Disability support at Lund University
Hello, and welcome to the Lund University International podcast. On the show, you'll hear from current students, alumni, researchers, professors, and many more special guests, as we explore what it's really like to live, study, and work at Lund University, a world's top 100 university. My name is Fabio, and I come from Napoli, Italy. I've been studying here in Lund for four years, done my bachelor's, and I'm currently a master's student in European affairs. Today, we're diving into an important topic: studying with a disability at Lund University.
Fabio Cavaliere:You'll hear from Ida Holmlund, a staff member from Disability Support Services. We'll talk about what support is available, the challenges students might face, and how services are tailored to each individual's needs. Curious about undiagnosed disabilities? We've got that covered too. Plus, how to access help, who to contact, and what the process actually looks like.
Fabio Cavaliere:Whether you're an international or local student, this episode is full of practical advice and myth busting insights to help you feel confident navigating university life with a disability. Or just to build up your awareness so you can be supportive to those around you and help create a more inclusive Lund University community. So let's welcome today Ida. Thank you for being here. And tell us a bit about your work at the Disability Support Services.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Yeah, thank you for having me. So my name is Ida, and I work as a coordinator at the department that is called Disability Support Services at Lund University. So we're a group of coordinators, and we're here to help students with a long term disability or a permanent disability to get support, to be able to have an equal access to studies.
Fabio Cavaliere:And that's very important to increase accessibility at the university. So what kind of support is there for students who do have disabilities and are thinking of studying at Lund University or are already studying?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:So we have a variety of support. It could be support regarding the lectures and seminars, such as note taking support. You have another student that is your note taker taking your notes if you're not able to, for example, take your notes by yourself. Or it could be recording the lecture. It could also be recommendations regarding the exam situation, adapted exams, like having an extension of time or being able to sit in a smaller group or sit by yourself on an exam or other accommodations like doing an oral examination instead of a written examination.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:And a lot of help with study techniques in different kinds. We offer study sessions, mentor support, or tutoring regarding study technique.
Fabio Cavaliere:Okay, so definitely a wide variety of support. And also, I imagine it comes from the different types of disabilities that students might face here at the university. So how does your office manage to support, to make sure that support is tailored to each individual student's needs?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:So we always offer our students a meeting, a dialogue where we discuss what kind of support each unique student needs. What are the challenges in the study situation and in different phases of the study? Is it regarding study technique? Or is it regarding the exams? So, we try to tailor from each unique student.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:It's a discussion between me as a coordinator and the student. We meet every student that wants to meet us. They can choose if they want to meet us at our office or digitally in a video meeting.
Fabio Cavaliere:Okay, that's perfect. And to take us a bit through the step by step, how can a student start this process into asking support if they need?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:We have many students that contact us through email to ask questions on how to do the application and what certificate do they need. And they need to prepare their arrival to Unalung University, for example. Once you are admitted and you have your student account, you can apply in our system. We have a digital web form. It's a system where we coordinators work.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:You fill in a web form, you upload a certificate stating your disability or disabilities and what kind of help you need. And in that application form, they can mark if they want a meeting with us. If you don't have your student account yet, with many international students getting it closer to arrival, We can always prepare and we can always have the meeting before doing the formal application process. So usually, a student emails me, writing: Hi, I'm coming. I would like to know more about support and prepare my support, we set up a meeting.
Fabio Cavaliere:Okay. Where can students find that information?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:They can find it on our website. So if you search for disability support services at Lund University websites, you can find our pictures and names and contacts, telephone numbers and email.
Fabio Cavaliere:What about instead students that feel like they have an undiagnosed disability? They do not know yet and they're asking, in this case, for help from you to understand what they're going through.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Yeah. We only meet and have the availability to give support to students with a documented disability. It doesn't always have to be a diagnosis, but it always has to be a document from someone at the health care system. So it could be a doctor, a psychologist, or some other person at the healthcare system. We need to have this document or certificate to be able to go take the next step.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:But we have a lot of questions from students, local and international, who doesn't have a diagnosed disability. Then think Lund University had a lot of options for those people as well. So we have an academic support centre that is open for all students And they help with study technique and academic writing and reading. They offer lectures, consultations and study sessions. There is also another department called Student Health Center that have group activities.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:For example, they have a group of activity called Organise and Plan Get Started with Your Studying. And you don't need a diagnosis or a documented disability to attend that course. You can sign up for it yourself through their website. And that group is available. There's one group in Swedish and there's one group in English.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:But it's good if you think that you have challenges and disability to look it up with your health care system.
Fabio Cavaliere:Okay. So the first point of contact I would say for everyone is for people who have an undiagnosed disability at the moment, it would be the Vårdcentralen. Right? So the kind of the health care service. But as preferred, there's many opportunities also within the university depending on the different disabilities.
Fabio Cavaliere:And so in that case, do students need any type of need to take any type of test to receive a diagnosis?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Well, they might have been taking some tests at the medical healthcare system, but we don't do any tests. And we don't do any treatment or we don't assess our students. This has to be done at some other place before coming to us. I know when it comes to dyslexia, for example, reading and writing disability, that includes tests. It's nothing that we do.
Fabio Cavaliere:What if when the student arrives to Sweden and they realize that, you know, they need help to interview the Swedish health care system in this case?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:I would recommend them to take to contact the health care system.
