Education & Training
Hints and Tips for students with disability
Australasian Network of Students with Disabilities (ANSWD)
ANSWD is a national student organisation for TAFE or university students with disabilities. ANSWD helps to make sure that students with disabilities have reasonable access to education by working with staff at universities and TAFEs throughout Australia and New Zealand. ANSWD aims to encourage a learning environment that is equal for all students. You can find out more information by visiting their website at: www.answd.com
ANSWD Hints and Tips for Students
- Set up a safety net early (e.g. make yourself known to teachers, lecturers, tutors; especially if you have any episodic health problems).
- Don't wait to get assistance, if experiencing problems.
- Start your work early (in case life, or health impedes finishing work later on).
- Make use of Learning Assistance Unit/Counsellors/Disabilities Service if necessary.
- No-one will do these things for you (search out your own support mechanisms).
- Strive to become an independent learner.
- Participate in tutorials (and do all readings beforehand).
- Time management is a vital issue (organise your time well).
- Don't feel a failure if you need to drop a subject.
- Come to understand how you learn best, and work on weaker areas.
- Being organised, planning ahead, that it is better to ask for help early, rather than after the wheels fall off.
- That there are services to meet individual needs.
- That part-time study is perfectly acceptable.
- Be realistic about what you can expect of your body/brain, and don't put yourself down if you need to study part-time, or even defer.
- Don't ever give up – there are plenty of cases where doctors and specialists have told a student that they cannot do something and then they go right ahead and do it!
