Susan Grimes

Health Education and Training Institute | HETI · Mental Health

Students with disability (SWD) have increased proportionally in higher education internationally over the past decade. The legal requirement to accommodate disability through ‘reasonable adjustment’ has driven an approach in most higher education systems focused on amelioration of individual deficit due to impairment and provides institutions with...

A research project at an Australian regional university reframed “disability” by defining the diagnosis of a disability with an impact on learning as a learning challenge. Using the terminology of learning challenge, an anonymous, online survey found there was a significant number of students who chose institutional non-dis-closure and excluded the...

Internationally, students with disabilities (SWD) are increasing in numbers in in higher education institutions. SWD are legally required to be supported by their institutions to ensure equity of access and outcome. Most research around SWD is focused on the provision of support and accommodation to achieve equitable access. Recent research has sho...

A research project at an Australian regional university reframed ‘disability’ by defining the diagnosis of a disability with an impact on learning as a learning challenge. Using the terminology of learning challenge, an anonymous, online survey found there was a significant number of students who chose institutional non-disclosure and excluded them...

The massification of higher education has seen an increase in students who have been traditionally underrepresented in universities. However, these non-traditional students remain underrepresented in elite universities and in high status degrees. This chapter critically engages with the idea of ‘quality’ as it relates to elite professions and their...

Students with disabilities (SWD) in Australian higher education need to disclose to their institution to access a range of ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support their learning. Nationally, 5.8% of the university population disclose their disability to their institution. It is suspected that there is a much larger population of students who choose non...

Internationally, university students with disabilities (SWD) are recognised as being under-represented in higher education. They face significant problems accessing appropriate accommodations for their disability. Academic outcomes for this group are lower in terms of achievement and graduation rates. The true size of the SWD group at university is...

This article explores the issue of students' writing skills in the discipline of Engineering and beyond. It is the result of a discussion between three academics from different discipline backgrounds: Teaching and Learning, the Humanities and Engineering. We start with a review of the strategies commonly used to address problems in students' academ...

This paper examines an appropriate research framework for exploration of the impact of life events on life course when dealing with a learning difficulty. The literature is lacking in complete life histories of people dealing with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia. Recognition of the importance of understanding living with dyslexia, as oppose...

This paper offers an overview of the life history project, 'Living with dyslexia: Olivia's life history'. The project utilised unstructured interviewing to provide 'voice' to an individual, Olivia, representing those who have successfully navigated life whilst dealing with the learning difficulty of dyslexia. In the resultant life history, Olivia r...

Problems identified during interview work for the thesis Living with Dyslexia: Olivia’s Life History (Grimes, 2007) illustrate many of the key features inherently difficult for researchers dealing with interviewing as a research methodology. This research recorded the life history of Olivia with a view to collaboratively identifying those influence...