It helps to be specific about where a teacher's responsibility begins and ends, because uncertainty on this point is itself a barrier — teachers who are unsure what is expected of them tend to either do too little, or feel personally responsible for problems that are actually institutional in nature. Across every accessibility category covered in Part 3, teachers are expected to:
-
Plan teaching with learner diversity in mind, from the start, rather than as an afterthought once a specific student's needs become known.
-
Know how to access the institution's disability or inclusion procedures — not necessarily memorise every detail, but know where to look and who to ask.
-
Review and apply agreed adjustments, and take the further step of confirming they have actually been implemented, rather than assuming an adjustment recorded on a student's file is automatically delivered in the room.
-
Maintain student confidentiality and communicate respectfully, including with colleagues discussing a shared student.
-
Provide accessible teaching materials, with clear instructions and sufficient notice of tasks, deadlines, and any changes.
-
Support different ways of participating in a session, rather than treating one mode of participation (typically, speaking up unprompted in open discussion) as the only valid one.
-
Make reasonable changes where appropriate, guided by what actually removes a barrier rather than by precedent or convenience.
-
Ensure assessments measure learning rather than disability-related barriers — the distinction covered in more depth in Part 2, Section 8.
-
Report barriers they cannot resolve independently, and work constructively with disability, wellbeing, technical, or academic support services when necessary, rather than treating an unresolved issue as someone else's problem to notice.
-
Avoid placing the full responsibility for accessibility on the student — the single principle that, more than any other, distinguishes inclusive practice from a purely accommodation-based approach.
Teachers are not expected to diagnose students or act as medical professionals. Their responsibility is to remove educational barriers and implement appropriate support — not to determine what is 'really' going on for a student, or to second-guess a diagnosis, a disclosed need, or a requested adjustment.
It can help to think of this list as two layers. The first layer — plan with diversity in mind, provide accessible materials, communicate clearly — is universal design work a teacher can do without knowing anything about any specific student, and forms the majority of what this toolkit covers. The second layer — reviewing and applying an agreed adjustment, working with a support service on a specific case — only activates once a specific student's needs are known, whether through disclosure or a formal support plan. Most of a teacher's day-to-day inclusive practice sits in the first layer; the second layer, while sometimes more visible, is usually the smaller part of the work.