Abigail Pearson (Three Minute Thesis)
School of Law
A case study of the accessibility of undergraduate legal education
in England for people with disabilities from the perspective of both
students with disabilities and teaching staff
My thesis explores access to legal education in England for people with disabilities. It
differs from previous studies relating to access to education, as it will look at access
at a subject specific level, particularly the place and value of exploring legal
responses and attitudes to disability within a liberal legal education. It will examine
the legislative frameworks at supranational, international and national level, from a
human rights perspective in order to evaluate strengths and weakness in terms of
both physical and attitudinal access in practice. This will present opportunities to
explore how critical discussions could be integrated into the legal curriculum, as it
will highlight areas for discussions and potential change. The thesis will consider this
in terms of radical pedagogy and praxis and critical legal theory as a way of
exploring how this could be put into practice. Proposed empirical work seeks to gain
first-hand experiences from undergraduate students with disabilities and teaching
staff at a range of institutio