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Lack Of Disability Support/Information At Open Days

I'm really not happy about this...

Today, I went to the Plymouth open day. When I asked if there was disability support around, they said yes. They took me down to the office and the person I spoke was pretty clueless.

Also, there was a stand with a person and I asked what sort of help I should expect as a VI student and again, they acted really clueless.

Another one I went to (another day) there was no-one around to answer my questions. I managed to ask the tutor, who gave me a little bit of advice. (he had to ask someone about it though) There was also someone there to talk about student finance, who helped me out with DSA stuff.

Is it generally like this at other open days? Because of the lack of information I got today, it's really putting me off going there, yet the course looks good.

Reply 1

Nayberay

I'm not too sure to be honest..I'm not disabled but my mate went to some open days last year and the majority had disability support..

I'm going to a few open days this year and I'll see if you want..

Why don't you complain or give the uni some suggestions or maybe even question them over this matter.

All the best
:biggrin:

Reply 2

Paulwhy

"Even" at a big uni like Warwick there is only 1 disability officer. (who is in my experience very good). Hence if you are interested in talking about disability issues at an open day it would make a lot of sense to let them know that before hand.

Reply 3

Gemz87

Is this at the uni or college?

Reply 4

Titch89

I'm talking about un.

Reply 5

River85

Titch89

What makes that all the more shocking is that, if these stats are still up to date, it has the second highest number of students with diabilities.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00354/gug-2_354192a.gif

When you consider first is the Open University...

Reply 6

Gemz87

Plymouth has one advisor who also covers their Truro campus and sometimes Marjon Uni (also based in Plymouth). One you get your DSA forms in OP, you'll get a meeting with him I'd expect, he's really nice, good bloke, it's a really busy time of year and the main open days are in March.

Thank you

If you want to phone and speak to him, I can PM you his name.

Reply 9

Maysie07

Even at a big uni like Warwick there is only 1 disability officer. (who is in my experience very good).

I just wanted to say I agree my mum and I were actually really impressed by how supportive the diability department were.

Sorry not very helpful- have you checked out the website i find they are really helpful and often have a disability specific webpage for that uni.

Reply 10

Titch89

Gemz - that would be helpful, thank you again.

Reply 11

SarahhhD

Newcastle was Rediculose for this. D;
I went into a Journalism at northumbria ceminar, and they were very "oh, we''ll help you learn shorthand, extra hours of tuition ect."

Reply 12

Titch89

I went to the City uni open day yesterday and they appeared to be a lot more helpful. However, I did have a student tell me they weren't around.

Reply 13

Paulwhy

Maysie07

I just wanted to say I agree my mum and I were actually really impressed by how supportive the disability department were.

Glad you were impressed.

Reply 14

Titch89

SarahhhD

Newcastle was Rediculose for this. D;
I went into a Journalism at northumbria ceminar, and they were very "oh, we''ll help you learn shorthand, extra hours of tuition ect."

I'm surprised they didn't suggest a note taker or laptop in lectures. (which I'm hoping I'll be allowed, as typing is much easier for me)

Reply 15

SarahhhD

Titch89

I'm surprised they didn't suggest a note taker or laptop in lectures. (which I'm hoping I'll be allowed, as typing is much easier for me)

For newcastle They did, but they wouldn't tell me if I would be at a great disadvantage content wise, they could only give me examples of people who are Blind who've compleated the course, which was reasuring,

For Northumbria, I was looking at Journalism, and we still need Shorthand so I was asking for that. (I was having a mad moment the other week when I decided to go give Journalism a look over.) I know that the Disability surport there is decent, my friend dose Something in computing there and he has a simular condition to me.

I'd need a note taker I think, I can't type at great speed, and my Handwriting gets illegible when asked to write at any great speed, I pitty my examiner.

Reply 16

Gemz87

Sarah - Another option is a dictaphone, you can click a button to put a chapter in whenever you feel something is especially important and make your own minimal notes. Then after the lecture play it back and use Dragon (a speaking programme DSA often provide) to tell the computer what you want to write as notes.

Reply 17

SarahhhD

Gemz87

That probably would be the way I'd Tackle note making. :smile:

Reply 18

lemi_513

it differs depending on the uni, Im at University of Bedfordshire, they have 4 disability officers and they ask students who have disabilitys to work as student ambassadors on open days so that students can talk to someone whose been in the same situation. You should find out if the university is disability friendly, some are more then others and could affect your experience of uni.