Andrew Hubbard MA RCSALT

Background Information

Losing my sight three months before I sat my degree final in Classics was the end of my career in education, my life was in turmoil and future education didn’t feature much at all in my plans.

After a year in the doldrums of a new identity, that of a disabled person and one I had always previously feared, I moved to London with a link guide dog companion and began a new career as a speech and language therapy student.

Qualified and working with adults who had a stammer at the City Literary Institute London I recognised the greatest barrier we have to life long learning is our denial of difference and the pressure to ‘fit in’ with society expectations.

I learned the greatest lessons of my life at this period; to sum up trying not to act like a disabled person was the most disabling factor in my self development, confidence and learning.

As adults we do not want to appear different in our learning capabilities and as so we do not identify or clarify what would make learning more accessible and therefore effective.

A good example is a hearing impaired person not telling a tutor not to stand in front of a bright light or window which makes lip reading very difficult or impossible, or a visually impaired student not telling a tutor that they need learning materials in alternative formats such as electronic or audio.

Moving to Wales to take up a position as speech and language therapist in Morriston Hospital Swansea was a proud moment in the life long learning trajectory. Working for 15 years with adults who stammer was an epiphany. Trying to fit in, be like everyone else is what prevents people from personal development.

It is trying not to stammer that continues stammering behaviour. It was pretending to be like other professionals, trapped in my identity as a therapist that prevented me from telling the world that I was not coping with my life due to my worsening eye condition. It led to my eventual loss of employment and complete breakdown.

Denial of one’s identity prevents all personal development and learning from taking place. My greatest lesson was accepting my difference and celebrating the fact I was not the same as others. I was able to talk of my access requirements and what I needed to become a happy and complete person.

In 2003 Andrew Hubbard Associates was launched and a new career as a self employed equality trainer and consultant began.

An opportunity came to work on a project with the Welsh Development Agency in a comparative study of employability in South Wales and Southern Italy.