Playbook, university
Access questions from applicants, and the line between information and support
An applicant asking about accessibility is usually asking two things at once. One is factual and publishable: which buildings have step free routes, whether accommodation has adapted rooms, how far the walk is. The other is about them, and belongs with the disability service rather than with anything a page can say.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for accessibility requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The estate is large and varies building by building, so a single site wide accessibility claim is almost always wrong somewhere.
- Adjustments for study are individually assessed and often need evidence, which makes any general answer about what is available misleading as an answer about what somebody will get.
- Accommodation is a separate system again, with its own application route and its own deadlines for adapted rooms.
- Disclosure is sensitive: an applicant may be telling a chat window something they have not told anybody at the university, and the reply has to be worth that.
How it arrives
- is the campus wheelchair accessible
- do you have adapted accommodation
- what support is there for dyslexia
- can i get extra time in exams
- is there step free access to the library
- who do i talk to about a disability
What has to be indexed for this to work
| An accessibility statement for the estate | Building by building where possible, naming step free entrances, lifts, accessible toilets and where the gaps are. A statement that only says the campus is accessible answers nothing. |
|---|---|
| How the disability service works | What it does, how to contact it, what evidence it typically asks for, and when to make contact relative to applying. This is the route, and the route is the answer. |
| Adapted accommodation process | How to apply, what the deadline is, and what happens if it is missed. Deadlines here are earlier than general accommodation and are frequently missed. |
| Exam and assessment adjustment process | Described as a process with an assessment at the front of it, never as a list of adjustments available on request. |
The reply
Our accessibility statement lists step free routes, lifts and accessible facilities building by building, including where there are gaps. Support for studying is arranged individually through the disability service rather than from a standard list, and it is worth contacting them before you arrive rather than after. I can pass your details to them if that would help.
It answers the estate question from published material, refuses the individual question in a way that names the right team, and offers the handover in the same breath rather than leaving somebody to find a contact page.
Where it stops
The trigger. Anything disclosing a condition, asking what adjustments a specific person would receive, or asking whether a course is manageable with a particular disability.
The disability service arranges this individually and they are the right people rather than me. If you leave your name and an email, I will pass on that you would like to talk to them, and you do not need to give me any details here.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- That a particular adjustment will be granted, since every one follows an assessment.
- That a building is accessible when the statement does not say so.
- Anything that asks the person to describe their condition in the chat.
- That disclosing a disability affects an application, in either direction, beyond what the published policy states.
Questions
- Is it appropriate to have an assistant answering these at all?
- Yes, for the factual half, which is the half currently answered by nobody. Whether a lift reaches the third floor of a specific building is a fact, and an applicant should not have to email to get it. The individual half goes to a person, immediately.
- How do we keep it from asking for personal details?
- The handover form takes a name, an email and a message, and the wording you write for the handover should tell the person they do not need to explain anything in the chat. Say so explicitly, because otherwise people volunteer more than they should.
- What if our accessibility statement is out of date?
- Fix it before you index it. An assistant quoting a stale accessibility claim to somebody who then cannot get into a building is a worse outcome than having no assistant.
Keep reading
- Everything for a universityApplicants and enrolled students ask different things. What a university assistant can answer about entry, fees and visas, and what it must never predict.
- Handling accessibility requests in generalTwo different things arrive as one message. A published accessibility statement answers the first. The second is a request, and it needs a person.
- Data requests on a university site, and why silence is the failureDeletion, access and correction requests arrive on the enquiries channel with a legal clock attached. Explain the route and never close the conversation.
- The three things a university assistant must never try to handleWellbeing, visas and anything about an individual application. Three triggers that must be rules rather than judgements on a university site.
- Two university waiting lists that behave nothing like each otherA hall waiting list and a full module are two queues with two owners. What can be said about each, and what the guarantee does not cover.
Try it on your own material
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