Sheffield Hallam holds Asperger syndrome conference

Added on 04/06/2008

Moving forward together is a one day conference, at Sheffield Hallam, looking at the services for young people and adults who have Asperger syndrome.

This conference, taking place on 30 June, will provide a unique opportunity to consider the diverse range of services currently provided for people with Asperger syndrome. It will be a sharing of practice and consideration of progress still to be made.

For more details see the events section.

A women’s right to choose

Added on 08/05/2008

NUS is pro-choice and the organisation’s stance, set at women’s conference and supported by the disabled students’ campaign, is to defend and extend access to abortion.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is hitting parliament in May. There are opportunities and there are serious threats to a woman’s right to choose. This is the biggest threat to our access to safe legal abortion in a generation. The message we want to send to MPs is simple – don’t attack the 24-week time limit and offer full access to women for safe, legal abortion on the NHS

The majority of people in the UK support our views and keeping the 24-week time limit is supported by a cross party science and technology select committee. However, the anti-choice movement is loud and therefore you still need to lobby your MP.

Take action
Attend the protest as MPs vote on women's abortion rights
Tuesday 20 May, 5.30pm
Outside parliament.

Write to your MP. A model letter is available on the Abortion Rights homepage.

Find your MP here.

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Disabled students' pro-choice stance
Many disabled women have abortions after 20 weeks. This can be for a variety of legitimate reasons and the current campaign to reduce the time limit will harm disabled women who may be forced to go through a pregancy against their will or forced to consider illegal abortions.

NUS believes that anti-choice MPs are also pushing for debates around disability and abortion - in an attempt to limit access to abortion in any way that they can. We further believe that anti-choice campaigners are using disability as a political tool and this is offensive to disabled people. Some anti-choice campaigners argue that women should not be able to have abortions on the grounds of disability, however, we argue that women should not have to give any reason at all for accessing abortion and that if a woman doesn’t want to have a baby then that is her ultimate choice. Within the social model of disability, there is no such thing as a ‘disabled foetus’ – the disablism does not happen at the point where the woman chooses to abort – the disablism happens all the time, there is a disabling lack of information provided for pregnant women, and our disablist society sometimes means that individual women feel that they would not be able to cope.

• NUS reaffirms our support for a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion or not.
• NUS campaigns for accurate, non-directive information to be given to women upon discovering there is a chance of foetal impairment.
• NUS continues our productive work with Abortion Rights and will follow its advice on campaigning should this issue arise in the next five years.
• NUS never allows anti-choice campaigners, with ulterior motives, to divide the Disabled Students Campaign and the Women’s Campaign – not least because of the cross over of Disabled Women who experience multiple discrimination in their lives.

Win a guide to accessible britain

Added on 07/05/2008

NUS have teamed up with the publishers of the Rough Guide to Accessible Britain, the first guide of its kind in the UK, to offer five guides as prizes in our ‘Name our campaigns’ competition.

Packed with ideas that are fun, manageable and simple to plan, the new guidebook has been developed by Rough Guides in association with Motability Operations, the company that manages the Motability car scheme for disabled people in the UK.

The guide features lively accounts of more than 100 inspirational and accessible places to visit and things to do from exploring Sherwood Forest to soaking up the atmosphere at Wembley. The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain is a one-stop collection of ideas for making the most of leisure time, with the bonus that each location has been thoroughly checked out for disabled visitors, supplying all the information needed to plan a trip.

To take part, we’d like suggestions for the following campaigns:

Personal care
This campaign will focus on the pressing issue of personal assistants, carers and enablers. We’ll be lobbying parliament to increase the level of personal care offered to those disabled students who need it and simplify the process of application.

Mental Health
We’ll be focussing on the stigma of mental ill health this year and training student officers on how to support students with related issues.

Further education
We’ll be researching the needs of disabled students in further education (FE) and lobbying for a change in the funding systems available to disabled students in FE.

Think simple and catchy. To give you a starting idea our previous campaign names and slogans have included ‘Don’t dis’ my ability’, ‘Not all disabilities look like this’ [with a wheelchair symbol] and ‘Our opinions count’.

Email your answers, by 4pm, 23 May 2008, to disabled@nus.org.uk. If we choose the name you suggest – you’ll get a free guide in the post. If we think your suggestion is great – you’ll also get a free guide.

Working with HIV positive students

Added on 30/04/2008

For the last year, we’ve been working on a system of support for HIV positive students.

Much of the excellent work undertaken by students’ unions in relation to HIV is based on sexual health prevention, support and advice. The reality, though, is that many students are already living with HIV and these students often need practical and emotional support and advice.

For these students, college and university can be an isolating experience. Students’ unions have often prioritised sexual health, disability officers can sometimes be confused about HIV and the issues associated with living as a positive student and the stigma of living with HIV causes day-to-day emotional and practical difficulties.

In addition, many HIV community support agencies are not well equipped to deal with students. Most are well versed with benefit systems, the rights of positive people at work and the lifestyles associated with living on benefits and working – but most do not appreciate the difficulties, stresses and strains of student life.

Student funding systems are convoluted for positive students – many of whom may be entitled to disabled students’ allowance and/or will be estranged from their families, furthering the complexity of their funding support.

Mentoring scheme
Disabled Students’ Conference 2006 discussed this issue and resolved to explore the potential of a mentoring scheme for positive students – by positive graduates. Those who have lived an experience are most likely to be experts in the situation.

For the last year, the NUS Disabled Students’ Campaign has explored this option with Dr. Andrew Bexley, a sexual health professional. In a pilot project, we established the real need for this work, the demand from positive students and students’ unions alike and the viability of a project of this nature. Watch out for more detailed conclusions in a report and briefing to be published soon.

No other organisation is currently working nationally with positive students, despite the very specific need of this demographic. We now need to source funding, explore mentoring accreditation and establish whether NUS, or another organisation, are best placed to undertake this work.

If you’ve got any comments, suggestions or personal experiences of living with HIV as a student, or working with positive students, and you’d like to feed into our evaluation of this project please contact us at disabled@nus.org.uk.

A day in the life...

Added on 10/03/2008

The disabled students’ campaign is keen to raise awareness of the day-to-day lives of disabled students. As part of this, we run an online series ‘A day in the life…’

We hope that these articles will create a better understanding of disabled students’ lives.

See the series, and find out how you can part on our ‘A day in the life…’ page.