It is useful to understand what the university provides in terms of support, but practically in the classroom and as a personal tutor, it is hard to implement.

In my own experience as a teacher, I have felt unsupported and ill equipped to manage the needs of disabled students.

The precarious nature of my contract and lack of provision in practical training often means I cannot provide the necessary support to students who need it.

For example, I had an SEN tutee in my first year of teaching who had very specific support needs. I was not advised about this students’ needs in advance and felt, as I was her personal tutor, I should support her beyond my hours.

When I asked for help from senior staff and the disability advisor, this was insubstantial; an email thread looped me in with the advisor and the senior staff but no practical advice or support was offered. In the event of the student contracting Covid, my emails in this thread asking what I should do went unanswered.

I have always felt I could benefit from training and more time spent with the students. I was informed that the university ‘could not afford’ to train me even in first aid. My time with my tutees is increasingly fragmented and depleted by the demands of assessment.

The provision of taught materials ahead of sessions is an effective practice, however many of my students have found the platform difficult to access and the arrangement of course materials on it difficult to navigate. In many ways, concentrating all course information and materials online complicates the learning process for students. In the context of HE, I think ‘online’ teaching is unreflectively equated with accessibility- in many cases this has the opposite effect and seems to primarily serve the purpose of providing fewer contact hours and resources to students.

Equally, restricting assessment to a digital submission is a stumbling block for many of my students- who are often required to submit multiple materials in different formats. The removal of physical submission, in my view could be restrictive to students with divergent learning styles.