Disability support at NUS

Being an educational institution that has existed since the ancient times, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has had many students with disabilities of all shapes and sizes pass through its corridors over the years.

So it has developed quite a good support system for helping such students cope with life in the university.

The main go-to person for everything related to help for disabled students is the Disability Support Officer (DSO). She takes care of all the students with special educational needs (SEN) in NUS.

Her job includes arranging for government funding for things like specialised transport or assistive technology, advocating for improved accessibility in the older parts of the campus, and being a go-between to relay messages to and from students with SEN and the various administrative departments in NUS. She can sometimes also be observed roaming the campus grounds, guiding SEN students, such as the visually impaired, as they shuttle between classrooms.

She is not alone though. Each faculty has its own Student Support Manager (SSM) in the Dean's Office who looks after the students with SEN, as well as those with difficult family or financial circumstances and those with emotional disturbances or mental illnesses, in that faculty.

Other administrative staff in the Dean's Office will step in to settle issues like examination accommodations and tutorial slot preferences (more on this later).

And of course, individual professors can play their part in helping students too.

My experiences with NUS disability support

When I was choosing which university offer to accept, the quality of disability support was one consideration. I wanted to meet with the DSOs of the three universities that had offered me a place, to get to know them and have a sense of what kind of help they could give me.

The DSO from the Singapore Management University (SMU) told me that I would only be granted a meeting after I had officially matriculated into that university. The staff from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), on the other hand, conducted a full-court press and even rolled out the chairman of the school to attend the meeting.

The NUS DSO and the SSM from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) also agreed to meet, and we did so one summer afternoon in 2017 in a small conference room in Block AS7, facing the port of Pasir Panjang. An air force cargo plane circled lazily overhead as their quiet but confident reassurances that I would be well taken care of at NUS slowly won me over.

It was a close-run thing. The enthusiasm shown by the SUSS people had really impressed me, as they really made it seem like they were excited to have me join them. The degree I would have done if I had gone there, a Bachelor in Human Resource Management, struck me as very practical and industry-oriented.

The SMU DSO's blunt refusal to see me put a big damper on my keenness to choose to go there. They have interesting programmes, engaging pedagogy, and a beautiful campus, but they really need to put an end to this closed-door policy when it comes to dealing with SEN students who are not yet part of their university.

In the end, I chose NUS because my home faculty of FASS contained everything I wanted to explore: English Language, Communications and New Media (CNM), and Psychology. I was also convinced that between the DSO and SSM, I was in safe hands.

And I was right.

The DSO was instrumental in setting me up with the relevant departments like the Registrar's Office, which handles examination-related matters, right from the very beginning of my stay in NUS, so for the rest of my candidature in the university, I am automatically granted the extra time that I need to complete my papers, and allowed to type my answers on a laptop instead of writing them by hand. She also helps in unexpected situations: When I ran into some trouble getting to a far-flung auditorium on a rainy day, she coordinated with a residential hall to let me use their secured elevator to cut through their building and get to a sheltered route to where I needed to go.

There are other services she has that I am aware of but have not had occasion to use. For example, she can get a wheelchair-friendly van to drive physically disabled students around the sprawling campus. She also advises NUS Enablers, a student-run organisation that aims to improve the welfare of students with SEN at NUS.

She comes up with her own initiatives too. For instance, FASS is a big challenge for someone in a wheelchair to navigate because there are lots of stairs and not many lifts. It also spreads over eight different multistorey buildings, randomly joined by bridges. Some parts are totally inaccessible due to lack of lift access, while others can only be accessed by going on a roundabout way instead of the straightforward route which involves negotiating a staircase. It was all very overwhelming to figure out when I was new. To make things easier for future students with mobility problems, she is currently designing a diagram to map out the wheelchair-accessible links and areas within FASS. Anyone who has ever seen what FASS is like will know that it is a huge undertaking!

The FASS SSM has also been a great help. She gets my father's car approved by the facilities management department for season parking in FASS and University Town (UTown) carparks at the start of each academic year. When I have assorted little requests, I turn to her. Additionally, she regularly checks up on me to make sure everything is okay, and we have become close friends.

Her colleague at the Dean's Office does most of the nitty-gritty tasks for me. For example, she talks to all the important people to ensure that my tests and examinations take place in venues that are suitable for my needs. She also pre-allocates my preferred tutorial timeslots to me so that I can have full control over the design of my timetable and hence minimise the time I spend on campus. Without this, I would have to ballot for tutorial classes with everyone else and might end up with timeslots that cause me to have to remain on campus for many hours each day, which will in turn cause me to be very fatigued.

Finally, my professors from the many departments in FASS, including my home department of CNM, have been valuable sources of support too. Some have even gone out of their way to find out how to accommodate me and allow me to learn and perform to the best of my ability.

With so many pairs of helping hands available, there really is no reason for any disabled student to fear coming to NUS to study. Help is always just an email away.