Accommodations at university?

Unfortunately he's delayed any DSA application because he doesn't see there being anything additional he would want (equipment, mentoring etc).  Perhaps he'll reconsider though.

We're also discovering that student finance is very much reduced for the final year, on the assumption that it won't have to cover the summer holidays.  Rent still has to be paid in advance though plus a whole year committed to, so there'll be an instant shortfall.  :(  

Hoping we'll muddle through somehow. 

Yes, I'm hoping that they'll assess his needs and be quite careful and patient with him.  We'll see.  It's not be equipment or travel he's after, more some consideration of the difficulties of actually attending on a busy campus plus the social aspects of his course like seminars and conducting a research project.   He'll be Ok with the purely academic bit, - project design, literature search and write up etc, but anything that involves approaching others will be difficult and might lead to him leaving.    

I'm not sure what you find offensive here plus how on earth can you know of any bias i might  or might not have had over the years?  I was saying that my son will very probably shoot down anything that is offered, due to his extreme anxiety and anger at his predicament.  Sorry if this wasn't clear. 

i am also aware of the legal restrictions regarding someone over the age of 18 so wouldn't contact the DO without my son's permission.  Given that he has no expectations of them and is extremely reluctant to engage, that hasn't been forthcoming.  So your statement that, "If you had called/emailed the disability dept yourself, they would have explained this weeks ago and your son could have completed the new assignment by now" seems unnecessarily blaming to me. 

Overall I am simply trying to get an idea of what might be offered in order to encourage him to seek the DO's help.   

Jenny Butterfly said:

am really hoping that the Disability Officer will automatically pick up on much of this

It's always best to write everything down you want to get across.  We all view the world differently, therefore, this will remove the chance of any miscommunication. 

Jenny Butterfly said:

I'm not sure what the disability officer might suggest but I have the feeling it's likely to be shot down as useless due to the high anxiety and anger over the predicament.     

Jenny Butterfly As well as finding specific support for you son, I suggest you think about your own bias and how over the years this may have contributed to your sons willingness to work with others - especially seen as his mum tends to write those off who are there to help him before she's given them a chance.

As an autistic, who has worked as a Disability Officer and has been in the same shoes as your son, I certainly wouldn't have shot him down. Nor did the DO I am working with for the reasonable adjustments for my PhD. I did find your comment to be offensive and upsetting.

The usual accommodations, in this case, would be that the student is given an individual project to work on instead. Plus, letters about attendance etc could be stopped if the student is going to work from home instead of attending campus. At most uni's his lectures should be recorded and put on Blackboard but if not the disability dept could look into this.

As your son is over 18, the uni can't legally talk to you about his specific circumstances, yet he can fill in a piece of paper work that will allow them to speak to you instead, or as well as, when needed. If you had called/emailed the disability dept yourself, they would have explained this weeks ago and your son could have completed the new assignment by now.

A lot of work is being done around the disability employment gap and if a uni's progression rates for their disabled students are low this will affect how much they are able to charge for fees. Therefore, its also in their best interests to support your son. 

Heya :) 

I can understand wanting to know what they can offer in advance, but as each case can differ, what they offer varies - the only way to know is to get in touch and go through the process. Generally, they can assist with things like specialist equipment, laptop, taxi fare (if mobility issue), printing etc. But as I said, it's hard to say exactly because they offer based on what you need. I know it's hard, but getting in touch will help you so much :) 

Much love <3

Hey :)

I think it takes a couple months, but it depends on how busy Disability Services are. The sooner you apply, the better!x

Much love <3

It is frustrating. Admittedly, I gave up on seeking support with my online degree for the same reason - I found it difficult to engage with the department and I struggled to make sense of the information online. Would writing them a letter be an option? Perhaps you could ask a family member/friend who knows you well to help you with the letter?

They recommend to start application in February and to send all evidence as well everything for student finance in. I didn't realise t, but DSA is tied with student finance approval for eligibility. My daughter had all the medical and SEN evidence and the assessment and had to wait 3 months for DSA being approved due to her being late with SF. Last year uni told my daughter that application in September would provide DSA support in January.

Thanks Nessie.  Food for thought.  We need to pare it down to what is needed and, hopefully with the help of the disability staff, come up with a plan. 

