information about the course and how to enrol.

Obligations in the Education Standards are legal requirements and disobeying them is against the law, unless an Exception applies.

Measures of compliance

Measures for Compliance are examples of what education providers can do to make sure that they have carried out their obligations. For example, providing all important class materials in different formats - like Braille, audio or electronic formats. These are measures to show the education provider is assisting its students with disability to participate in education on the same basis as other students.

Measures for compliance are not the same as Obligations. They are not legal requirements and failing to carry them out doesn't always mean its against the law. If an education provider can carry out their obligations in a different way, then that is not against the law. For example, instead of having information about enrolment in different formats, an education provider instead could provide a specific staff member to assist students with disability through the enrolment process.

Case Studies

The difference between Obligations and Measures of Compliance.

Obligations and measures of compliance are not the same thing. The following case studies show the difference between obligations and measures of compliance.

Grant

Case Study - Grant Case Study - Grant

Grant is interested in doing a business course run by a private business college. Grant has dyslexia and he cannot fill out the enrolment forms. He rings the college and asks whether someone at the college can go through the form with him and also if he can have an extension of one week to put the form in. The college refuses his request and Grant misses out on enrolling in the course. Grant makes a complaint to HREOC saying that the college did not meet its obligation to allow him the opportunity to enrol like other students. In this case the college made no attempt to meet this obligation.

John

Case Study - John Case Study - John

John is blind and has made inquiries about participating in a course at TAFE. TAFE encourages John to apply but tells him they have no application forms in Braille or electronic format. John tells them about the Education Standards and how Part 4 talks about providing forms in 'a range of formats'. They tell him that they cannot provide the application form in Braille or electronic format because the course is starting soon and it would be too much trouble for 'just one student'. However, they suggest that John talks with their disability support officer who can help him fill in the application forms. In this way TAFE has made sure that John is able to apply like other students, even if they did it by another method or measure and not the one John was asking for.