So you are planning to study, or maybe you are already studying. You might already have an autism diagnosis or maybe you’re pursuing. You’ve been told that you can access extra supports (and this is a legal right in Australia, but also many other countries).

These supports have many different names; some of these are:

ILP – Individual Learning Plan
IEP – Individual Education plan
RAP – Reasonable Adjustments Plan

If you’re late diagnosed even just asking for accommodations might feel like asking for help that you don’t deserve. And even when you overcome that barrier, it can be hard to know what would even be helpful or how to ask for this help.

Let me walk you through some of the steps you are likely to have to take, what kind of accommodations you might want to ask for, and how to make it easier for yourself.

Getting the supports

Step 1: Make an appointment

There will be some kind of disability support officer or student services that will be able to help you set up an ILP.

You can usually call them to set up an appointment, but many Autistics don’t like talking on the phone. Try emailing them or dropping by in person to make an appointment instead if that’s you.

Step 2: Get good letters of support

Usually, your school will ask you for evidence that you need support. It may be worth checking who they will accept this evidence from (you can ask them this question, or it should be written down in the policy which is usually on their website).

(a) Diagnosis paperwork
If you are still in the diagnosis phase, make sure your diagnostician will write an accommodation list for you for your study (and work). Some offer this as a standard. You can also ask them to have specific accommodations added.

(b) Health professionals
In the lead up to getting your ILP, ask your health care providers to also write a letter for your school. If you see more than one provider, you might sound them out to see if they would be helpful in this process and pick the best ones to write letters S.ome health care providers will be quite knowledgeable about what accommodations are helpful (especially OTs) and they will usually write a very good letter.

Have a draft letter ready
I will often draft one and send it to them as a word document so they can edit it as they wish, but it ends up saving a lot of time.

Here is an example letter.

What kind of supports should I ask for?

This is a great question and is super variable because we are all have different learning strengths and struggles. You might also not know what you can ask for.

Here are some resources for accommodations that you can access. You can use these lists as a menu of options to choose what you think will work for you.

Lists of supports

(1) Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training
This website has lots of really good resources, including a list of accommodations sorted by specific disabilities and neurodivergences: https://www.adcet.edu.au/students-with-disability/reasonable-adjustments-disability-specific

(2) Your school

(a) What do they offer?
You can also ask your school what standard supports are that they offer, so you can choose which ones suit you. They may also publish this in their online policies which you can access yourself Schools may also have their own policies on what they consider reasonable so they may not give you exactly what you ask for.

(b) What do they recommend?
Ask the person who is helping you with your ILP what they recommend. They see lots of students and will have a good idea of what accommodations are practical and impactful.

(3) My suggestions

Below I have listed the accommodations that I have found to be most helpful and what some of my experiences with them are.

(a) Automatic 2 week extensions

This can look like the due date automatically being extended by 2 weeks or all you have to do to get an extension is ask your tutor (no evidence required).

This can look like the due date automatically being extended by 2 weeks or all you have to do to get an extension is ask your tutor (no evidence required). Some places are even comfortable with getting rid of due dates all together, though this may not be helpful for ADHDers who need a deadline to create urgency and motivation.

How helpful is this?
Very! Fluctuating capacity makes working to a predictable schedule difficult and not having to explain makes it a lot easier to access extensions.

What are the risks
If you ask for extensions for your mid-term assignments it will often then impact on your ability to finish your end-of term assignment on time. If possible, plan at the beginning of the term which assignments are least impactful on you if you ask for an extension. This means you can prioritise your other (more impactful if you had an extension) assignments first.

Another impact is that it can extend your school term into what normally would be your break. You may also get marks back later than other people.

(b) 20 % extra time for exams
Or an extra 12 minutes per hour.
*How helpful is this?*
It can be very helpful, even if it’s just to take the pressure off.

What are the risks
It does make the time that you are in an exam longer. If you have long exams (e.g. 1hr+) you might want to use some of this extra time to take breaks.

Moving around and/or having a brain break can be very good in resetting concentration. This is an easier thing to do if you also get the next suggested accommodation of being in a separate room.

You might also finish after everyone else, and this means you might lose out on peer support as people debrief after.

For online exams, I found that I had to remind lecturers nearly every single time that I did one. It’s particularly annoying, because often online exams are a one try only and you might not find out that they did not apply the extra time until after you start – so I often checked beforehand with the lecturer, which is a bit annoying because it often meant I had to delay when I wanted to take it because I was waiting for them to update it.