Because of the way things have fallen (late diagnosis plus previous problems on the course) the student is now quite distressed , resentful and angry about life, which spills over into the way this is now approached.  Previously things were ignored, unidentified and/or unsupported and the strong expectation is that only minimal help will be offered on the back of the actual diagnosis.  There is a feeling of, well, it'll be futile anyway because it always has been.  In the face of this, I am hoping for a pleasant surprise and that diagnosis will have made a real difference.   

i like what you wrote to the lecturers.  It sums it up very well and the system of docking marks seems unfair to any ND students (or indeed any student going through difficulties).  

i'm not sure whether the university will use the technology to do remote work but, if they're gong to make statements about inclusion then they certainly ought to.

(Plus sadly the toilet scenario sounds all too familiar.  In some study and working environments, it has represented my only safe retreat).         

A few of my experiences, good and bad, which may inspire some useful adaptations:

I didn't get diagnosed until aged 30 so went through my undergrad at uni not knowing why I found it so miserable. Fortunately, we didn't have 'seminars' and 'tutorials' like most unis, rather 'supervisions' which were 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 and suited me fine. Would it be possible for this student to have smaller group or private contact time in some cases, perhaps for the most important elements of the course? (I know every lecturer thinks their course is the most important, but there will be a few key learning points in each module that perhaps could be addressed, maybe monthly on a 1-to-1 basis, and allow the rest of the filler material to be more reading-based, assuming the student is happy accessing the library and/or online journals etc.?)

By the time I did my MSc. as a mature student, I had my diagnosis and made the uni aware of that and my other health conditions, which had also been diagnosed by that time (CFS, endometriosis). Consequently, I did get more support when needed, but, as you say, you do need to know what to ask for. For example, early in the first term, some of the lecturers went on strike over pensions and were yelling, blowing whistles and waving flags and banners on campus, and I had a complete meltdown. Spent ten minutes locked in a toilet, shaking and crying, then ran over to the Disability Services' office with my fingers in my ears where they found me somewhere dark and quiet to calm down. After that, I went home and stayed in bed with my curtains shut for 3 days, completely wiped out by it, and asked Disability Services to contact my tutor so I was left in peace and offered help to catch up on the stuff I had missed if I needed (I didn't). Everyone was very nice about it.

By the final term I was feeling pretty burned out, but we'd been told that for every lecture or seminar we missed for any given module, we would be docked 10% from our final assessment for that module (which in itself I found incredibly patronising; I was a paying customer—not to mention a grown adult—and felt it was my decision to attend or not, not theirs, per my undergrad experience). Anyway, I basically wrote to each of my lecturers and said, "While I appreciate the pedagogic value of lively debate and discussion on this topic [not really, but you have to throw them a bone], I have limited energy. I can either use this to get myself to campus and sit through your lectures and seminars, or I can use it to write your assignment, but I can't do both. You choose." To which they all oh-so predictably replied, "Well, you need to complete the assignment to pass the course and this will determine your final grade too; you must do the assignment." Like shooting fish in a barrel... All the lecture and seminar materials were on the VLE (Blackboard) by that stage anyway so I was hardly missing out on anything of value to me as I gain very little from in-person contact, but I do understand that the teaching and learning culture at campus-based universities is centred on face-time rather than reading for your degree (like my undergrad was) so I can see why the online course option is likely to be a non-starter. Plus, a lot of lecturers at campus unis studied at campus unis themselves so they are unlikely to know any better. (Miaow. PC-version: "...so they are unlikely to know any differently.")

Speaking of face-time, could the student use FaceTime or Skype etc., to be included in the group sessions remotely? Just a thought. The tech exists, so why not use it if they would feel comfortable doing so?

Anyway, I hope some of that helps a little.

Don't worry, remember that as long as we have love, we need not concern ourselves with the oft times disproportionate measure of competitiveness and selfishness we now see in abundance among humans on our planet.  Sometimes what at first appears to be disadvantage can be advantage. Things are not always as they first appear to be.  In the countless eternity, love is the best.

Yes, I'm hoping they'll he able to help.  6 months is a very long time though, when you're already 3 weeks into an academic year.  :(   Any delay would add to the disadvantages already faced as a result not just related to difference but also to being diagnosed very late.  Presumably early diagnosis might have meant support would have been in place from the start and I'm finding it hard to get my head around the fact that, pre-diagnosis, the individual was simply blames for any difficulties whereas once they're diagnosed, it opens up the possibility of understanding and support.  To be honest, I'm a bit dismayed that a university psychology department wouldn't be set up to accommodate differences, even if they haven't been formally identified.  

Yes, I find it particularly galling when teachers and others in positions of authority either reinforce or ignore the bullying.  It seems to me that the rot is often systemic.  

