It took me only an e-mail to reach out to the person and I was given clear instructions on the next steps and I was just made welcome and understood. Reach out because the help is out there. 

The nature of my disability is ADHD, which I was diagnosed with when I was 18. I first accessed the support in Oxford quite quickly after arriving because I knew that I'd want support with exams and deadlines. The process for getting that support was really straightforward.
There was just a form to fill in, which was really easily signposted on the University website. And once I filled in the form, the Disability Advisory Service reaches out directly to you.

When a student registers with us and we review their disability evidence and a Disability Advisor looks at their requirements, we'll work with the student to produce a Student Support Plan, which is a document that explains what their disability is and how it may affect them in certain areas of study. And we make recommendations for the wider collegiate institution to consider in relation to teaching, assessment and other areas of student life. It's a collaborative process and it's an iterative process because people's disabilities aren't always static and their circumstances will change over time. So we regularly review and can update adjustments and support. 

If you're applying to the university, the sooner you let us know, the sooner we can support you with it. Sometimes the hardest problem is the extra work that being disabled can cause and that becomes a barrier to getting the support that would make the work easier and we're here to break that cycle.

I think being open about my own disability has been really important just for students to know that there are, you know, there are disabled tutors can be really helpful for them in feeling comfortable about talking about their own disabilities. We do try and encourage students to disclose any disabilities they know about as soon as possible because then we can put the support in place in advance. 

It's fully confidential. Once it's been agreed, then we can send it to colleges and departments so people are aware. 

I think my main advice is to just reach out. You get to kind of tailor it and you can suggest things that you might find helpful and the disability advisors can suggest things to you and you can consider if they're helpful.

I was quite surprised at how kind of straightforward the process was. It was nice that for me, there was an online screening tool which kind of took away a lot of the fear and anxiety that I had around it because I was really worried about what it would be like to go and sit in a diagnosis  and then be told that I didn't have ADHD or something when it was something I'd be worrying about so much. And then from there, the process was really easy. My disability advisor just got in contact with me from the college and, and yeah, it was really simple.

If you think you might need help or support, whether you've been diagnosed or not, then you should definitely reach out to someone. It's definitely made a big difference for me.