Disabled Access Schemes:

Applying to uni can be pretty scary when you’re from a non-standard background. I am first-generation, from a working class background – there was nobody I could ask about what uni was like; my family knew about as much as I did. We didn’t know what uni was, let alone what it would be like as a disabled student.

Being autistic, I had (or have!) a bit of an ambitious streak. I remember deciding when I was little that I was going to go to uni (Cambridge, because I pushed my dad into picking which one of Oxbridge was the best). It was only when I was getting to the end of GCSEs that I realised, I had no idea what uni was. So it became my new autistic hyperfixation – how do I find out, how do I get in (and also what do I study, but that’s a whole other topic!).

I found out about those expensive summer schools (£5000!) and applied for one of their scholarships (unsuccessfully), but I discovered the world of widening participation at uni on an access visit to Oxford, where a person mentioned UNIQ. My school had never brought this up, (I assume it’s because they don’t expect many people at a grammar school in middle class suburbia will be selected). I applied for the Sutton Trust summer school at Cambridge, the Archaeology Department’s own summer school, and a lot of different activities at UCL (they have so many!). I ended up accepted onto the department summer school, a UCL shadowing scheme for disabled students, and onto the waiting list for Sutton Trust and a UCL non-residential summer school on archive collections.

The UCL Disabled Student Shadowing Day was probably the most useful widening participation event I went on. Because this was in Year 12, it meant they could tell me well in advance of all the things I could need. In the morning, they had a session with a member of the disability team where they explained what DSA was (sadly not money straight into my bank account as I had envisioned) and how to apply. It also allowed me to ask questions about disability concerns I had – what happens with accommodation if you have access needs? Do I have to do public speaking as part of my course, or can it be adapted for me? Getting answers for these questions made me a lot more confident that I would be able to cope at uni. They also answered my questions about how this applied to the other unis I was considering (UCL, in my experience, was very good at this in general).

In the afternoon, I shadowed a UCL Student studying archaeology, with a similar SpLD to my own. She showed me around the campus, the archaeology building, the disabled student centre, and we had lunch whilst we discussed what I was interested in. It turned out she had the same area of interest as me, which was an extra bonus! In the afternoon we went to one of her seminars on museums, and I found it easy to keep up, which excited me – I could do this! It gave me so much more confidence in my ability to not only cope at uni, but to thrive.

I also ended up going on two summer schools – the Cambridge archaeology department’s residential and the non-residential UCL Special Collections summer school (I was called from the waiting list on the Sutton Trust school, but it clashed with this summer school – if you’re asked about going onto a waiting list, say yes, you may well still get in).

The residential was definitely harder with my disabilities than the non-residential: on UCL’s, I could eat my own food, arrange my own transport (reimbursed!) and was safe in the knowledge that I was always close to home. On Cambridge’s summer school the department’s outreach person was amazing and was really open to accommodating me, but sometimes this didn’t work in practice. I have texture issues with food which limits my diet well beyond a common restriction like vegan (and not all places even provide vegan options!) so I didn’t have my hopes up there would be food that worked for me. The catering at college didn’t suit me, but she ensured I had access to a kitchen and fridge in the accommodation, so I could bring food with me that I could eat. I ended up partaking in the social aspect of dinner, and then eating my own food before or after. At the time of the summer schools, I was early in the process of managing my nerve pain condition, so I informed them that sometimes I might not be able to walk far, as it would cause a flare up. It ended up being one of the hottest summers on record; temperature further aggravates my condition. She always gave me the option for a taxi if I couldn’t walk; sometimes I rejected even when I thought I needed it, which is a lesson learnt on my part. I ended up using a taxi twice, once with the whole group, and once on my own. They never made me feel bad for needing extra help, and it was a really positive experience, though I did talk her ear off about the oven availability at colleges making me scared of applying! (pro tip: at Cambridge, Newnham, Murray Edwards, Fitzwilliam and Girton colleges all have ovens as far as I know!).

There are more widening participation schemes than those at UCL and Oxbridge (and some at Oxbridge that even I didn’t know existed before I arrived at Cambridge); if you’re not sure about travelling far from home, see if local unis offer non-residentials or single-day events near you, even if you don’t plan to apply there – widening participation work is to encourage you to apply to any university, not just them! Even if you’re not sure if you’ll get selected, or if you’re ‘disabled’ enough for disabled access schemes, apply anyway! I didn’t expect to be successful in any of my applications, but I ended up having the option to go to all 4 (partly due to archaeology being super niche though). If an access scheme isn’t being as accessible as I found mine to be, try to be bold and tell them that ‘reasonable adjustments’ are their legal obligation – it took me a long time to realise that I wasn’t being demanding by asking for the accommodations that helped me – you aren’t demanding in asking for them either!