Recently, the University of Hertfordshire has launched its integration of the Autism&Uni toolkit to add to the university’s transition services. After spending some time working on adapting this toolkit to reflect the provisions available at the University, Herts is excited to announce this next step in supporting autistic students in their transition to higher education.
Accessibility advisers Natalie Wood and Kimberley Barton worked collaboratively to personalise the toolkit for the University of Hertfordshire. The accessibility and disability support team at the university offer applicants and prospective students a range of services in the lead up to starting university, including transition appointments and individual tours of campus in the quieter summer months. The integration of the Autism&Uni toolkit to these services will continue to strengthen the transition support available at Herts and will offer an additional route of information provision to our students.
We are continuously looking for ways to improve and promote our services, and since our adoption of the toolkit we have gained insightful feedback from Accessibility Advocate Students at the university. They expressed their appreciation for the layout of the toolkit, positively acknowledging how it worked through the different aspects of going to university in a clear, step-by-step format. Following their feedback, we will continue to update our version of the toolkit, and we are excited to keep enhancing this provision at Herts.
Additionally, we would like to further the personalisation of the toolkit by potentially adding in blog posts by students at the university to highlight their experiences and reflections on life at the University of Hertfordshire.
We would like to show our appreciation and thanks to Dr Marc Fabri for his support with our adoption of the toolkit. It is a brilliant addition to our services which we know will be extremely beneficial to our students. Thank you!
Kimberley Barton
Accessibility Adviser
University of Hertfordshire