Find out how to use our Disability Advice team to register with the service, access support and talk about any adjustments you may require. You will also be able to visit the University before your course starts, to gain a feel for where you will be based throughout your studies.

The Disability Team at our university are your main point of contact for any disability related queries throughout your studies. The team is responsible for putting in place your reasonable adjustments, responding to your queries and supporting you through collaboration with other parts of the university where needed. 

Under the Equality Act 2010, Universities have a duty to make reasonable adjustments where disabled students may be placed at a disadvantage in comparison with non-disabled students. Reasonable adjustments enable you to access and participate in learning, assessment, university facilities and services.

Some examples of reasonable adjustments are:

• Exam or Assessment adjustments (e.g. extra time, use of a PC, etc.)
• Support with reading and research (e.g. assistance to locate or/and collect research material, access to alternative formats, etc.)
• Access to specialist equipment and assistive software (e.g. text to speech to assist with research and proofreading, mind mapping to assist with planning and organising your work, a recording device to assist with note taking, etc.)
• Access to advance taught sessions
• Teaching sessions recorded and published on Blackboard, our Visual Learning Environment, where possible.

If you haven’t done so already we would encourage you to contact our Disability Advice team in order to talk about the support available to you and ensure any adjustments are made in time for your arrival at our university. Your Disability Adviser will also assist you in the process of applying for DSA, if you are eligible for this support or advise you of the alternative support options available to you if not.

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• other services the team offers
• details about any specific programmes offered to autistic students (e.g. summer schools)

The Disability Service will put in a standard suite of reasonable adjustments for you. Once this has happened you can contact us to discuss further – you might want to decline some or all of the adjustments or you may wish ton discuss something that isn’t included already. 

If you decide not to engage with our disabled applicant processes prior to starting your course, you are still welcome to contact us at any point throughout your studies. 

What to do next

If you haven’t done so already, please – 

1. Apply for DSAs if you are eligible and get in touch with us if you need help.

1. Write and submit an impact statement online.

1. Check whether you already have reasonable adjustments in place via the My Info tab on MYUWE and if not, submit evidence to Disability so that we can put adjustments in place.

1. To contact us, please use our online self-service and enquiry form for immediate answers to many queries and help. You can use this form to submit evidence to us too. 

It might be useful to think about:

• how you would like to describe your autism and anything you think would be useful to share with your tutors. Then please create your impact statement.
• any support you have received in the past, what has worked well and what hasn’t worked for you
• how you plan to travel to university
• if you are living away from home for the first time, how are your meal planning, shopping, cooking and cleaning skills 
• what you would like to tell your housemates and course peers about your autism. Guidance can be found online.
• your experience of teaching sessions, what helps you to gain an understanding of a new topic or task
• how you have found note taking and researching for assignments and how you plan to do this at university.  If you have applied for DSAs you may get some useful software through this process that can help
• how you have found assessments in the past, e.g. exams, essays, presentations, etc.
• how you feel about group work, placement and practical tasks.