COVID-19 Guidance
During the pandemic, university communications have often been very long; constantly changing and often fail to mention issues that specifically affect you as disabled students. It can be difficult to contact staff, many universities are insisting on deadlines being maintained (despite our lives being turned upside down) and there is a lot of uncertainty about exams and more. You are not alone! This guide aims to pull together advice and links to support resources for UK-based disabled students at this time.
COVID-19 Report
Lately, several reports have surfaced which provide insight into disabled students’ struggles in accessing higher education during the pandemic. In this report, we want to bring these findings together to highlight the issues experienced by disabled students and suggest ways forward. We also add our findings from informal surveys conducted with a large number of disabled students. In this way, we hope to both gather useful information in one place and add disabled students’ voices to the discussion.
COVID-19 Report Update
Other resources
- Coronavirus: Are disabled uni students getting enough help? – BBC
- The Association of Non-Medical Help Providers undertook a student survey, receiving 3614 student responses. They also surveyed providers.
- NADSN released a Position Paper “COVID-19 Post-Lockdown: Perspectives, Implications and Strategies for Disabled Staff”
- The National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP) released a report based on information from members of staff at colleges and universities working with disabled students.
- A group of disabled PhD students created an open letter with requests to UK Universities, UK Research Councils and Research Funding bodies
- DSA answers to stakeholder questions
- World Health Organisation: Q&A on disability considerations during COVID-19
- Coronavirus: Update implications for the further and higher education sectors
- Virginia Tech: Mapping Student Needs during COVID-19
- We’re being fobbed off’: why disabled students are losing out in lockdown – The Guardian