Are we talking the same language? Contestable discourses between university staff accommodating students with disability

This study challenges the claim that in a university, a discourse of containment is predominant in the relationships that exist around students with disability and their requests for accommodations. It explores the work knowledges of those involved with the implementation of the processes of granting learning accommodations: the disability services staff and the academic staff liaison officers. Innovative analytical techniques were applied to interview data that identify the lexicons used by each group indicating they had different ways of conceptualising the process, with the former focussing on the development of the documentation that would stand as surrogate for the student and the latter concerned with tricky processes of negotiation with teaching staff, and problems arising from insufficient funding. These distinct work knowledges indicate the ‘messiness’ that predominates in the process of ensuring that students with disability can study ‘on the same basis’ as others.