Why a disabled students' network?

Alongside revising for a major exam this week, I've been working on getting the Disabled Students' Network set up. This is just the first of the many things I need to get done, but probably also the most critical, creating a space for us as disabled students to self-organise politically, to work and fight together to change the ways in which it's harder for us to be at university than it would be if we didn't have a disability.

For example, does it take you longer to study than everyone you know because you're in pain, or you have limited energy, or the letters move around on the page, or you have a short attention span, or you have to listen to the book, or many other things that could make it harder for someone with a disability to study?

Do you have to fit into your university schedule numerous appointments with doctors, nurses, specialists, psychiatrists, counsellors, learning support mentors etc, and still try to get everything done for the same deadlines?

Do you have days or weeks when you can't get to lectures, or when you don't have the right assistive technology available to make them accessible for you? Does this make your degree harder yet for you to complete?

Are you worried that after your degree you'll be unemployable because of your disability, and in thousands of pounds of debt?

Are you struggling with a mountain of challenges - what Disabled Students Allowance is, what Disabled Living Allowance is, how to get support with your learning, what the grounds for a medical extension are, whether you can safely go to the SU or whether the lights will make it too dangerous, how to get help with cooking, eating and personal care, how to get help with organisation and study skills, where to find a decent trustworthy doctor, where the counselling centre is, and how on earth you manage a degree on top of these worries?

The idea of the Disabled Students Network is to share support and experiences amongst students who consider themselves disabled. The working definition of that is "meet the equality act definition of disabled, have reason to access disability services whilst at uni, or self-identify as disabled" and people fit this definition with a multitude of conditions, from epilepsy to aspergers syndrome, dyslexia to ME/CFS, cancer to depression. If you don't know whether you'd belong or not, but are struggling with some of those things I listed earlier, or even if you're not but think you might fit in, then come along. It's a space open to people with disabilities of all kinds - mental health problems, learning difficulties, sensory impairments, chronic illnesses, neurological differences etc and hopefully you'll find the information you need.

Very soon, I should be able to put up an advert for the first meeting. Excited? You should be.