Access for people with learning difficulties: New rhetoric or meaningful concept?

Nind, Melanie and Seale, Jane (2009) Access for people with learning difficulties: New rhetoric or meaningful concept? In, Seale, Jane and Nind, Melanie (eds.) Understanding and Promoting Access for People with Learning Difficulties: Seeing the Opportunities and Challenges of Risk. London, GB. Taylor & Francis, pp. 3-19. (doi:10.4324/9780203092125-11).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

In this introductory chapter we set the scene for what follows in the book by discussing the ways in which access is conceptualised in the policy and research literatures.We show how calls for access from policymakers and others are not always matched by understanding of what this means in practice or in theory. This can turn access into unachievable aspiration at best and empty rhetoric at worst. As it would be hard to argue that access is anything other than a ‘good thing’ there is a danger that it could become the meaningless buzzword that Thomas and O’Hanlon (2001: vii) argue inclusion has become; made into a cliché that allows people to ‘talk about inclusion (or access) without really thinking about what they mean’. Similarly, Benjamin (2002: 310) discusses the ways in which the term ‘valuing diversity’ has been used to ‘lend a veneer of social justice and moral authority’ to other agendas.The potential for access to be used likewise is self-evident.

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