Preparing for university is a lot for everyone but it takes even more preparation for those with disabilities. So if you’re unsure of what you might need to think about and do to prepare, or are just not sure if you’ve thought of everything, then here is the top 10 things you need to do before starting uni as a disabled student.
1. Apply for Disabled Students Allowance
Disabled students allowance or DSA is support/funding from the government to cover the ‘study-related’ costs that you may incur due to your disability. You do not need to pay back this allowance and it is separate from student finance. It is not based on income at all but rather based on individual needs. This link will take you to the DSA post, telling you more about it, what you can get from it and how to apply: https://spoonsintheocean.com/what-is-dsa-and-how-do-i-apply-for-it/
2. What type of university do you want to go to?
There are generally two types of universities- city universities and campus universities. City unis, as the name probably explains, are universities that are actually in a city. Their buildings and accommodations are often spaced out across large parts of the city. The benefits of these are that you are close to everything like shops, doctors, bars, restaurants, etc. However, it can take a lot of time to get from one place to another in a city uni. Your accommodation might be a 10 minute or more walk away from your lecture which could become quite difficult and even expensive for those with disabilities.
Campus universities are where all the buildings and halls accommodation (often like a student village) are all together in one little community. These will often have their own shops, restaurants/bars, cafes, etc. all within the campus. They will also often have a big supermarket near them too. The benefits of these are that it is much easier to get from your accommodation to lectures and there’s generally a much bigger sense of community as you have a huge area of purely students with places to hang out inside and outside. The negatives of campus unis are that you will have to travel to get to the nearest big town or city for most shops, nights out, etc. However most unis will have good transport links to help with this.
Personally, I went with a campus uni, simply because I found it much easier everything all being close together so I didn’t have to travel far or spend much money to simply get to my lectures or go the library to study. Yes the shops and everything were in the next town over but this has never really been a problem at all.
3. Accommodation
Universities will often have a few different options for halls of residence. Each hall will also often have a variety of different rooms, all of which you will be able to look at from your chosen uni’s website. It will be a good idea to look at where the halls are located, the facilities they have and what the rooms are like. It is also worth noting that when you apply for accommodation, those with disabilities can ask for specifics other than just type of room such as which floor its on, etc. For example, although I didn’t need an accessible room, I was able to ask to be put on the first floor because I can’t easily go up a lot of steps but was anxious about being on the ground floor.
4. The course and its content
Take the time to look at the specifics of the course you want to do. Look at what the assessments are and what field work or trips it includes (or your course equivalent of those things as this is from a bioscience student POV). Be aware of the requirements but don’t let them stop you from doing the course. Instead, use it to prepare for your course and find ways to get around any issues you have (there will be help out there for this).
5. Campus accessibility
Look at the accessibility of the campus – how easy is it really to get around? Where are the disabled toilets? Is there good lift access? How is the uni at dealing with accessibility? Take the time to look on your chosen uni’s accessibility page but also ask and look online for others experiences with that uni as they will often tell you things the uni doesn’t.
6. Travel
This is more relevant to city unis but can definitely apply to campus unis as well. Every uni will have varying levels of transport links and while most will have very good bus and train links, they can be very costly if not subsidised by the uni (which some do, some don’t). Also look at if there are any travel cards available that make frequent travel much less expensive.
Also if you drive or have someone who can drive you, look into the university’s policy on parking. Many unis have quite strict rules on parking and where you can park. For example, mine does have parking but its £8 a day and you can only park in certain car parks. However, they do also have yearly permits for those with a blue badge, live more than 5 miles from campus or have an electric car.
7. Contact the university accessibility team
Make sure you contact the university’s accessibility team before you come to university. This will mean that you will be able to have any adjustments like extra time for exams, scribes, permissions, etc. already in place before you arrive as it could be a lot of stress trying to sort it once you’ve already started and can take significantly longer. I personally contacted my unis accessibility team once I had DSA in place as it just made the process a lot easier and faster as the DSA fast tracks things and already explains the adjustments you require.
8. Open days
If you are able to, go to open days and offer-holder days that the university will offer you. They are great opportunities to see the campus, accommodation, how accessible it is and gives opportunity to actually go and speak to the accessibility team if you want to. I decided to go to a university’s open day that I wasn’t even originally planning on applying to but that uni actually ended up being my first choice as I just ended up loving the campus a lot more than my previous choice.
9. Meet people on your course before coming to uni
If you are especially worried about finding friend or meeting your course mates before university, then consider looking at this guide where I explain how I made friends with my course mates well before coming to uni so when I arrived, it was much less scary – https://spoonsintheocean.com/how-to-make-friends-before-coming-to-university/
10. Look at other Spoons in the Ocean Posts
This blog has many posts giving advice to disabled students so will hopefully give information on anything you want advice on. If it doesn’t however, please just click on the Instagram icon on the top of the page to send me a message or send me an email and I will be happy to reply with my advice or will make a new post on the topic.
If you have any questions or found this post helpful, please comment below! And follow our social media for updates on new posts, polls for what you would like me to make posts on and much more!
