Personal statements - disability

[HairyMaclary]

DS and I are having a disagreement about his personal statement! He has multiple disabilities, one major, 2 minor. I had understood that these should be mentioned in his personal statement (in passing and in context) but he says they shouldn’t. Is there somewhere else he can put them in the UCAS form?

He will need adaptions to interviews/ accommodation / exams / potentially personal care support etc so it does need mentioning asap. I’m aware about applying for DSA which we will do when student finance opens. Who is right?!

He will be asked to disclose them on a different part of the form.
It's up to him if he mentions them in his statement or not.

If they are officially diagnosed & recognised, we will see an indication of this on the UCAS form (interviewing academic here).

Thanks both. It appears I was wrong and he was right. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, he’s usually right! I actually think mentioning them will add something to his personal statement but it’s up to him.

All conditions officially diagnosed /recognised etc.

It’s also something that school/college might mention on the reference but only with the candidate’s permission.

I read hundreds of personal statements every year. I rarely see a disability mentioned in a personal statement but see it sometimes in the reference from school.

Mine didn't but his school did in his reference.

This.

We would always contact everyone who mentions that they consider themselves disabled (in any capacity) at the same time as inviting them to interview (if that was how the application progressed) to see how best we could meet their needs and then again if they ended up starting.

The PS needs to be about why they want to study X at university, what they're looking forward to/what excites them about it and potentially a couple of lines about their ECs (depending on subject/uni choices) and that's about it. They only have 47 lines/4000 characters. And make sure he includes line spaces for paragraphs...!

Posted too soon - if his disability has led to him wanting to study X then that's fine because it's contextually relevant, or if he's done something which is directly or indirectly related (eg: para sports, raised loads of money for charity etc) then it can obviously be mentioned if he wants but just "I happen to have XYZ which means ABC" isn't really what the PS in particular is about.

If it relevant to his motivation to study the subject, demonstrates particular resilience or overcoming challenges, or explains gaps in learning then mention it on ps. If not highlight elsewhere.

Yes this.

My DS did mention his ASD/ADHD in his personal statement, but very much in the context of his sixth-form studies (for example, for A level psychology, he referenced the fact that he had developed a particular interest in how individual brains develop and work as a result of his own neurodiversity) and also his degree subject choice. It wasn't just a blanket statement of 'this is my disability', it was a considered comment along the lines of 'I have developed a particular interest in X as a result of my disability'.

DS didn't mention his disabilities in his personal statement because they were not relevant to his application. We accessed a copy of his reference and his teachers had not mentioned his disabilities in that, for the same reason.

He ticked the disability box on the UCAS form and there was a box where he could add information about his diagnoses. Ticking the box didn't affect his application, but it did trigger processes for access:

• When he was invited for interviews, he was contacted to ask if he required any adjustments for the interview process.
• He was sent an email about applying for DSA.
• When his place was confirmed, the university contacted him to ask for information about adjustments needed.

A disability might be something to mention in the personal statement if the applicant has for example done a lot of advocacy work and gained skills and relevant experience from this.

Placemarking

Your son is right. Services are his chosen university will contact him. He will need to engage to get support. They won't just put things in place for him!

It wasn't just a blanket statement of 'this is my disability', it was a considered comment along the lines of 'I have developed a particular interest in X as a result of my disability'.

DD2 did the same when she was first applying (5 years ago now), referencing her disability as a reason why she had a particular interest in the subject for which she was applying. No idea if it made any kind of difference to her under-graduate application, but interestingly it was picked up on her Masters application (different university).