University

Hello I was just wondering if you had any advice of which universities had the best support system in place for autistic students ? It’s a very important part of my choice. 

Thank you ! 

Hello I was just wondering if you had any advice of which universities had the best support system in place for autistic students ? It’s a very important part of my choice. 

Thank you ! 

Hi longman.

I agree the NAS probably wont care.

Dont get me wrong theres no bad feeling or negativity aimed at the NAS but surely to understand a condtion all areas of it must be explored and researched, atleast from my point of view i'd want to gather every bit of information avalible and develope a plan and guide research around this 'maybe this is just an AS view.

A larger part of my point is that i'd never heard of the NAS until i'd seen my GP after hitting a brick wall and he sugested i may have ASD and to do my research, and so it goes on.

I live in the North East of England and i'd never heard of the NAS and if someone said to me 'Autisum' i'd have said Rainman. Wheres the posters, bilboreds and adverts?

If its a money issue a can't go near to without some charity with a bucket stopping me, if the was the issue why not send people out to and area some doing fund raising in different ways so concentrating on awareness, give people some information and ask them some questions, gather some data, calculate it and come up with a fund raising and awareness plan that can start to be roled out. I thought Charities were ran like businesses these days?

Maybe this is a to simplistic view and i'm missing something?

All the best and kind reguards Steven..

We will be a long time waiting for NAS to come up with answers. Essentially if you can get to University or you can get a secure job, you haven't got autism! So nobody bothers.

The big problem remains this idea that somehow, you can resolve autism by just writing things down.

This hinges on a misunderstanding of the communication difficulty - its not that we cannot hear - it is that we have difficulty processing some of the information, including that communicated in SOCIAL environments. It forgets too that many people on the spectrum have comorbid dyslexia

Writing down a job instruction, for example, that would otherwise be explained verbally by a manager, is sheer nonsense. Non-autistic people discuss through social mechanisms the interpretation of a task. The person with autism cannot share that interpreted knowledge, because of difficulties interfacing socially.

So whether heard, or read, the difficulty people on the spectrum have with instructions is having to interpret them ON THEIR OWN n isolation, while their workmates are able to change or modify the interpretation through social exchange. So the person with autism ends up doing things differently, or apparently a contrary way to others.

But don't expect NAS to understand.

I agree longman there seems to be little progress in understanding for ASD. Id like to know more clearly what the NAS approch and view on this is and how to improve understanding. i havnt read all the homepage and links ong the NAS website though there isn't mush mention of how to imporve awareness and indeed what benefits that someone with ASD could bring to a work place enviroment..

I'll be honest im just gonna take this post down to avoid further confusion

Apologies for haste. We are endlessly subject to dissertation requests, which is how your original post appeared, owing to the reference to a project.

But you should check the "community rules" about disclosing names and giving links, and ask the moderators if it is OK.

Normally if you are providing a link to a resource for others you should be OK.

Study at university with autism remains tricky. A lot of the information on support is still grounded in sources like Jamieson and Jamieson's "Managing Asperger Syndrome at College and University" David Fulton Publishers 2004.

The problem with these texts is they were written when there were hardly any known diagnosed students on the spectrum attending university. One book, seriously aimed at helping lecturers in environmental science, was built entirely around one asperger student in one Geography Department!

More than ten years on we ought to know so much more but there is a lack of modern books on this. So your experience is valuable.

The other problem is that most universities have grasped the Social Model of Disability, but have never really explained how to make a difference for students on the autistic spectrum. This involves little gestures - ramps for wheelchair users, serif free text on coloured paper for handouts, note takers and extra time in exams. No-one has really given any serious attention to what social model adjustments would help people on the spectrum.

So again your insight would be useful.

There is a lot you and others going through the university system can do to try to improve the way universities address autism.

I should have made my intentions more clear so allow me to explain

I have Aspergers syndrome and have struggled in education over the years

I made this website as an expression of what I have learned from university

If you want me to take this post down then I will

Have you asked permission before posting? Do you think it is right and proper to use a help forum as a quarry fior an undergraduate project? Does your supervisor know you've done this?

Salford University really ought to know better.