These disabled student study tips come from students, past and present, and experience student support officers.
Take A Break
Taking regular breaks is sage advice for any student but it can be particularly important for the disabled student.
Many conditions that affect people physically, can affect on how quickly you fatigue. Spreading your study time out with ample breaks can make it seem like you have not been ‘hard at it’, but the truth is retention is the name of the game.
Shorter study sessions for people who fatigue easily can often lead to better retention.
Task Lists
Listing tasks and then marking them as complete can be an easy way to break down larger pieces of work into more manageable chunks. Also apps such as Trello (which is free!), can make task lists easier to make and track.
Notebooks
Old fashion paper notebook can be off putting to a number of disabled students. If you have motor control difficulties, pen and paper can seem like the last thing that you want. But scribbling thoughts that just pop into your head can be really useful. Not everything needs to be neat and tidy. Sometimes messy is better.
Setting The Zoom
Setting the natural zoom on your web browser and other applications can be critical. The temptation can be to go full on screen magnifier or even audio description. However, depending on the nature of your visual impairment, setting the native zoom option can be more beneficial, as the native option often avoids distortion that some specialist solution cause.
Set Out Your Space
Setting out your space is a top disabled student study tip. It may be that due to your condition, you thrive in certain conditions and others you don’t.
For example, if you struggle to concentrate with noise, then probably best to try and avoid studying in halls or in your shared house.
Most university libraries have disabled students’ room, which is kitted out with all sorts of assistive tech but is also not accessible to the majority. These rooms can be ideal quiet zones for people who need them.
These disabled student study tips come from our ED Disabled Student Guide which available to buy here.
There are more tips in the guide so it is worth buying – also it costs the same as a coffee.
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