‘University Challenge’ – Week 5

As my A-Level exams are drawing ever closer, it has been a fairly busy time to say the least. Writing blogs has been therefore put on the back burner for a bit of time. Preparing to get the right support in place at University is important in the long run, and I am prepared to spend whatever time it takes to ensure my needs will be met. Things can start to become quite tedious though, and monotonous, when I have to keep repeating to social services what my care needs are.

Social Services will have a big part to play in making sure my needs will be met at University, in terms of the personal care. But, over the last few weeks I have felt that they could be a bit more pro-active in arranging meetings and such like. After I sent my five-page long document to Social Services giving precise details of my care needs, I am still going to have to justify my needs further next week. At least I am going to have this meeting, but it would have been nice to receive regular updates over the past few weeks.

What frustrates me with Social Services is that I have done my half of the bargain highlighting my care needs so that this can help them to ensure my needs will be met at University. On the other hand I feel Social Services are not really doing their bit quickly enough because it is only four months before I start University now. I have no real complaints with Winchester University as the staff involved are constantly updating me about I the structural arrangements that will be taking place.

The advice I would give is to keep plugging away and be in control of your own destiny, as I have found this will be the most effective way in making certain that going to University will be a comfortable experience. There will always be people out there to help with the process but at the end of the day being independent is key. I don’t have much other news to report on this week regarding my University preparation so more will follow next week.

‘University Challenge’ – Week 4

This week I have been spending a fair few hours preparing a document to send to Social Services about what my current care needs are. Although, it is about my current needs before I go to University it may be wise to tell Social Services what my needs are as they might just need to fund personal equipment and facilities at University, especially as I am hoping to live in student accommodation.

Do not be afraid from the off to tell those who may fund areas of your support that you require a lot of help. Over the last few months while preparing to go to University, I have learnt that it can be a big mistake to assume people understand what your needs are. The reason why this can cost you so dearly, is because the provision of support and care often comes down to one thing and one thing only, funding.

The social worker that came to visit me last week for a meeting to try and arrange a greater number of hours of care being paid for as my needs are increasing, said that in order to receive more money a detailed description of my current needs had to be given to justify my needs. Although I felt maybe what I discussed at the meeting was enough justification, I do need the care and if money is tight I have to make sure I get this care covered.

It is the same principal with support at university. If you have complex needs make sure those funding your support or equipment know you require enough funding to have your needs met. Now the social worker knows how complex my current needs are hopefully this will help if I require funding from social services at University.

Although Social Services may provide some of the funding for equipment at University, I have been given a very good impression from Winchester University themselves. After the meeting with the head of Support Services today, I now have a clear idea of how my needs will be met which they are very passionate about doing. They have now decided what room in the Student Accommodation will be adapted for me come September and arranged the possibilities for where my physiotherapy equipment will be placed.

I definitely feel more confident about having my needs met by the University now. An area for me to pursue though, is who will play for the rent for the carers room? I have heard it would be the local authority, however as I have mentioned earlier this will not be handed to me on a plate – wish me luck!

What going to University really boils down to is whether you meet the requirements of the conditional offer, therefore it is of high importance to make sure the bulk of your University preparation takes place before your college exam preparation commences. For me this is happening now, so I feel glad to know that I am already half way there to making sure the right provisions will be put in the place. Now I can fully focus on getting the right grades to get to University.

‘University Challenge’ – Week 3

I was slightly anxious in the build up to my Needs Assessment on Tuesday, but now this seems rather silly looking back on what happened. Everything ran smoothly, and it was more an informal chat about the support I would need at University next year.

A main piece of advice about Needs Assessments is making sure you are prepared to emphasise what your needs truly are, especially if you have a long-term, progressive condition. That way the assessors will understand that funding needs to be made available for support like; specific assistive tehcnlogy, software programmes, computer equipment or help with travel costs.

I am quite fortunate at my age with my condition, due to how much physical movement I still have, however, I still need to have the right provisions in place to access a University course like any other student. This makes it incredibly important to start from scratch at Needs Assessments never say ‘I have help sometimes at my college.’, you must say things like ‘I get a lot of help at College.’

Make certain that your Needs Assessment takes place before you leave your current education institution, don’t make the mistake of leaving it to August when you have your results. For me having it in April means there is plenty of time to make sure I get the right provisions in place in time for when I start my course in September. I haven’t had the assessment too early though which has given me enough time to do my research on the assistive technology available. Research is key because I was able to speak confidently about what technology would help me during the course.

As I have mentioned before in these blogs, it is important to have a sound idea of what your support requirements will be at University. Don’t get me wrong, you cannot possibly look into a crystal ball and foresee what will happen in the future. But, talking to course leaders about what the course entails and what current university students in a similar position find helpful has given me a better insight into what will be required next year.

Although there are few things to remember with Needs Assessments, they are not nearly as stressful as I first thought. Most Needs Assessors will have a good idea of a range of assistive technologies out there and understand the difficulty of your position. The lady who did my assessment asked thorough questions about how my condition affects my study so she could use her knowledge to suggest what would help me.

