Hi my name is Rian James Hiney I'm a student at the University of Aberdeen and today I'm
going to show you a disabled student's guide to getting around the University of Aberdeen
so if you'd like to follow me and we'll take a tour around campus so obviously this is
the most historic the oldest part of the campus and probably the most recognizable but for
a lot of disabled students with mobility issues it's a real problem first being the cobbles
are an absolute nightmare to go across because they're so bumpy and I've lost so many screws
going along the cobbles to Starbucks which is just over there the real problem with High
Street apart from the cobbles is the thin pavements as you can see on this pavement
this is one of the thicker pavements but up there the pavements get thinner and thinner
to the point where you can barely use them we'll go around to other buildings on the
other side of campus that I use more regularly that are a bit more easier to get to
so this building is New Kings and when I was a second year last year I used this building
quite a lot They both have ramps as you can see and they both have automatic doors which
is good there is a lift but there isn't a fireproof lift and there is no evac chair
so it's definitely not the worst building for accessibility the University has to offer
but it isn't the best like I say the classrooms are small the lecture halls are pretty small
so you know it's a bit better than say some other ones I've been in but it's not the best
but yeah well this is New Kings and when you get into smaller courses you'll probably use
this building quite a lot when I was in second year I was mostly in this building and MacRobert
which I will come to later for lectures and things but yeah that's pretty much just been
my experience of it but yeah we'll see if we can take you to our next location which
I believe will be the MacRobert building and I'll show you how I get there, which is the
building I probably use the most for study and for lectures and for tutorials.
so this is the MacRobert building realistically as a student and probably as a disabled student
or as any student really you'll use this building the most it's pretty accessible overall I
would say regarding to the lift and the onsite accessible toilet it's probably the biggest
at this side of the campus so yeah this is probably the building you'll probably use
a lot more as you go into your well as you go further into university education this
is the building you'll see the most and you'll be in the most as it's got ideal study spaces
as well which have up and down desks so yeah I do quite like this building even if it isn't
the most ascetic building on the outside or as good looking as Kings College or New Kings
but it's definitely practical in use and it's um really easily accessible all around the
campus to get to
this is what I call the staff lift I think that's pretty pointless for a separate lift
for staff I don't know what the reason is like I said in second year I finally got access
to this lift because as you see here it says student lift and stairs straight ahead but
the doors can be quite heavy both going in and going out and when you get up the stairs
as I'll show you you have to navigate more doors if you use the student lift whereas
the staff lift cuts all that out so I asked student support if I could get access to the
staff lift which I did in second year which was so much handier more handier than going
through this uh student lift because everyone uses the student lift as well which means
I'd be late to tutorials because everyone is gonna be using the lifts and then I'd never
get a lift but this one I know I'll get a lift and it's straight in straight out so
I'm going to take you to some classrooms that I use and show you what they're like and what
I personally think of them the classrooms can be quite small depends on the way they're
set out and how the lecturer likes them to be set out and the desk can be quite hard
to get into but I'm going to take you to a computer room which does have a special adaptive
desk so off we go. This is what it's like it's quite spacious of course you need to
do a bit of manoeuvring moving chairs and things but you know typically uh I've gotten
used to it over the years
so for a while and I don't know where the signs are now they were clipped on but a lot
of people would attach their bikes to this ramp and as you can imagine the ramp is narrow
enough as it is imagine a bike being there so the University did put up signs saying
don't put your bike here you can even see the cable ties where the signs were I don't
know where the signs have gone but a lot of people do that they do it on the High Street
as well they put their bikes on the side of these very narrow pavements for whatever reason
because the bike racks are right there
that became a major issue for me and then they had to put signs up saying don't put
your bike here use bike racks and that's what I would say to every person who uses a bike
try and use the bike racks as much as possible and if you can't try and put them somewhere
where they're not on a ramp or somewhere that will hinder someone's access but behind us
we have the William Guild building which contains the Arts Lecture Theatre as you can see there's
not really any signage there's signs for buildings but there's not really any signage to any
accessible way around to this building you don't know where the accessible point of entrance
