The new school year is just starting for teachers and students in Scotland. I’m here to give advice about school as a disabled ex-student.
The transition from primary to secondary education is difficult for everyone but especially for disabled students.
If they are attending a mainstream secondary school, disabled students should speak to their learning support within the school to make sure their learning needs are met. Personally, I attended an ELR (enhanced learning resource) because the transition was too much to handle by myself and it offered a space that I could use to be more supported in lessons or classwork.
Making friends is also incredibly challenging in transitioning from primary to secondary school, as there are more students than there were in what might have been a small P7 class. The start of term will be an overwhelming few days, although no one is expecting you to have everything figured out.
The challenges of being a disabled student in school
To ease the stresses of making friends, there will be school clubs that will expose you to a diverse range of people, some of whom will have similar interests as you. During my time at secondary school, I joined a number of clubs such as the LGBTQ+ club and Harry Potter club, which helped me to make some friends. However, you can find friends in your classroom as you’re around these other students for the majority of the day, and sometimes you get to know them a lot more personally when they sit next to you.
Unfortunately, my time at secondary school wasn’t always positive. I experienced all forms of bullying due to being viewed differently by my peers. I felt like there was something wrong with me so I tried my best to hide my disabilities and overachieved to deflect; this isn’t healthy for anyone, take it from me.
I recommend that students stay away from anonymous messaging sites as these encourage people to say harmful things, and you shouldn’t have to endure discrimination for something you cannot control. Just because your peers have these anonymous messages from people that they find uplifting, it doesn’t mean you will have the same. This is something I would stress to a younger me.
This is really important, too: do not post embarrassing posts publicly because these are things you cannot delete and they will haunt you and can open you up to more bullying. Instead, it’s far better for students to create a private story on Instagram, where you post these funny posts about yourself. You’re allowed to have fun and share that with friends and family, but students should understand that being public about these posts will not always be a positive experience.
I’d also recommend that you reach out to close friends and family about how you’re feeling. Being bullied can cause your mental health to decline and you need a support system that you can access to discuss these feelings. If a student feels feel like they can’t do that, there are guidance teachers and other teachers there whom they can talk to about their feelings. I went to my English teacher about whatever I was going through, and having someone there to listen was amazing support.
Being confident in who you are and about your disability will help you a lot. It may feel awful to be subjected to slurs, but, honestly, it can be something that brings you comfort. I started a disability-orientated social media group and it gave me a community of people who have been through the same or a similar experience. You will find a community that just gets you.
As a disabled student, being in a classroom can be exhausting because you’re having to focus a lot more than your peers, especially if you’re deaf, and often this means that crucial information is missed. I strongly encourage students to seek out the PowerPoints that their teachers use to refresh their memory, sometimes in class - you can ask for these to be printed off so that you can annotate them.
If videos are being shown in class, captioning can be used to help you understand. Some videos will have transcripts instead of captioning, which can give you the most important information instead of you having to remember. Teachers should be willing to print this off.
In short, I’d advise disabled students to remember to enjoy their time in education - and make sure they get the support they need to achieve their best
Ciara McCarthy is a disability activist who writes about her experiences of education as a disabled and deaf person. A version of this article was originally published on her blog
