Telling people about your autism at university is also known as ‘disclosure’ or ‘declaring a disability’. Your university cannot provide tailored support unless you tell them about your autism.

What do we mean by declaration?

You might not consider your autism to be a disability, but that’s how organisations like universities recognise that you may have some additional needs. A declaration prompts the university to contact you to explore your needs and the support available to you. Telling the university you have autism does not mean that you have to tell everyone you meet, and nor does it mean that you will be forced to accept support you don’t want or need.

Why is it important to declare?

Some students don’t tell anybody at university about their autism, not even the university itself. Not declaring makes it difficult to get support, both officially and from friends. At school or college, you might not have received or needed support from outside your family, and this may be the same at university. However, university is very different from school and college, and there is a wide range of support available.

The university needs to know that you have an autistic spectrum condition in order to make ‘reasonable adjustments’, such as giving you extra time or a different location for exams, longer library loans and access to study spaces for disabled students.

To find out about the support and reasonable adjustments available, please contact Disability Services. If you decide not to declare prior to your arrival at university, but would like to tell the university about your autism at any point during your course, you can contact Disability Service for advice on how to do this.

When I declare, who will find out?

When you declare, either on your application form or directly to Disability Services, this is a confidential process. Information is shared on a need-to-know basis, and we need your consent to share this kind of information. We formally record your consent via the Disability Service Registration form.

Disability Services will not tell the other students on your course; information is only shared with staff who are required to make adjustments, or with those who would benefit from being aware.

We share information and reasonable adjustments with staff via our Personal Learning Support Plan (PLSP) system. Your Personal Tutor and the Disability Tutor and Senior Tutor for your school will have access to your whole PLSP, but other staff are given access only to the sections relevant to their role (e.g. the Exams Office will only be told which exam adjustments they should put in place for you, not your diagnosis, and Library staff see only library adjustments.) You can find out more about who will see your PLSP on our website. You may also decide to share information with your peers where you think it would be helpful for them to understand a bit more about you, but this is entirely your choice.

What happens when students don’t declare?

The Autism&Uni research surveyed people with experience of attending and/or completing university, over 70% of those surveyed said they didn’t tell anyone they were autistic. Some students were not diagnosed until after university.

Research suggests that students who were diagnosed before or during university and declared their autism were more likely to complete their course and get good grades.

However, of the 70% of students we surveyed who chose not to declare, those who left university prior to completing their course, told us it was because they now realise that they needed support with some aspects of university. Even though in general the students got good marks when they submitted work, they said that they struggled to manage without any support, especially early in the course.

Some students also felt that they were unintentionally bullied or excluded by other students, who may have been more understanding if they knew that they were autistic. The university takes reports of bullying very seriously and encourages any student who feels they have experienced bullying or hate crime to seek support and/or report the incident.

Several of the students who left their course prior to completion and then returned to their studies later, said that they had a better experience because people knew they were autistic, and this meant they were able to access support and get on better socially. These students told us that getting support as early as possible, preferably from the start of course, made settling into university a lot easier as it is such an uncertain time, in spite of also being an exciting time.

Getting support in those first few weeks, even simple things like someone showing you around the campus and where your lectures will be held can be really important. In our surveys, lots of students didn’t tell anyone they were autistic until they were already really struggling, and in some situations, this meant that their work or/and wellbeing was affected.

It takes time to process applications for support and send information to the relevant people, so the earlier you can inform the University the better. You don’t have to wait for exam results (e.g. A level results) or a confirmed place at University, you can contact us now – even if you end up going somewhere else.

Fern: I think it is good to disclose as university is much bigger than school and so there is nobody making sure everything is ok and you are managing. (read the whole article here)

In many ways, deciding to tell the university officially about your autism has obvious benefits with clear boundaries; declaring means you can access support. The University will tell you what information and evidence they need from you and will not pass any information on without your permission.

If you decide not to declare on your application form, or have not received a diagnosis, you can tell the university at any time throughout your studies by contacting Disability Services to talk through your options and what this means if you have any concerns about declaring.

Talk to friends and family about declaring.

Here are some questions that might help you to think about declaring:

• Do you want to declare on your application?
• Would you like to talk to Disability Services directly?
• Do you want to access support at the start of your studies? – if you do, you will need to engage with Disability Services in good time before you start your course.
• Would you just like to access support from DSA but not tell your tutors (this will prevent adjustments being implemented)?

This article was contributed by the Leeds Beckett Disability Advice Team and adjusted by Disability Services at Bangor University.