An applicant with a long standing condition wants to know what support exists. She cannot find anything written for somebody who has not yet applied, and she is not going to telephone an admissions office and describe her health.
She applies somewhere she knows nothing about instead, and arrives in October to discover the arrangements she needed take six weeks to put in place.
1. Say plainly that disclosure does not affect the decision
Where that is true, state it prominently. This single sentence is what makes everything else on the page usable.
2. Write a page for applicants, not students
Support pages are almost always written for people already enrolled. Somebody deciding where to apply needs the same information earlier.
3. Describe the assessment arrangements specifically
Extra time, separate rooms, readers, scribes and assistive technology. What exists, what evidence is needed and how long it takes to arrange.
4. State the lead times honestly
Some arrangements take weeks. Applicants who know this disclose early, and those who do not arrive in October needing something for November.
5. Explain what evidence is required
Which documents, how recent and what happens if somebody does not have them. This is the practical barrier that stops people asking.
6. Cover study support separately
Note takers, mentoring, study skills support and specialist tutors. These are different from assessment arrangements and applicants conflate them.
7. Describe the accessible accommodation properly
Adapted rooms, how many, how they are allocated and the deadline. Applicants with a physical need must plan this before accepting an offer.
8. Cover the physical campus honestly
Distances between buildings, accessible routes, lift provision and which buildings are difficult. Honest description is more useful than a general statement.
9. Publish the mental health provision specifically
What exists, waiting times honestly stated, and what is available in a crisis. Vague statements about wellbeing help nobody decide.
10. Name a contact and a route
A person or a team with a way to reach them that is not a general enquiry address. Somebody disclosing something personal needs to know who receives it.
11. Make the route private
Written, direct, and not through a general admissions line. People will type what they will not say to a stranger who answered a telephone.
12. Explain the funding available
Where support funding exists, how to apply and when. This is frequently the deciding factor and the least well explained.
13. Cover the neurodivergent applicant specifically
Diagnosis requirements, what support exists without one, and the practical arrangements. This group is large and poorly served by general pages.
14. Route the sensitive contacts to people properly
Anything involving current distress needs a person immediately, which is the discipline in student support and wellbeing enquiries routed safely.
15. Keep it joined up with the application questions
These arrive alongside everything in entry requirement questions applicants ask repeatedly, and career changers ask a similar set, as covered in career change questions bootcamp applicants ask.
16. Answer before anybody has to ask
An assistant that states the disclosure position, describes the arrangements, gives the lead times and names the contact reaches an applicant who was never going to telephone. That is the anticipation described in proactive support, answering questions before customers ask. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under education.