The Centre for Access and Communication Studies (CACS) closed at the end of 2006. Some of its work has been transferred to the Centre for Deaf Studies (CDS).

If you are looking for information on short courses for visually impaired adults, please visit the Add-Venture in Learning website.

If you would like information about training on disability issues, please contact Claire Wickham (email: claire.wickham@bristol.ac.uk). Queries about Personal Support Worker courses should also be directed to Claire Wickham.

Link Project

The Link Project, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), was an exciting two-year venture that opened up new opportunities for disabled people to enjoy courses offered by the University. Building on previous successful events, we have worked with disabled students to identify the barriers to participating in adult education.

The final report, Disabled Adult Students and Access to Higher Education: 'What I Really, Really Want' is available below:

• Full Report (Word, 991Kb)
• Full Report (large print format) (Word, 983Kb)
• Executive Summary (Word, 671Kb)
• Executive Summary (large print format) (Word, 672Kb)

Activating Access

Activating Access is a guide to supporting visually impaired adults in Higher Education. While there is a wealth of material available to support inclusion and to help tutors meet the access requirements of disabled learners, most of the existing guides and resources are written with full-time students clearly in mind or on the assumption that the course is taking place over an extended period of time. This guide is written from the perspective of adult learners who are attending short courses and where, perhaps, they have enrolled at relatively short notice.

The Activating Access guide is available below:
Activating Access (Word, 8.02Mb).