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Equality, diversity and your career: disabled students

Find out about disability friendly employers and requesting reasonable adjustments.

Introduction

If you are a disabled student you can access Careers Plus appointments. You will also have access to specific events throughout the year.

A disability is defined as:

  • having a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
  • a long-term health condition including mental health or long-term chronic illness such as Crohn’s Disease, Asthma and ME.
  • physical or sensory impairments such as visual/hearing loss or a specific learning disability such as dyslexia/dyspraxia as well as mobility impairments and Asperger's/Autism.

Careers Plus appointments and support

If you have disclosed a disability

If you have disclosed a disability to the university you can book disability careers appointments. We call these Careers Plus Appointments.

These can be useful for discussing any careers issue relating to your disability. This could include:

  • disclosing a disability
  • support in a recruitment process
  • support when starting a placement or graduate job

Book these appointments through MyFuture.

If you are unsure or have not disclosed a disability

If you are unsure or have not disclosed a disability to the university, you can still access this support. Email us via careers-plus@bath.ac.uk or come into the Careers Centre.

Autism-friendly advice

We have created a guide to make our advice and support autism-friendly. It is intended for students and consultants/advisers. Go to Careers tips on providing autism-friendly advice.

We are always looking for ways to be more inclusive and make our appointments accessible to everyone. Contact us if you have any suggestions/comments on other areas that might be helpful to include in this guide.

Researching disability friendly employers

Organisations supporting students in placements and jobs

Specialist recruiters who help disabled students:

Autistic students

Organisations that specifically support autistic students and graduates:

Students with mental health conditions

Mind is an organisation that can support students and graduates with mental health conditions in several ways. They have information on your rights around telling an employer about a mental health condition.

Student Minds Bath is a University SU branch of the national group that supports students during their time at the University.

The Mindful Employer programme can help you find employers that have signed up to The Mindful Employer Charter. These employers are committed to supporting people with mental health conditions.

Disability Confident scheme

Some companies are registered as Disability Confident under a government scheme. The Disability Confident employer scheme:

  • encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people.
  • helps employers make the most of opportunities provided by employing disabled people.
  • is voluntary and has three levels designed to support employers on their Disability Confident journey.

Employers on the second level of the scheme commit to offering interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job.

View a list of employers that have signed up to the scheme.

Disability Forum

Many organisations are members of the Business Disability Forum which accredits organisations with a Disability Standard and encourages businesses to become more disability-smart. View the list of members in the Business Disability Forum.

Search on MyFuture

Find roles or schemes aimed at students with disabilities in MyFuture. Select 'Equality and diversity' in the type of opportunity field under 'more search options'. You can also use keywords to narrow down your results. For example, search for ‘disab’ to retrieve relevant jobs and opportunities that contain 'disabled' or 'disability'.

Go to MyFuture

Disclosing a disability and requesting reasonable adjustments

Many students and graduates are understandably apprehensive about revealing a disability during the graduate recruitment process, and again during employment.

However, there are positive reasons to disclose a disability. Disclosing can:

  • provide an opportunity to request reasonable adjustments to help manage any concerns you may have on the process
  • give you the best chance to perform well on the day
  • ensure a level playing field for everyone so you can compete with those applicants who don’t have a disability

Come into Careers, or book an appointment to get help with disclosing a disability. Book an appointment on MyFuture.

Your rights around disclosure

Under the Equality Act 2010, there is legal protection for job applicants and disabled employees. The following is a summary of key points:

  • it is unlawful to discriminate against workers because of a disability or to fail to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate a worker (job applicant) with a disability.
  • there is no legal obligation on your part to disclose at any time unless there are safety issues in a job you have applied for.
  • you can disclose at any time of the recruitment process, for example at the interview stage.

View resources on disclosure

View our webinar recording on disclosure in MyFuture.

Read information on disclosure and requesting additional support from MyPlus Students Club.

Further information

Find out more about our additional support for disabled students.

Other pages on equality, diversity and your career

Enquiries

If you have any questions, please contact us.

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