Find out more about the support and adjustments available for disabled students in higher education, and the resources available to ensure you are giving them the information and advice they need as they make their decisions.
UCAS’ guidance for disabled students is created with expert organisations and covers all aspects of the application process, including:
If you're helping someone apply to university or college, we've developed practical guides to make sure you're giving disabled students the right advice at every step of the process:
The adviser toolkits are designed for anyone with a background knowledge of the UCAS process, making them ideal for careers advisers:
The supporter's toolkit: Supporting disabled students assumes no background knowledge of UCAS or higher education, and is aimed at parents, carers, SENCOs/ALNCOs/ASN Coordinators, learning support staff, pastoral and other support staff – anyone supporting a disabled student to apply.
It’s important that students know how to access careers services at university or college, to help them transition out of education after graduating and into employment.
Most universities now offer specialist careers and disability services that collaborate closely with each other to help ensure students receive consistent, joined-up guidance and support. This can include mentoring schemes, employer engagement events and inclusive careers fairs.
Encourage students to keep engaging with careers services at all stages of their educational journey, to discuss their interests, strengths, and potential career pathways. Where relevant, university careers service staff will connect students with targeted internship and work experience opportunities, and specialist job boards or graduate programmes.
Students are also likely to encounter integrated and embedded employability throughout their course, no matter what subject they study, which will support skills development and wider understanding of the opportunities open to them.
Transitioning from university to the workplace can bring additional challenges. The Business Disability Forum highlights that 'the types of adjustments possible at university do not always translate to workplaces'. Advisers in all educational settings can help students anticipate and manage these challenges by discussing workplace accessibility, adjustment funding such as Access to Work and Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) and, importantly, sharing information about a disability, and guiding them on when and how to inform employers.
Inclusive careers education and guidance prepare students for success. By increasing students' awareness of the careers support available at university and engaging with disability-confident employers and organisations, careers advisers can empower disabled students to plan their futures with confidence.
The National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP) and University of Leeds have created a handy guide to help disabled students understand the differences in the language and terminology used in higher education and school, and how they can access the right support.
Students who want to follow a professional career in which they are responsible for the health, safety and wellbeing of others (e.g. medicine, dentistry, nursing or social work), must meet fitness to practise standards that demonstrate they have the required skills, knowledge, and professional behaviours to practise safely and effectively.
Students will also need to demonstrate a level of knowledge, skill or ability to pass a course or qualify for a profession.
Disabled students may be concerned that they will not be able to meet these requirements, so it’s important to be clear what they mean.
The Graduate Futures Institute produces an annual report called What Happens Next? sharing the outcomes of disabled graduates following higher education, which you may find helpful to refer to as an adviser.
STAART is an initiative funded by the Office for Students to provide impartial information, advice and guidance for prospective disabled university students.
STAART is staffed entirely by disabled students and graduates who, through research and lived experience, can provide realistic expectations of navigating university as a disabled and/or neurodivergent person.
Read more about the STAART initiative at the University of Greenwich.
Dr Melanie Thorley, STAART Manager, explains the importance of early and sustained engagement with careers services in higher education:
As a disability practitioner for many years, I am aware that disability is not necessarily a barrier for meaningful, graduate employment. However, as I work nationally, I hear many stories of students taking courses where the chances of them being appointed a role in their chosen field are remote. It is important that disabled students are given the right guidance so their graduate employment opportunities are as realistic as they are ambitious.
Employability skills and expert guidance are key elements of the University of Greenwich’s support for disabled students. In September 2025, students had the opportunity to be assigned an external disabled mentor as an additional source of experience and knowledge.
The STAART team has also partnered with the university’s employability team to encourage disabled students to engage with careers advice services from their very first term – and to explain what is available and the benefits of accessing this service, they have co-created a series of videos, which they have kindly shared below.
Use these videos with your own students (and their parent/carer) to demonstrate how higher education can support their onward careers journeys: