Opportunities and support for disabled students

Opportunities and jobs boards aimed at disabled individuals:

• AHEAD (paid work mentoring opportunities for disabled graduates in Ireland)
• Careers with disabilities
• Creative Access (enabling people from communities that are under-represented in the creative industries to access careers, progress and reach leadership)
• City Disabilities (mentoring for disabled students wishing to pursue a career in the City)
• Disability Confident jobs (click on ‘Advanced Search’ and then ‘Only Show Disability Confident jobs’)
• Leonard Cheshire Change 100 (paid summer work placements for penultimate and final year students, as well as recent graduates. Applications typically open in September).
• EmployAbility
• Evenbreak
• MyPlus Students' Club
• Vercida

When looking on employer’s websites you might come across the following logos:

• AccessAble (comprehensive accessibility information including facts, figures, and photographs)
• Business Disability Forum (business membership organisation in disability inclusion)
• Disability Confident scheme (through this scheme, employers are supported to removing barriers in the recruitment process and the workplace for disabled people and those with long-term health conditions)
• MINDFUL EMPLOYER (empowering employers to achieve better mental health at work)
• Valuable 500 (accelerating disability inclusion through business)

Resources for neurodivergent students and graduates:

• Ambitious about Autism (last year, Ambitious about Autism advertised the Civil Service internship programme. This was paid, four-week opportunities for autistic young people. In 2024, applications closed in March and the internships took place in July.)
• Auticon (tech careers for autistic professionals)
• Employability skills for autistic students and graduates (a free online autism employability course hosted on Udemy, including sections on knowing yourself and your autism, sharing your diagnosis, reasonable adjustments, and the interview process)
• Enna (a jobs board for neurodivergent jobseekers)
• Exceptional Individuals (employment support for individuals with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and autism)

Organisations and charities provide a range of helpful information and resources for applicants and employees. Some examples include:

• ADHD Foundation
• Beat (formerly Eating Disorders Association)
• Blind in Business (helping blind and partially sighted people into work)
• British Dyslexia Association - In the workplace
• Business Disability Forum factsheets (suggested adjustments for specific disabilities)
• Changing Faces (visible difference and disfigurement charity) - Working when you have a visible difference or disfigurement  
• Chron’s and Colitis UK - A guide for employees
• Epilepsy Action - Work and epilepsy  
• FMA UK (Fibromyalgia UK) -  Employee's guide
• Headway (the brain injury association) - Employers' guide to brain injury
• Leonard Cheshire
• Macmillan Cancer Support - Returning to work
• Mencap - Factsheets
• Mind - Guide for employees
• Narcolepsy UK
• National Autistic Society
• RNIB - Working with blind and partially sighted colleagues – An employer and staff guide  
• RNID (national hearing loss charity) - Work
• Shaw Trust
• STAMMA (a leading authority on stammering) - Stammering at work
• Stroke Association - Your rights at work
• Terence Higgins Trust - The Equality Act and the workplace  
• The Brain Charity - Knowing your rights at work
• Tourettes action - Factsheet for employees