Current Experiences Survey 2024

Participants

We recruited 103 UoY Students to take part in the survey

• Mean age = 21.33 (SD = 3.82) years old

• Female = 59, Non-Binary/Third gender = 21, Male = 20, prefer not to say = 3

• 88 were formally diagnosed, 15 were not formally diagnosed

Methods

• Surveys were run online and included a mix of multiple choice and open questions.

• These questions asked about experiences of belonging and community at University. 

• This including asking what has worked well and not well for them and what barriers there have been. 

• Not all questions were presented to all participants.  Whether some questions were asked depended on responses to previous question.

Analysis

• For MCQ questions we looked at percentage of responses

• For open questions we ran a thematic analysis on the responses.  

You can see responses were varied and mixed, showing the different experiences students can have.  Examining these responses further along with responses to further questions in our survey - 3 key themes emerged around disabled students current experiences of community and belonging at the University of York.  

As can be seen from the graph above (click on the picture for an accessible description of the graph), when participants were asked directly about barried, responses from 65 respondents fell into 4 categories:

• Anxiety was around social anxiety, difficulties integrating and a lack of someone to head to events with.

• Cost was around membership costs and going out costs.

• Condition-specific barriers are ones which could be directly related to their condition e.g. sensory issues and loud events and socials, to indirect barriers around fatigue due to their condition and or managing their condition around studies/jobs. 

• Time was around the extra time they needed to manage their conditions and difficulties managing this around unknown timings of new activities. 

Responses to other questions not directly asking about barriers also yelded responses connected barries both corroborating the above codes as well as suggestion potential additional barriers:

• Sensory issues

• Drinking culture

• Accommodations not considered

• Not being accepted

• Affordability

• Racism

• Social anxiety

• Many venues not accessible to those with mobility issues

• Dehumanisation

• Energy difficulties

• Difficulties in maintaining regular contact

• Difficulties in relating to non-disabled peers

Below are some example quotes from the survey to help demonstrate these findings:

Person 1: "[I] struggled to handle the workload of uni work and social life, as a result I did not build a social life or join events etc as all my energy went into the work."

Person 2: "The X studio is completely inaccessible to wheelchairs, so I haven’t been able to take part in X society." 

The above graph (click on the picture for an accessible description) shows the categories of responses students gave, from across different questions for what they found to help facilitate community and beloning for them.  

• Regular events and sometimes even a regular space enabled disabled students to attend when they can and in familiar spaces.

• Accommodating: Some respondents explicitly indicated having their specific needs met really helped them feel like they belonged.  Linked to this many disabled students found it easier to relate to others with disabilities and felt a greater sense of community

• Social Contact: Indicated activities that helped to support and facilitate connection with each other really helped build communities.

• A positive/supportive space was found to be crucial to feeling safe and to foster a sense of belonging and community.

• Shared Interests: Common activities were suggested to help foster connection as well.

Below are some example quotes from the survey to help demonstrate these findings:

Person 1: "I do think being able to meet more autistic people has been the biggest force for growth in my close friend circle."

Person 2: "X society, especially, works hard on accessibility and inclusion for all members, and I have never felt othered or un-listened to since day 1 of being there."

Responses from across the survey showed a common, recurrent theme we named - Islands of Belonging.  These islands or areas of belonging were divided up into three key areas:

• Social Belonging: dependent on the students’ extracurricular friendships and activities.

• Academic Belonging: dependent on the students’ satisfaction with their grades.

• Departmental Belonging: dependent on how strongly students felt they were welcomed by the departmental faculty and their student peers.

The really interesting aspect of this third theme is that student experiences of these areas/islands of belonging varied.

• Some reported feelling as if they belonged to multiple areas

• Some felt they belonged to one but not other areas

• Some students even felt a mix of belonging and not belonging within a single island/area.  

Below are some example quotes from the survey to help demonstrate these findings:

Person 1: "[I’ve] become more involved with the disabled community here, but I sometimes feel isolated from my wider cohort."

Person 2:  “I belong to the uni as a student, but don't have strong associations or feel connected with many others”