Case Studies - Disability and Engineering

Depending on how comfortable you are in providing career advice a useful starting point would be to ascertain in which branch of engineering he is interested and then the UCAS site could help him to decide which university is most suitable. Contacting the Student Services of any universities would help him ascertain the support he will receive.

 

All educational institutions have to comply with Disability Discrimination Act requirements to anticipate the needs of disabled students and make reasonable adjustments for them. It is also advisable for him to indicate on the UCAS form that he is disabled as this puts into place a chain of events whereby admissions are alerted to his needs. This should be automatically passed on to student services who then should contact him way before his start date and ask him how the university can help him when he starts his studying.

 

Having said all of the above a more specialist source of help would be to contact your local Connexions Service who employ careers advisers who specialise in helping clients with particular needs. They will have specialist knowledge of how to navigate through the admissions system to ensure that the young person you are working with gets the best support.

 

The websites below are general in nature and do not necessarily relate to STEM careers but may provide an initial starting point from which to access help for him.

 

www.ucas.com Click Students to access a variety of information covering most aspects from finding a University to finance.

 

www.skill.org.uk Click Institutions, (Higher Education Listings), Search in this category, view also More Help section.

 

www.connexions.gov.uk Click on connexions direct then click Disability Content.

 

The RNIB's website www.rnib.org.uk has lots of useful information including a section on 'Employment' and 'Develop your career' within the Daily Life section.

 

www.connexions.gov.uk Click on connexions direct, click on Jobs4U Careers Database for information on careers. Click Local Services for information on your nearest Connexions office. Staff may be available to come in and discuss entry routes, progression etc. on a variety of different careers.