Fabio Cavaliere:So how does the work within the Swedish healthcare system differ from the disability services here at Lund University?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:It differs a lot. As I said, we don't do any treatment. We're not medical staff. We try to read and understand the documents and the certificates regarding a student's different diagnosis. We're not experts in each diagnosis.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:So, the more clear the document is stating what kind of challenges the student has that is a cause of their disability, the more happy we will be.
Fabio Cavaliere:I also wanted to ask what kind of challenges have you seen that students face the most in recent years who study at Lund University?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:I think one big challenge for the students I meet is to navigate within this big university. There's plenty of faculties. There are plenty of staff who to contact with what information in what time. You see yourself as a student at Lund University. You don't see yourself as a student at this specific department.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:We are kind of organized in specific departments with specific roles and stuff. Being able to navigate, I think, is a challenge for many students, especially students that already have a challenge.
Fabio Cavaliere:Yeah. And what would you tell students who who are a bit nervous about asking for help in this case?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Don't be afraid of asking for help because even if we're organized in different departments, we who work at Lund University always or often know where the student questions belong to. So, if it's not my question, I will refer the student in the right way if I don't have the answer for myself. So, please reach out to anyone. And there's a lot of people to reach out to. It could be a study advisor, a program coordinator, disability support, the Student Health Centre.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:There's so many doors to knock on. So, just knock . Even if you don't know which door you should go to, knock on one door, and we'll help you.
Fabio Cavaliere:That is some great advice. Thank you. And also, I wanted to ask, as an international student, of course, we kind of see the difference of we kind of think that there is different services for international students and for local Swedish students. Is right or are they the same thing?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:The support is the same for local and international students, But maybe international students have experience from support that were organized in a different way. Maybe they had a program in their computer or their mobile phone that we don't offer from their home university. And it could also be a difference who pays for the support. Is it Lund University or is it the home university? And that is depending on what is written in the agreement.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:But the support, I would say, is the same.
Fabio Cavaliere:You touched on something also important that is it is there any cost for a student to access these services when they come to Lund University studying actually, like an international student studying master's, a bachelor's, or anything full time here?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:No. There's no cost for the student for the support.
Fabio Cavaliere:That's great. So it's accessible for anyone no matter their background, and that is
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Yes.
Fabio Cavaliere:Is really good, good to know. And what advice would you give to students with disabilities coming to Lund? Is there something they should do beforehand or wait until they come here?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:It's good if they have their documents before and preferably in English, if they obtain and collect their documents. It would be of help also if they have, like, a document from their home university, if they have had support before from a former university. That could also help us. I would recommend the student to reach out early in the process. Even if you're not able to, as I said before, if you're not able to do the formal application, you can reach out to ask your questions and we can prepare as much as we can.
Fabio Cavaliere:Okay, that's great. And what are some misconceptions about studying with a disability? I feel like that is very something that also hinders some people from discussing it.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Yes, one misconception is maybe that students with disabilities get lower academic standards. But I think that in reality, students with support have the same course goals as any other student. So with the right support, they can achieve their goals just like any other student. They don't have lower standards.
Fabio Cavaliere:I think, actually, speaking about academics, how do how how does your work combine also with teachers? Teachers work in supporting them in their academics because, of course, they are going to be the ones that are providing the education. So how do you work with teachers to ensure that the student actually gets all the full support they need?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:Well, I don't have daily contact with teacher, but we are always happy to be consulted by the teachers if they have questions regarding how to accommodate, for example, an exam or how to navigate regarding this support. We don't inform teachers on what type of disability the students have. We inform the department or the student does it himself what kind of support they need. But the course of why you have support, we don't inform. So, the teacher doesn't know what disability is behind all this need of support.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:But we're happy if the teacher or the professor or the examiner reaches out to discuss how can I make this exam as accessible for this student? And we can have an open conversation regarding that. This has been done before, and you can think about this, of course. And then we also work at another level. We try to be there where the teaching staff is, where they're educated.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:So, if they have a course, we can be there as a part of their education to discuss what is a disability, how does this affect the study situation, what can be done. We can give tips and recommendations. We have written a handbook for accessible teaching, for example, where we state different kinds of disabilities and what to think of. And we're very happy if one department invites us to discuss during one hour with the teachers together how do we work more inclusive, how do we make a supporting environment. And there's webinars that we attend and conferences is held with the topic.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:So I think there are small things happening every day.
Fabio Cavaliere:Okay. So it's a really all around supportive environment. You get you get the the support services. You get also professors and teachers who are kind of educated or try to get educated on this topic. So, really, Lund University tries to be as accessible as possible.
Fabio Cavaliere:Is there anything else you would like to mention?
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:If you reach out early, we're always there. Don't hesitate to ask for help. We have a limited amount of time to do follow ups and to reach out to students. It's not that easy to know what you need when you're just in the beginning and everything is new. You're in a new town, you're in a new country, in a new university, you don't know what kind of support you need.
Ida Jarbe Holmlund:We always say that you're welcome back. We can always add something, we can always ring you your decision of support if you just contact us.
Fabio Cavaliere:Thank you so much. That is really some very good advice for all students coming at Lund University in general, whether you might have a disability where you feel like you need extra help or support, Disability Support Services is there for you. So thank you for today Ida.
Fabio Cavaliere:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Lund University International podcast. If you're interested in learning more about Lund University, you can go to our website, lunduniversity.lu.se.
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