Yes, thank you.  Much appreciated.  I would like to offer support and be in a stronger position to talk things through, plus am really hoping that the Disability Officer will automatically pick up on much of this.  Perhaps they'll be able to help with putting together a plan to help for getting through this last academic year.  We'll see.  It's all coming very late in the day and ideally this would have been in place for the other years of the course.  I think this might have meant no additional years out or retakes and probably have resulted in higher grades.  

Overall this is making me reflect on what a disadvantage we're at.  :(

I would say that you need to speak to the Support team within the University and ask for them to really engage with the student to try and resolve this rather than letting it continue. The warning letters re non-attendance are standard but don't need to be sent out if they're going to add to the student's already heightened stress levels, and accommodations can be made once the staff are aware of the situation. 

DSA generally takes up to 6 months to come through from the initial application, sometimes faster dependent on area and response time. It can be used for so many additional tools that I'd really recommend it, although the student will have to attend an interview with an assessor who will evaluate their level of need - at a time like this that might be a difficulty that needs to be navigated. 

And what if a person who has autism starts an online course and they don't have to attend the campus, that is, of course, a lot easier.  But there can be other things that they may need support with-attending an examination, extensions for all assignments (this is sometimes needed), financial support, support with study planning, prioritisation and possibly support with other things like shopping etc.  If one has to ask family for financial support or if one is in one's overdraft and paying charges for months then I would say that there is not enough financial support.  

Life is already difficult enough but people add to it in their own selfish, bullying ways.  One does wonder why humanity is so bad sometimes. Yes, there is bullying at school, bullying at ignoring at home-especially  when siblings get older (often, people with autism experience more bullying and ostracism by their siblings when they all reach adulthood because the other siblings realise-even if a diagnosis has not been made yet-that the person is different and they make …. sure that the person knows it with their bullying, mean comments, ostracism, exclusions).  It can be truly awful and incomprehensible what someone with a neurodevelopmental condition that they were born with has to go through because of other selfish people.  Teachers can also join in with the fun of bullying and then of course, if one ever gets to the workplace (which usually doesn't last long in some cases) one experiences bullying again.  They simply do not care.  Then one is glad that at least some of us actually care about other people's feelings a great deal and one consoles oneself with that fact.  

If that's the case then of course the student needs the support to help them get to the classes to finish the course, or provide an alternative way of completing the course.  If someone is struggling to attend campus and to attend group work sessions then it would probably help firstly to talk to the person and try to get them to explain why they are finding it difficult and what they would find helpful.  It is possible, in some cases, to complete the course (that isn't online) if the correct support is in place.  Support that would be helpful includes-having a mentor, having someone to accompany to the classes, having someone in the class who understands, understanding that working in a group is sometimes extremely difficult (due to difficulty knowing how to contribute, slow to follow what's happening in the group due to not following the conversation activities fast enough etc.), allowing the person to leave if needed, making sure not too noisy/bright  (if applicable) etc.

The worst case scenario would be that even though tutors could see that someone is struggling to attend they would just let them try again the next year and then to failure again because the support was not in place. Even there is the possibility of a person not eating because they can't get to the shop.  So it is important, when a student is seen to be struggling with attending the campus that they are supported or given an alternative option to get a qualification. It is, of course, different and extremely difficult when autism is undiagnosed because that means that it can often be difficult for a lot of people to realise the extent of the person's difficulties but sometimes, a random person will notice and then leads to realisation that one's whole life that was the issue that was occurring and the reason why so many things were difficult.  Being in crowds can be torturous-too much information all at once.

Often, people just need someone who understands to accompany them and sometimes people feel that they need someone to accompany them wherever they go because people who have autism sometimes have not grown up in the same way some other people have (it is a neurodevelopmental condition after all) and require/feel that they require someone to accompany them places such as university campus, shopping, anywhere else that they feel they can't manage alone etc.  Of course, if it is difficult to make friends (sometimes, don't know the extent, but sometimes due to bullying, ostracism, ignoring, etc.) and this makes it even more difficult and different for the experiences at university.  Even if a university is aware of an issue, they don't always offer support and if they do, it is vital that communication issues are understood in setting up and understanding the said support.  Many people who have autism find it extremely difficult to place themselves in the meaning of the social world and how it all works together.  This means that they may not understand why people are thinking or behaving the way they are. 

People should understand that life is difficult enough without warning emails and the like.  Of course, negative experiences and memories of them (people who have autism sometimes remember things more vividly) often impact on the next endeavour as is often the case with humanity in general.  Person-centred support should be the thing that is happening and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.  So what will happen next with the issue of being on campus and attending? Has any of what I have suggested helped?

Yes, I wonder this more generally too.  The dynamics of the schoolyard can follow us into further education and beyond into the workplace.  :(