Published on 12, July, 2020
Alright people. I am a 24 year old graduate with Asperger Syndrome. The reason i am making this post is because I believe that it is extremely important that universities offer students with Asperger more support to help them cope with the social demands of university and to have a specialist career support service that helps them get work experience and find jobs after graduation.
Universities generally offer support for students with Asperger to help them cope with time management and studying. This is really important especially for first year students. In my first year I assumed that I would do well academically because I had no problems in college. But all the change of independent living, having to fend for myself, study at a faster pace and having to manage my time overwhelmed me, made it difficult to concentrate and I ended up failing my first year. I had to apply for extenuating circumstances and they let me retake they year after I applied for support and completed the rest of my degree with no issues academically. So if anyone is planning to go to university I would strongly recommend that they apply for academic support as university is so much different that school/college. I got a study support worker who I met 2 hours a week and helped me to explain the lecture slides if anything wasn't clear and I also got extra time for exams and extensions for assignments. It made a big difference.
Hoevever, even though I did well academically because I got the support, I had some serious social issues especially in my second year and final year when some coursemates started taking advantage of me. Without going into too much detail, It could easily have derailed my whole degree so I was very lucky I actually managed to graduate at all.
I also found it really hard to get a job after uni, being unemployed for 1 year (bar a very small temporary data entry job at Royal Mail for a few weekends in December) before I came to know an organisation called Shaw Trust. A lady there was excellent supporting me with getting jobs, she contacted employers, sent my CVs to companies and helped to find jobs online. I eventually managed to find a contract job that was supposed to last between 6 and 9 months but was laid off soon after starting. I had a few more temporary jobs and eventually managed to find my first permanent job 2 years after graduation. I think the reason why I started being so successful (every time I lost my previous job I managed to find a new one fairly quickly) is because I built up the experience. If it werent for Shaw Trust I don;t know where I would be today.
Because of these problems I started campaigning for my former university (Staffordshire Uni) to implement more non-academic support for students with Asperger. I proposed a befriending service and a social group to help students deal with their social difficulties and to prevent them from falling victim to isolation or exploitation. I firmly believe that having support on the social side is just as important as having academic support. I also proposed a specialist career support service to help students access to the employment market and overcome their barriers. Although I do not know exactly what services they will implement, I think they are definitely working on it as the student enabling centre said they are planning a social group and 'a more supportive environment' for students with ASD from September 2017. A few months ago the career centre also got back to me they are planning a meeting with Shaw Trust in the very near future to see how they can work together to support student with Asperger.
I have uploaded the proposed befriender scheme, social group and career support service to my website I created.
bencezori.wixsite.com/mysite
If you or anyone you know is planning to go to uni this year or next year, I have a message for you: You deserve to get the most out of it! You have the right to enjoy it like everyone else, and I invite you to campaign for the university to make them implement these services! It would be very important to disclose your disability, apply for academic support and also forward the website to the Disability Centre of that university you are planning to go and push them to implement a befriending service and a social group by September, and ideally a career support service by the time of graduation. The proposed schemes are detailed on the website. Let me know how you got on and if your university implemented these services.
Good on you!
Although SD20 has ADHD she's quite naive and her mother's behaviour while she was growing up has made her vulnerable to individuals who are emotional vampires. Both her Dad and I regularly remind her to use social filters more to avoid becoming a victim.
I'm thinking of setting up a neurodiversity social group for young people in our Quaker Meeting House which is pretty close to campus, and you've inspired me to look at it again.