Work placements are an important part of many university degrees and are a great way to build practical skills and get first-hand experience. If you are a blind or partially sighted student, you might be nervous about doing a placement but don’t worry! This guide will help you to navigate the process of finding, starting, and completing a placement while making it as successful as possible.
Looking for a placement can feel overwhelming, especially if you’ve never done one before. Some universities will arrange placements for you as part of your course, while others expect you to find your own. Either way, your university should have a careers or placement team who are there to support you.
They can help you:
It’s a good idea to speak to them as soon as you know a placement is part of your course. That way, you’ll have plenty of time to plan any support you might need.
If your university don’t arrange a placement for you, there are places you can look for opportunities such as Totaljobs and StudentJobs. Check out the Save the Student guide on finding placements or the Prospects resource about placements and how to arrange them for more information.
Once you have found a placement, it is a good idea to let them know about your vision impairment. Many universities will create a placement plan for students with disabilities, a document that will be created with you, the disability service and placement team and shared with your placement supervisor. The plan will outline:
If you’re unsure what adjustments might help, your university Disability Service can talk this through with you. They can help you think about what support has worked well in the past and how this might translate into a placement setting. Sheffield Hallam University have a really helpful guide on disability support on placement and templates for placement plans.
Students on work placements of 10 weeks or more are potentially eligible for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). When a student is going on a work placement as part of their course, the DSA Needs Assessment should take this into account, and consider the portability of any equipment and how you will travel to placement sites. Some adjustments will be made by the work placement provider, and some courses provide separate funding towards costs.
Top Tip!
Check that any assistive technology you use works with the systems at your placement and that it is allowed in the setting.
Work placements are included in the Equality Act 2010. This means that university staff must take into account a student’s disability when arranging work placements and liaise with the work placement providers to implement the support.
If your placement is part of your course, your university has a responsibility to support you and help make sure the placement is inclusive. If you need advice or support, you can contact your university’s Careers or Placement Team, or the Disability Service.
Top Tip!
Think about the type of placement you will be doing and the tasks you will need to complete. For example if you are doing a teaching placements, will you need a handheld magnifier to read student work and classroom materials? Or if you are doing a more clinical placement, will you need a support worker or adapted equipment for practical medical tasks, such as taking patient blood pressure?
Once your placement starts, try to keep in regular contact with your placement supervisor and your university. This gives you a chance to talk about what’s going well and raise any problems early. If something isn’t working, explain what the issue is, how it affects you, and what you think might help. If things still don’t improve, you can check out our guide on what to do if things go wrong. If this doesn’t solve the problem, check out our guide on what to do if things go wrong at university.
Check out Maymunah’s Student Story all about her experience of navigating placement as a BPS student or for more information contact ourEducation Information Advice and Guidance Serviceon EducationAdvice@pocklington.org.uk
Find out everything you need to know about Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), a grant which helps blind and partially sighted students get the right support at university.
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Find out more about 'Technology in Education'Find our about Maymunah's experience of navigating a work placement at university and how she made the most of it with a vision impairment
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