Reilly, Declan. (2012). Disability Access Route to Education : Are we DARE yet?. Trinity Education Papers. Volume 1. 54-70.

Abstract 

This paper looks at the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE) and asks if the apparent success of this access initiative is well founded. It questions if DARE is overly dependent on a medical model of disability and simplistically equates the diagnosis of disability with a negative impact on education. Although DARE is based on well intended concepts such as access and inclusiveness, the vagueness of these terms, when combined with the complexity of disability and the deficit model of special education, means that the entry route is a means for opportunistic traditional students to increase their likelihood of attending higher education ahead of the intended target group. Using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as a guide, this paper identifies some of the features of the DARE scheme and discusses the systematic biases which it may unintentionally facilitate. 

Full paper avaliable here