Tomlinson (1996)stressed the importance of inclusive learning for further education. Otherdevelopments within the further education sector have been accomplished throughlegislation such as the Further and Higher Education Act (1992) whichencourages the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) to take regard of therequirements of students with disabilities by providing additional funding toindividual colleges. These initiatives require individual institutions tocompetitively bid for money to fund provision for students with disabilities.Tinklin and Hall (1999)found that the quality of provision for students with disabilities in highereducation depends on attitudes, experience and awareness about disability amongstaff and students, rather than the institutional policies alone.
Hadjikakou &Hartas, (2008),Although the number of students with a disability attendinghigher education institutions is increasing, such students continue toface arange of barriers in accessing and participating in higher education courses .Farmer et al. (2002)pointed out that participation of students with learning difficulties in highereducation should be considered at three levels, namely personal,organizational/institutional and political/ideological. Personal in terms of providingcounseling services, adapting the curriculum (electronic and other materials),modifying teaching and other services such as a sign language interpreter ormaterials in Braille. Organizational in terms of changing standardinstitutional procedures, training staff and modifying the physical environment.
Finally, ideological in terms of debating models of disability and current policies, striving for equality ofopportunity and supporting students’ access and entitlement to educationLancaster et al. (2001)listed diversity, quality of life, reaching out to the community andideological and legal obligations as the main incentives for recruitingstudents with disabilities in higher education. In this study, a number of Headsstated that they did not actively recruit students with disabilities althoughthey ”don’t turn them away when they are registered”. In certain subjects,such as engineering, it was said that, for safety reasons, students withdisabilities were being discouraged from registering, raising issues regardingequality of opportunity and participation of students with disability ineducation.
