© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 37 No 2 2006 289–294 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00535.x Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Oxford, UKBJETBritish Journal of Educational Technology0007-1013British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 20052005372289294Colloquium ColloquiumBritish Journal of Educational Technology Colloquium Disabilities Information Flow: a disabilities information management system Bin Ling, Colin Allison, J Ross Nicholl, Luke Moodley, and Dave Roberts The authors are from the university of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK. Bin Ling, Colin Allison, and J Ross Nicholl are from the School of Computer Science; Luke Moodley is from Library and Information Services; and Dave Roberts is from Student Support Services. Email: lingbin@dcs.st-and.ac.uk Abstract The Disabilities Information Flow (DIF) project at the University of St Andrews has sought to provide a means of efficiently managing all student disabilities information within the institution and provide appropriate role-based service interfaces for all staff who need to routinely interact with this information. This paper describes the software engineering processes used for the context analysis, design and implementation of the DIF. Introduction There is growing evidence across UK academic institutions, and in the education sector in general, that disabled students are being admitted to higher education with little appreciation of the diversity of requirements necessary to produce a positive and suc- cessful student experience. Disabled students require full access to the higher education curriculum without suffering from discrimination because of their disability. In order to meet these two requirements it is important that information about disabilities is obtained and communicated to those who need to know, and only those who need to know, as efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, the management of information flows about students with disabilities within many institutions has evolved on a largely ad hoc basis. Many teaching staff are uncertain and even anxious about working with students with disabilities. Many con- sider they have too little knowledge and information about, for example, how a disability affects a student’s learning, how individuals organise their study and learning activi- ties, what is being understood by students in lectures, and what discretion, if any, to use in assessing students’ work.