You can read this article by Semma; a Student from the University of St Andrews, to find out about their perspective and experiences of starting university and talking about their ASD diagnosis.

You can read this article to find out about Jane’s advice for requesting reasonable adjustments.

There are many clubs and societies at St Andrews to get involved in. I have been a member of the Women’s 2nds Basketball team since my first year and attended the Autism group on and off since it began at St Andrews in my second year. I have also been a part of the peer mentoring scheme and other activities, such as a study group. In my experience, I have found the people at both the university societies and the sports centre to be very welcoming and understanding of any difficulties I had related to my autism diagnosis and the clubs I’ve been a part of have been very supportive in helping me to participate in a way I was comfortable with. Overall, I have loved being a part of them and am so glad I got involved.

I have just finished the first year of my postgraduate degree and it was also the first year that I sought support as an autistic student. My experience of working with the university disability services has been very positive, I spoke to them before I had decided whether I wanted to share this with my supervisor and faced no pressure to share it, I felt like I was in control of the information and the process which helped me feel comfortable sharing it when I was ready. The autism social group is open to PGs as well as the undergrads and I found it was nice to socialise with other autistic people and we were also able to share things that were helping us and ask questions that would be awkward to ask elsewhere.

Disclosing my autism isn’t always easy.

First and foremost, I want to say that my autism is not something I feel ashamed of. But it is up to me to decide if, when, how, and how much I tell others about it.

There are some people I’ve told early on, with others it took me a while, some I still haven’t told, and others I will never tell.