Telling people about your autism at college is also known as ‘disclosure’ or ‘declaring a disability’.

Disclosure means you share some aspects of your disability, difference or condition to others within your college or with friends. By talking about your autism and advocating for yourself, you make an important step towards feeling comfortable with others. Registering with the Disability Support Service is a formal way of letting the college know you may need accommodations or support. It’s important to state that you don’t have to disclose anything about your autism diagnosis, or any other disabilities, conditions or differences you have if you don’t want to. However, there are benefits to disclosing your autism diagnosis, or other disabilities or differences you have, at your college, such as accessing support for lectures, assessments and exams, that may make the disclosure process worthwhile.

You can download this guide to disclosure from AHEAD.

What do we mean by disclosure ?

You might not consider your autism to be a disability, but that’s how organisations like third level institutions recognise that you may have some additional needs and the declaration prompts the college to make contact with you in order to explore any needs you may have and the support options available to you. Telling the college you have autism does not mean that you have to tell everyone you meet if you don’t want to, and nor does it mean that you will be forced to accept support you don’t want or need.

Why is it important to disclose?

Some students don’t tell anybody at college about their autism. Not declaring makes it difficult for students to get the support they need, both officially and from their friends and the other people around them. At school, you might not have received or even needed any support outside your family, and this may be the same at college. However, college is very different from school and there is a wide range of support available. The college needs to know that you have an autistic spectrum condition in order to make any ‘reasonable adjustments’.  If you need extra time in your exams, a different location for exams, longer library loans and access to study spaces for disabled students, you need to tell the college. To find out more about the support available and to consider what, if any, adjustments are required to ensure you have the best possible college experience it is essential to declare to the college via the Disability Support Service.  Even if you decide not to declare prior to your arrival at college or when starting your studies you can register with Disability Support Service at any point throughout your studies.

When I disclose, who will find out?

When you declare; either on your CAO application or directly to the Disability Support Service this is a confidential process. A member of the Disability Support Service will discuss with you what, if any, information needs to be shared and who it needs to be shared with. The Disability Support team 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. Useful information on how and why colleges process your data and what your key rights are regarding data protection and the GDPR can be found in this video by AHEAD.

In order to enable your lecturers to understand a bit more about you, and be able to support you; it is essential to agree to this information being shared. In addition to this, you may wish to speak to your course coordinator about particular elements of the course and any concerns you have. The Disability Support Team would be happy to support you with this if you would like them to. You may also decide to share information with your peers where you think it may be helpful to understand a bit more about you, but this is entirely your choice.

What happens when students don’t disclose?

The Autism&Uni research surveyed people with experience of attending and/or completing college, over 70% of those surveyed said they didn’t tell anyone they were autistic.

Some students were not diagnosed until after college. Research suggests that students who were diagnosed before or during college 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 college prior to completing their course, told us it was because they now realise that they needed support with some aspects of college. 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.

over 70% said they didn’t tell anyone at university they were autistic

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 college 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 college the better, preferably from the start of course.

Fern: I think it is good to disclose as college 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 some ways, making a decision to tell the college officially about your autism has obvious benefits with clear boundaries. Disclosing means you can access support. The college 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 disclose , you can tell the college at any time throughout your studies by contacting the Disability Support Service to talk through your options and what this means if you have any concerns about disclosing.

Talk to friends and family about disclosing.

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

• When are you going to tell people?
• Who are you going to tell?
• How are you going to tell them? (in person, on the phone, via email/text/social media, in a group, on their own)
• How much are you going to tell them?
• Can you trust this person?
• Does this person have your best interest at heart?
• Do you mind if they tell other people?