RNIB Scotland’s student forum shares tips for new students

A group for young people with sight loss in Scotland has shared advice for students beginning their first-year of university or college.

Haggeye, the youth forum of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Scotland, offered tips for new students who are blind or partially sighted to help cope with navigating the new environments and adapting to individual study.

James Adams, director of RNIB Scotland, commented: “Embarking on a university or college course is both an exciting and daunting life event for every young person. But blind and partially sighted students need that measure of additional support to get the most from their time, academically and socially, in higher or further education.”

“It can be quite a different experience from the smaller school community they have been familiar with over the past five or six years, where they have more direct contact with the same teachers,” Adams continued. “Now they will venture further afield, perhaps away from home for the first time, and will encounter a wider, more frantic student-world.”

“With support and encouragement, though, they can share and enjoy the same life-expanding experience as their sighted peers,” he added.

The forum is made up of 16 to 27 year-olds who campaign on a range of issues in order to highlight the experiences of young people with sight loss in Scotland.

Sharing advice for new students, recent politics graduate from Stirling University, Lewis Shaw, 23, suggested: “Engaging with your university or college’s disability service and students’ union as early as possible is essential.”

Shaw, who has Leber congenital amaurosis, added: “Make sure you do as much as you can to push for the support that you require so that you can be included the same as everyone else. One mistake I made early on was not doing this.”

The forum members highlighted the importance of informing lecturers that course materials may need to be provided in alternative formats, such as audio or braille.

Confidence in getting to and around educational settings was also highlighted.

Eilidh Morrison, 21, from Aberdeen, who has retinitis pigmentosa and ocular motar apraxia and is studying physics, commented: “I had no clue which bus to get or where to get it to go to uni.”

“I got another student to meet me off my usual bus to the city centre, and then we both took the bus together to university. I needed to do that about three times before I was comfortable getting it on my own,” Morrison added. “I wouldn’t have been able to get to uni without their support.”

Haggeye members compiled 10 tips for settling into university or college. Listen to the advice on the forum’s Twitter here.