ASD student, university adjustments

[BetterCallMe]

I have an ASD kid at university, who is struggling with sensory issues. They've spoken with the university's disability office and they're personal tutor - who just say there's nothing more that can be done for them.

DS finds the sheer number of students in the lecture hall overwhelming. It's a STEM course, so lots of students and lots of lectures too. They've tried bespoke audio equipment (but issues with the tech, charging for a full 6 hour day, having to ask each lecturer to use it every time) which has not been great and doesn't relieve the stress of being in such a busy environnent.

Lectures are recorded and later released, but that would mean learning in isolation, which is again not ideal. I wonder if it's a technical issue that lectures aren't or can't be live streamed?

I'm interested to know what other adjustments other universities have offered your ASD kids please?

I fear my kid will drop out, and I'm also beginning to feel angry that the university can't/ won't do more to accommodate a disability. Though DS isn't sure what could be done, they managed in school (quiet COVID years) because class sizes are so much smaller than lecture sizes. So I'm turning to the great MN hive to find out what else is out there, if anything, for their ASD uni kids. Thanks in advance.

Yes, the Access Statement is the document that DSA draw up. If the parts of it that involve staff members aren’t being adhered to then a complaint needs to be made. It is not okay to actively obstruct a disabled student and to refuse to do what it says on the Access Statement.

I had those too and even as a 30 something they were really useful.

I can't see it in your statement but has he registered with the uni disability service? Often students will assume that by having DSA the uni then know about their disability but that's not the case. Have popped a link to Birmingham's service as an example.

intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/student/Your-Wellbeing/disability/reasonable-adjustments.aspx

Registration with the service will lead to a plan created which is shared with staff including a support officer within the department who can advocate for him, and also a disability officer who can help him navigate utilising his DSA to best effect and also with experience of supporting many ASD students can perhaps come up with some different ideas for adjustments.

I second the statement just above from @oscarcat99 . Students with ASD submit a higher share than usual of Mitigating Circumstances petitions. At our MC meetings a rep from the Office for Students with Disabilities attends. They advocate effectively for registered students and this can be very important for every student with a disability, including ASD.

For avoidance of doubt, this is a separate step to registering for DSA. Some students resist, usually on the basis of peer pressure. Bollocks.

@BetterCallMe I'm an autistic individual who has specialised in supporting students to access RAs at uni.

This isn't a RA issue as the lecture recordings solve that. The root of your son's unhappiness is the fact he feels isolated. He needs to focus on that and what he's going to do to overcome that. Does he have any small group tutorials he can attend? Do the library run any small study groups that he can integrate himself into? Any clubs or societies for him to join? Does he have a part-time job that forms part of his social life?

He can't cope with large lecture halls he will probably struggle with open-plan offices so he needs to factor this into his career choices.

Sorry, wrong thread. I do feel very badly for your DS however

This isn't a RA issue as the lecture recordings solve that. The root of your son's unhappiness is the fact he feels isolated. He needs to focus on that and what he's going to do to overcome that. Does he have any small group tutorials he can attend? Do the library run any small study groups that he can integrate himself into? Any clubs or societies for him to join? Does he have a part-time job that forms part of his social life?

This is excellent advice, as is the advice way upthread that he might start to think - in a 'blue skies' way - about what would be his ideal learning situation, and then see what elements of that could be reasonably accommodated.

Because I think that he's not sure about what he wants and could cope with, and is fixating on what doesn't work for him. Realistically, it really is highly unlikely that the university can change doing large lectures, and recordings are a 'reasonable adjustment,' so what else could support and scaffold his learning, his education, and his enjoyment and social contacts?

Thank you all.

I'm inclined to agree that reasonable accommodations are being made because lectures are recorded for later viewing.

He has spoken with the disability office, with his tutor. The sum of those discussions seem to be "suck it up, there's nothing else we can do for you".

And posters are right, DS is frustrated that his autistic tendencies are hampering his learning expedience. As he's growing up, he's feeling more and more frustrated that his sensory issues stop him from being "normal" and able to cope as "normal" people do. He hasn't or isn't capable yet of "overcoming" his sensory issues, so he does see things through this negative perspective. And he feels impotent because he'll be autistic for the whole of his life.

Obviously as he gets older, he can choose his environments and maybe work in quieter settings. But in the meantime he has to try and get through this setting, through university.

Sensory breaks sound ideal - except that on several days of the week, he has 5 consecutive hours of lectures. A 20 minute break cannot be accommodated.

Recorded lectures are released in the evenings, he would in effect be working at least a day behind on his own by watching these only, if he didn't attend the lectures in person. Hence the feeling of isolation.

He has joined societies and made friends, he is enjoying his university town and would hate to drop out and have to return home, he'd miss his friends.

Thanks again.

Recorded lectures are released in the evenings, he would in effect be working at least a day behind on his own by watching these only, if he didn't attend the lectures in person. Hence the feeling of isolation.

Yes, this was a problem for DD, as I posted upthread, except that lectures were posted online three days later.

Could DS think about joining TheStudentRoom? It is an online forum for university students. There are many with ASD so one would think his problem is far from unique. Others in the same position might have ideas for him. Again, best wishes to him.

Does he receive DSA funding for appointments with a mentor who specialised in ASD? Not sure if that has been mentioned upthread so far but that is a recommendation I would often make.

Mentors can work 1:1 students to discuss barriers they experience further and to see if there are more precise strategies that could be employed to enable them to manage in a given learning environment. Appointments can be remote video calls, or in person and at a frequency that suits the student. The DSA write up has to justify the suitability of these and may also detail areas that might be addressed within appointments. They can be reapplied for each year of course.

DS is frustrated that his autistic tendencies are hampering his learning experience.

This isn't true though. Its become the norm to record lectures as MOST students struggle to learn by live lectures. This may be because they're the 1 in 4 or have MH issues and this is affecting their concentration. They might be part of the 1 in 7 who have ADHD, which means their distractibility makes it difficult to concentrate on the lecture. They might have caring responsibilities and have to miss the lecture due to this or have their head full of thoughts regarding the demands on their time. English may not be their first language so they find it impossible to understand everything that is being said without rewatching a recording.

Having high sensory needs your son is in an incredibly privileged position that many would have loved to have (including myself). I have the same needs as your son and just a few years ago the world was completely different. I finished my undergrad around 10 years ago and recording lectures wasn't the norm. Students were expected to sit at the front with a dictaphone and the quality of the recording was rubbish. Working from home wasn't the norm and I've had to battle (with union involvement) to have working from home days as a RA. I would have loved to have been in your son's shoes and have many of the adjustments get needs as standard practice in education and work.

One possible RA that hasn't been mentioned is timetabling - university disability officers can sometimes advocate around timetable structure - to avoid overload. Often nothing can be done re lectures but things like labs and seminars are more flexible and this adjustment can lead to shorter or more speed out timetables to allow for breaks. Worth an ask for next year? Also, if he's a first year he may find that as the number of optional modules increase in years 2&3 that groups get smaller as you don't have the whole year group in a single lecture.

As someone who works in a university and in SEN, I would suggest:

1. note taker and recorded lectures.
2. your son follows up with his tutor with questions
3. counselling. This is a stressful time of year in university, especially if he is in the kind of university that do the majority of assessment after Easter. My son in first year engineer and he is feeling the pressure now. Lectures are almost done for the year now . Is it possible your son is feeling stress around deadlines, and so the lecture situation seems worse. The difference between live stream and pre-recorded is negligible- so what is the real problem?