Much of the technology shown to me was new, despite the research I did. The journalism course will entail many lectures and seminars like most other courses, and to access these in the best way software programmes such as Dragon Voice Recognition, Mindmapping, Audio Notetaker and Read and Write have all been reccomended. Full details will be passed on about these softwares and how you can use them when I get a summary of what was discussed in the assessment in a few weeks. To simply know the names of a few of these programmes can be so useful, because it meant the Needs Assessor and I were on the same wavelength.

Other important provisons to have in place for any course are; mentoring,
library support and a voice recorder. You are at more of an advantage if you ask for more support or assistive technology to be set up for when you start, even if you don’t know to exactly what extent you will be using them. Things could become quite problematic if you ask for more support in the middle of your course, especially with assistive technology as very often this will require training.

One last tip for this week to remember is that whenever you have any appointments related to University don’t let others speak on your behalf, those from support organisations or your parents. At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own needs.

‘University Challenge’ – Week 2

The focus of this week’s blog about the process I am going through applying to university is to highlight the best ways of seeking advice and why it is important to be firm when making sure your provisions are met.

It is vital to remember that if you want to go to university, the course you eventually decide to do should be what you base your decision upon. For example, I have decided that I want to go to a university that does the best journalism course for me and this is Winchester. Due to the nature of the course there are many small audio booths and newsrooms that I have to access like any other student so there are still quite a few structural modifications that will have to take place but I do feel to a certain extent the university have to provide me with the right provisions.

I don’t feel going to a university that is in another part of the country is a necessity, since I have chosen to go to university nearby because I do not want to be in a situation where I find staying in accommodation a lonely experience. The fact that home is not a million miles away means I am likely to feel comfortable in the knowledge that I am not on my own. The most important thing to do though is what you feel comfortable with, equally staying in halls is not a necessity for some people.

In order to receive the correct support for your needs while you are at University you need to have a think early on about the way you are going to go about it. I decided to get in contact with a care management agency called Ask Jules, who will hopefully help me along the way to get the right support in place, both academically and in terms of personal care. They have the attitude that both needs are as important as each other. It is important to have people that are on your side throughout the application process. Although there are people who can help, it is important that you use the application process to be more independent as,whether you decide to stay in halls or not, independence and university go hand in hand.

Detail is key when applying to university, especially if you have extra needs. Sometimes I have taken extra hours to fill out forms as I know in the long term this will be beneficial because the more detail I go into the better my overall university experience is likely to be. Also, you are probably the best person who knows about your condition and personal needs.

Advice about the equipment you may need when you are at university does not get handed to you on a plate, social media is a wonderful thing and most of us use it all the time so why not utilise these networks to obtain information about applying to university? Many have been through your position before so don’t be afraid to seek crucial advice from others sharing their experiences.

Another way of collecting useful information is by arranging meetings with schools, organisations or colleges that specialise in giving technological support to disabled students. That way you have more information about what your needs actually are, as one of the big problems when passing on information to needs assessors or the university is that we don’t know ourselves the support we may need when we are at Univesity. I had my eyes opened last week at Treolars College in Alton, Hampshire when I looked at a range of different assistive softwares that could help me to access my journalism course like any other student.

Tune in next week for more advice on the university process where I will be able to feedback on my needs assessment that I have had to do a lot of preparation for. If I get that right, I am hoping it will go along way to making sure my needs are met.

‘University Challenge’ – with Sam Waddington

From today I have decided to write some short weekly blogs about the process I am going through, applying to university, as a young disabled man with specific needs. This process began late last year where I went to Winchester University open day to see what courses they were offering. I then decided that doing Journalism at Winchester would be best for me academically, so this was the easy part, shall we say?

In December it was then key that I started to liaise with the university support services to get the wheels in motion regarding accommodating me in the correct way. Due to the age of the campus though, much of it has had to be adapted to suit the needs of disabled people. But, I do have individual needs and therefore had to discuss these, for example structural arrangements at the university. If the course that you wish to do is not accessible don’t let this put you of because regular discussions with the university can go a long way to getting the right provisions in place.

One of the most important questions to ask yourself, and early on is better, is whether you want to stay in university accommodation or not. For anybody this is a massive life choice so the decision has to be taken seriously. At the end of the day though, you will get people telling you to do one thing and not the other, but, make sure the decision is yours and yours only.

After taking a while to decide whether I wanted to live in at university, I have finally come to the conclusion that living away home from would give me the best university experiencnce, both academically and socially. The decision is obviously difficult to make so have enough time to make it, but, after that working with the university to get the necessary provisions in place is just as important.

Although getting the right support at university is crucial, remember to be reasonable with your demands, the best way to ensure that your needs are met is by passing on every detail about your current support and how this may change in the future to the university. That way they have more knowledge about how to provide you with the right equipment, structural arrangements and support.

I have already spoken with a current disabled student with similar needs at Winchester University, in order to receive useful information that is straight from the horse’s mouth. Bear in mind that it is down to you to make sure your needs are met. There is a lot to learn quickly but hopefully blogs like this will help to a certain extent. There are always people out there to give advice and so far lots of different professionals have helped.

More to follow next week …