to this building is so we were thinking we were like looking for ages where we could
get into this building that didn't contain stairs because there is stairs everywhere
so I'm going to show you how I get to this from MacRobert how we get from MacRobert to
the Arts Lecture Theatre
this is the entrance to the accessible door I didn't know this when I first came and tried
this so I tried to come in the other door and almost fell down the steps here because
as you see there's no signage to see
what this door is for so this lecture theatre in particular was the lecture theatre where
I was in most in first year and as the classes are bigger this is what they use so this is
where the accessible bit is and the good thing about this lecture theatre is actually you
can have your friends sit next to you and you're with your peers obviously there's chairs
here the now but when I was here I would sit here and my friends could sit next to me and
this is one of the only lecture theatres that allows you to actually do that with an actual
desk in and it does do great things because you feel more included you feel more engaged
in a lecture you know you can talk to your friends next to you
so this is the library and like I said you'll probably find yourself here a lot you'll get
your books here you'll get a lot of study spaces here you can book study spaces there's
four lifts so there's three main lifts and then there's an extra fire safe lift there's
also to get in the library you need to go through the gates but there is a wider gate
for you to use so upstairs there are a number of up and down well adjustable desks we now
have a dedicated reading area for well dedicated area for these tables to go there's a lot
of disabled toilets on every floor of the library but there is really one special secret
toilet that you can get access to if you ask disability services it's an automatic door
but in here and it's what we call a closomat toilet now this is a very special toilet as
it washes and dries for you at the University there are multiple people that can help you
if you have a disability so there's a student support team which are based and the HUB or
the Union Building the disability team you will get a dedicated advisor to you who will
be your sort of point of contact you can email any point with any issues that you have I
email them quite regularly and when you come to uni they normally ask you to fill out a
form and they get in contact with you straight away as soon as you apply you flag up on your
application that you have a disability and you discuss your needs and whatnot and that
can be anything from accommodation to exam arrangements to timetabling the security team
are also on hand to help and there's the safe zone app and if they know you have a disability
they will come and help you as it's GPS located like I said I've been stuck in that bathroom
before and I've just used the safe zone app and the security team have come and got me
they will also come and get you if there is a fire alarm so there's lots of different
people on campus that help you and there's a lot of ways to get help and you'll get a
fire personal evacuation plan every year and every semester the accommodation team will
make sure that you get the accommodation that you need but that is the sort of staff based
support you can get your personal tutor will also probably will also help you not probably
they will they will help you and direct you to the right teams you need we also have a
disabled students forum which I am part of I am the liaison officer for the forum and
we host a range of events and campaigns um we're doing a lot for disability history month
which is this month including this video um we've done a podcast we're doing a podcast
and we're recently doing a campaign on adaptive housing for students and encouraging the university
to include more adaptive housing and give a disabled students more agency on where we
want to live so you can check us out on Facebook on Twitter on Instagram and we're always there
to sort of advocate for disabled students there is a range of support at the uni so
you're never really alone in whatever you're going through as a disabled student I'm you
know from today's video you'll see my life going around uni it can be quite tough but
I always know that I have support and that there are people I can turn to when it does
get tough and so you know I've got things like I get extensions and I get allowance
for poor attendance and all those things can be arranged through the disability team so
you've got a range of support around to help you and be able to guide you so that you're
not alone you're not isolated and people are just generally on campus whether they're support
staff or not they'll just help you if you need to open doors you know nine times out
of ten students do just open the door you will find people that are willing to lend
a hand at any time at any point which is probably one of the most amazing parts about the uni
is the sort of community feel that we're finally getting well we've started and we've still
got a long way to go but we are getting there and we're making progress as a forum and I
think as a uni you know the support service that's their mission too so yeah that's that's
it really so I hope you all enjoyed the video of how to get around the University of Aberdeen
campus as a disabled student and hope this has opened your eyes a wee bit on what it's
like to get around