Transition support for disabled learners going into further or higher education

Via Facebook and Twitter, we are hoping to create a community of people interested in disability and higher education. In this context, disability includes:

• mental health
• physical disability
• autistic spectrum
• dyslexia spectrum
• and long-term health conditions.

The majority of potential students we work with are under the mental health category. Navigating college and university can be difficult for a variety of reasons and we believe strongly that the more students are prepared, the likelihood of them being successful increases.

​Although the *AccessAbility Outreach Team has been in existence since autumn 2007, we have had to change our approach to supporting disabled learners to ensure they can access the information. Previously we supported disabled learners within their schools or colleges but this has been increasingly difficult, especially with packed timetables.

Instead, we are going to use the social media platforms to share good practice and provide peer-to-peer support, with the option of attending workshops on campus. Not only can potential disabled learners meet potential peers, they also have the opportunity to talk to our *AccessAbility Ambassadors who are University of Greenwich students who all have a disability themselves.

The groups went live at the beginning of September and we already have prospective students, current students, graduates, disability researchers, assistive technologists and disability practitioners. We already have a few people from abroad but we want to keep growing. These groups are part of a wider scheme called STAART - support through AccessAbility - retention and transition and more details can be found on the University of Greenwich website or you can email Melanie Thorley at m.thorley@gre.ac.uk. All posts are approved before posting to ensure we filter out bullying and/or trolling.

Please consider promoting either our Facebook or Twitter accounts and forward this information to people (age 14+) you know who maybe interested:

Facebook: University of Greenwich - STAART
Twitter: @GRE_STAART.

In addition, if you would like one of the team to talk to potential disabled learners, parents/carers, and /or staff, please email. All of the support by the team is free and we do not work in recruitment.

Contact Details

Dr. Melanie Thorley, *AccessAbility and STAART Co-ordinator
Education Support Team

University of Greenwich
Fry 003
Avery Hill Road
SE9 2UG

Mobile: 07931 226599
Email: m.thorley@gre.ac.uk

I usually work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 11-6