(c) Separate room for exams for in-person exams
You take your exams in a room by yourself with your own exam monitor.

How helpful is this?
My neurologist recommended this, and I was really against it, but it actually was very helpful. I didn’t realise how much time I spent in exams monitoring other people (am I ahead of them, are they ahead of me, watching them hand in their exam papers etc). It can also feel a bit calmer when you’re in a room by yourself, as you’re not picking up on other people’s nerves.

What are the risks
Unlike many of the other accommodations that you might have that the other students are not aware of, this one is very obvious when you access it. It can feel a little bit weird as it’s a very open declaration of getting extra help. If you are not out (i.e. haven’t disclosed your neurodivergence) then it may also raise questions where you may feel you are forced to disclose in order to explain the difference in treatment.

(d) Early access to reading lists & unit outlines
How helpful is this?
This was probably my favourite accommodation. I would read the entire textbook before the term started, so I could just focus on the assignments.

Having the subject guides beforehand meant that I could also start planning out my term more.

What are the risks
They probably won’t do it. I probably got this accommodation 10% of the time. I ended up googling previous years unit outlines and using that as my guide instead. This usually worked out okay, but sometimes they would change the textbook!

If you are able to, you might get in touch with the unit convener/lecturer and explain your accommodation before the course. It may be that they are still updating the unit outline and don’t want to release it, but if you reach out to them, they may be able to tell you the information you need (e.g. what textbook you’ll need).

This was not a formal accommodation, but because my lecturers received a copy of my ILP, I felt that they were more understanding of my needs and responded better than they otherwise might have to my requests for help in class. I have seen this added to ILPs but extra explanations are quite subjective and so may not make a huge difference.

How to make the most use of your supports

1. Manage your ILP

(a) Keep an online folder of all your ILP related paperwork.
Trust me, you will need to access it again sometime in the future, and it will save you a lot of time if you keep this kind of paperwork together and easily accessable. This includes:

ILP
Supporting letters
Diagnosis
+ anything else you refer to frequently.

(b) Proactively send your ILP to your lecturers.
An ILP should last for the duration of your course, but not all your lecturers will be aware of it. As soon as you know who your lecturers are, send them your ILP. This is why the accommodations relating to early access don’t always happen, because lecturers may not read this beforehand. If you have accommodations that should be actioned before the unit starts, make sure you outline these in the body of the email, e.g. you might say:
“I just wanted to let you know that I have some accommodations that relate to early access to the unit outline. If the unit outline is not ready yet, would you instead be able to let me know what the textbook for the unit is, as I require extra time to read the text.”

(c) Have your ILP updated
If you need to have additional accommodations, make sure you have your ILP updated to reflect this,

2. Have a plan for the term

I create a calendar for the term where I work out exactly what assignments I will be working on each week.

Here is a template.
I use a backwards planning process, where I start at the end of the term and work backwards to the beginning.

Step 1: In the calendar, Fill in the columns that are highlighted in green (last date of each week of the term and the names of your subjects).

Step 2: Write when each of your assignments is due and how much it’s worth in %.

Step 3: Calculate how long you need for each assignment. I use this formula, but you might work differently:

Assignment worth <10% = 3-5 days
Assignment worth <30% = 1 x week
Assignment worth >30% = 2 x weeks

Step 4: Highlight in your calendar when you will work on each assignment. Ideally you can spread your workload throughout the term as much as possible so you’re never working on more than 1 or at the very max 2 assignments at a time.

For example, I have highlighted in blue when I will be working on different assignments for different subjects.

Benefits of having a plan

1. You know have a plan
It means you know what you should be working on – one thing that kills motivation is ambiguity

2. Prevent being surprised by busy times
It means you can plan for your busy times. Remember you can start your assignments at any time.

I spread out my assignments out as much as I can throughout the term, so I can work on them for as long as I can, but also without as little overlap as possible.

If possible, I usually start my assignments on day 1 of the term so I can spread out my assignments as much as possible. (Usually, the recommended readings leading up to the assignment are a really good clue as to what they are expecting to see in the assignment)

3. You can ask for help early
If you have a plan you know you need to ask for help when it starts to go off track. Because you’ve planned the entire term, you can easily see the flow on effects of things going wrong early in the term.

If you struggle to ask for help because you feel bad, it might even make it easier to ask for help early on, because it gives you more justification that you really do need it,

Requesting accommodations for study