accessible course may not be accessible

[ScarboroughFairy]

I recently started an "accessible" course for those with disabilities and it was recommended to me through the job centre. All but one of the staff members running it, don't understand the complexities of disabilities and seem to think that a few adjustments are all that's needed.

I am on the course to gain new skills and eventually get a better job. It runs for about 6 weeks. I've never been on one before so I didn't know what to expect, and it requires daily work in order to spread the load out, then a 9am-5pm days worth of work weekly which is really pushing it for me. They don't give you a lot of time - for financial reasons. I know it would have been decided by someone higher than them in the chain.
They expect a lot of weekly progress. I've been to two meetings so far and so far I've only made notes and a to do list but haven't managed to action any of it yet which is frustrating my mentor.

Don’t think like that, OP. Your cognitive abilities might be sffected by your disability and this makes it very hard to learn new things, take in a lot of information, form patterns to help with understanding etc. Mighr be partly why you’re feeling overwhelmed.

i do work full time. I spend my mornings and evenings cleaning, tidying, washing, cooking, looking after the kids, driving them to clubs. I don’t sit down until 9pm most evenings. There is no magical fairy. You spend all day every day busy. That’s the reality for most people who work. I can imagine this is a shock if you’re not used to working

How do you do it and what do you work as

You're just the kind of person I need advice from as I don't know how to manage and feel myself burning out and eating chocolate oranges to try and cope with the overwhelming stress. There are moments that I can't think anymore and am just staring at my work and can't take anything in anymore.

I've been to two meetings so far and so far I've only made notes and a to do list but haven't managed to action any of it yet which is frustrating my mentor

Sorry if I’ve misunderstood but are you saying you’ve only managed to take notes and make a to do list in 2 weeks?

If it was me, I’d look at my to do list and plan my week from there. Set back an hour every day or a couple of hours every other day so task a & b will be done on Monday, c & d on Wednesday, and so on. Do an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to break it up if need be. If you’re hoping to gain employment after this, learning to manage your workload is vital.

How often do you check in with your mentor? Do you get resources to review the session and an opportunity to ask questions? How long is the homework supposed to take? What are the learning outcomes and are these set out by week?

Get Chatgpt to help 🤷🏽‍♀️

It can create lists of what you need to do and break everything down into easier chunks for you to understand.

Best piece of advice.

Structure. Structure. Structure.

It sounds like it’s expecting you to be approaching the course as a full time activity. Full time is typically 35 hours a week.

One way to do that would be:
09:00-10:30.
15 minute break.
10:45- 12:15
45 minute break
13:00-14:30
15 minute break
14:45-16:15
15 minute break.
16:30-17:00 Planning for the following day.

17:00-21:00 Free time in evening. Bed by 21:30.
Ten hours in bed. Up at 07:30.

07:30-09:00 to get set up for the day.

If you’ve never worked full time then the need to allocate time to activities and structure your day will be new to you. Think back to school style timetables and get advice from your mentor on structuring your time.

What else are you trying to do in the week? Do you have childcare that matches full time working? If not, then it won’t work and you’ll need to either get some, or cut down what you’re aiming to do on the course.

OP you haven’t answered half the questions people have asked, they’ve asked them to help provide useful advice because without that information everything offered might be useless.

1 day a week at a course if you don’t work would be easily achieve-able for most, but your circumstances might make it more difficult.

• Do you currently work, if so how many days and how many hours per day?
• in what ways does your disability affect you related to course access, and what reasonable adjustments would help you?
• Do you have caring responsibilities for children or family members that you need to work around?
• what are the ‘homework tasks’ you are having to do outside the 1 day classroom learning?

I work full time, always have, I have an 11 yr old and DH and I always have some kind of online learning on the go because my job is demanding, senior level, fast pace and needs me to continuously upskill and extend my knowledge in order to keep up. I work in Cyber Security, Governance, Risk & compliance so technology, legislations, standards and regulations never stop changing which means I have to keep learning. I am not disabled (well technically I am as have Diabetes and blind in one eye but neither prevents me from doing anything so I don’t count them). So in my experience what you are being asked to do shouldn’t be impossible but my experience is not your experience and if you want helpful advice you need to give enough detail to enable that.

I'm not sure I understand this correctly

But what you are describing is pretty normal

It sounds like an intensive course, like a crash course or something. I did my post grad on top of a full-time job and I was fucking exhausted and overeating all the time and then going to bed when my brain wouldn't take any more.

I don't have a disability, but at that stage of life, I was not medicated for my anxiety and depression.

I'm sorry if this is completely irrelevant, but I'm not 100% sure what you're saying.

It sounds like it's designed to be intense, so it's intense? Do they provide materials and note that you can keep hold of and study later?

I agree with the poster who said structure is really important. I find working from screen based materials much harder, I'm a big fan of paper! But if I've got to read a bunch of stuff on the screen, and actually take it in, it helps to read it out loud.

Do you know what your concentration span is like? So are you better sitting down for 20 minutes and then having a break for five? I'm better doing 45 minutes and then I have a break for 15.