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Disability policy

Policy statement

The disability policy is a statement of the intent of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS) to reasonably accommodate all trainees, staff and visitors who have a disability.

• Disability policy
  

• To ensure that the Institute of Professional Legal Studies delivers high quality, post-university pre-admission legal training across New Zealand for all those that qualify for it and wish to pursue it, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, disability or age. [Regulation 2(b) Professional Legal Studies Course Accreditation Regulations 2002.]
• To ensure that access to the course is equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

• Disclosure
  • To ensure that the IPLS is inclusive of persons who have a disability, the IPLS will develop a framework to identify any trainee who may have a disability.
  • The IPLS will advertise and promote in both its course application materials and course materials the disability policy and procedures that provide for disability support.
  • The IPLS recognises that disclosure of a disability by a trainee or staff member is private information and that the disclosure must be treated sensitively and with empathy.
    [Privacy Act 1993]
• Reasonable accommodation: Trainees
  • To ensure equity of educational opportunity to all trainees, the IPLS will initiate practical strategies to ensure that reasonable accommodation of a trainee’s needs are met where the trainee has a disability.
  • The IPLS will be aware of and endeavour to remove barriers in the physical and social environment in order to reasonably accommodate a trainee who has a disability.
  • The IPLS will constantly monitor and improve its policy and provision of reasonable accommodations for trainees who have a disability.
    [Human Rights Act 1993 and Law Practitioners Act 1982]
    
• Reasonable accommodation: Staff
  • To ensure equity of employment opportunity to all staff, the IPLS will initiate practical strategies to ensure that reasonable accommodation of a staff member’s needs are met where the staff member has a disability.
  • The IPLS will be aware of and endeavour to remove barriers in the physical and social environment in order to reasonably accommodate a staff member who has a disability.
  • The IPLS will constantly monitor and improve its policy and provision of reasonable accommodations for staff that have a disability.
    [Employment Relations Act 2000 and Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 and Human Rights Act 1993]
    
• On-line/Web accessibility
  • The IPLS will constantly monitor and re-evaluate the complex issue of on-line/web accessibility to ensure that all trainees who have a disability have equal access to the IPLS course.
  • The IPLS will continue to take into account the perspectives of trainees who have disabilities as one of the criteria in the design of its course.
    
• Discrimination
  • By encouraging and fostering positive attitudes among staff and trainees the IPLS will seek to eliminate direct or indirect discrimination toward people at the IPLS who have a disability.
    
• Networks
  • The IPLS will endeavour to create links with other organisations with compatible interests, including University Disability Support Services.
  • The IPLS will endeavour to create links with community Disability Support Services.
    
• Staff Training
  • IPLS staff will be trained in first aid.
  • Staff training at the IPLS will cover all aspects of the IPLS’s Disability Policy.

Frequently asked questions

• What does 'disability' include?

  Disabilities may include:

  • Learning disabilities, including dyslexia and dyspraxia
  • Visual impairment or blindness
  • Hearing impairment or deafness
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Chronic illness or other medical conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, auto-immune disorders
  • Head injury
  • Mental health issues
  • Speech disabilities
  • Occupational overuse syndrome
  • Respiratory difficulties, e.g. asthma
  • Mobility impairments
  
  This list is, of course, not exhaustive.

• What might the implications be for my employment prospects if I disclose my disability and seek reasonable accommodation for it while on the IPLS course?

  Any information provided by you to the Institute concerning a disability will be treated in confidence. Your private and personal information will not be shared with anyone that is not authorised by you in writing, including members of the Law Society, or individual members of the legal profession.

• What might my instructor know of or learn about my disability if I disclose it?

  If you have a disability, open communication about it with the Institute, the disabilities co-ordinator, your instructor, the branch manager, and the branch administrator is encouraged. This enables us to learn from your expert knowledge of your own disability and to support you by making reasonable accommodations for you while you are a trainee on the PLS course.
  
  The disabilities co-ordinator will advise your instructor that reasonable accommodations have been approved for you in relation to a disability. Your instructor will work with you to ensure that the reasonable accommodations successfully support your learning.
  
  An open relationship between you and your instructor is essential, and we would encourage you to talk freely with your instructor.

• What might my fellow trainees know of or learn about my disability if I disclose it?

  Any information provided by you to the Institute concerning a disability will be treated in confidence. Your private and personal information will not be shared with anyone that is not authorised by you in writing, including other trainees.
  
  As part of orientation in each class, the following matters are drawn to the attention of all trainees:

  • the fact that the Institute has a disability policy and the nature of that policy;
  • the need for all trainees to respect each other’s privacy;
  • the fact that it may appear to them that a trainee in their group is receiving benefits that others are not when, in fact, the trainee has worked with the Institute and has had reasonable accommodations set in place to assist him/her with a disability; and
  • the fact that instructors cannot and will not discuss any such arrangements with other trainees unless the trainee who has the disability has asked the instructor to do so.

Read more
Practical Guidelines for persons with a disability (PDF)
Resource and assistance form (RATD) (PDF)
Disability documentation form (PDF)

Disability policy acknowledgements
The Institute acknowledges the following people and organisations for their help and guidance in formulation of its disability policy and guidelines:

• Waikato Disability Support Service (for allowing the Institute to use its policy as a guideline)
• Waikato Disability Support Service
• Disability Services, Massey University, Albany Campus
• Manager Disability Support Services, Auckland University
• Disability Information and Support, University of Otago
• Disability Support Services, Victoria University
• Disability Services, University of Canterbury.