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Student Futures+

Advice for disabled or neurodivergent students

Identify your unique strengths and how to ask for adjustments from employers.

If you have a disability, which could include a mental or physical health condition or being neurodivergent, the Equality Act 2010 protects you from discrimination when applying for jobs.  It also places a legal obligation on employers to make adjustments both during the recruitment process and in the workplace so that you are not disadvantaged when compared to others. Navigating your career alongside a disability, health condition or neurodivergence can be challenging, but any difficulties you overcome will have helped you to develop unique strengths and talents that will shine in any workplace.

Identify your strengths

We understand that at times it will feel frustrating managing your career alongside a disability or health condition, and you will need to be resilient. However, we encourage you to think positively about your disability, your strengths and skills and how you add value and diversity to the world of work.

Living with a health condition or disability may well have enabled you to develop key employability skills which are highly desired by graduate recruiters, such as flexibility, time management, resilience, communication and negotiation. My Plus Students Club offers a free guide to help you reflect on and draft a useful statement outlining your strengths, which will help with career planning and when taking part in recruitment, such as drafting your CV or a cover letter. They have also published e-books on embracing and communicating your strengths, which you might find useful to work through.

Sharing information with employers

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Researching disability confident employers

No employer should discriminate against you because of a disability or health condition, however there are employers who are clear in their commitment to wanting disabled applicants to apply. They might say they want to increase diversity or are an equal opportunities employer, or they may have signed up to something like the Disability Confident scheme, a government scheme which supports employers to employ and keep disabled people in work.

Before you apply for a role, you might want to do your research to see how inclusive the employer is. You could:

An employer may still be inclusive and supportive of disabled applicants even though they do not say it. You could check their website for more information and insight into their values and workplace culture, as well as contacting them directly to ask what their policies are to support disabled applicants and employees.

Searching and applying for roles

We have lots of advice on Student Futures+ on searching for jobs and work experience, as well as applying for opportunities. We encourage you to use this advice as a starting point but have some additional suggestions below.

Searching for roles

When searching for roles, you might also want to target additional websites that promote roles for disabled candidates or roles offered by inclusive employers. We have included some examples of websites below, which advertise jobs, internships or both:

Remember if you are a current Cardiff University student or graduate, you may be eligible for tailored employability support from the Career Confident team in Student Futures. Find out more about the team and the support they offer in your Student Futures Account. You will need to register if you are a graduate.

Applying for roles

When you apply for any role, whether that be jobs, work experience or postgraduate study, the same advice and principles apply for all candidates, regardless of any disability, health condition or neurodivergence. You can read our advice on all aspects of the recruitment process, including CVs, cover letters, application forms, psychometric tests, assessment centres, interviews, as well as personal statements for postgraduate study. Nonetheless at the application stage you may face additional decisions relating to what if any information you share with employers and how you might address any gaps in your education or work experience.

We encourage you to read our advice above on sharing information about your disability with employers.

You might also choose to address anything in your application which you think an employer might query or have concerns about, for example any gaps in your education history, lower academic achievements or a lack of work experience. You might wish to add further detail about your disability or health condition in your cover letter or application form if you feel that an employer is not getting an accurate representation of your true ability and potential from your CV alone. You do not need to go into a lot of detail and should only share what you feel comfortable with. You can read an example below:

Attending regular hospital appointments to monitor my long term health condition means that I need to be highly organised, but that did affect the grade I achieved in my final degree classification (predicted 2.1, achieved 2.2)

Remember if you have been in continuous full-time education, the summer holidays or short periods between courses finishing and starting don’t count as gaps. Read TargetJobs advice for dealing with gaps in CVs and applications and book an appointment with a Careers Adviser in your Student Futures Account if you’re not sure about how to address anything you might be concerned about in your applications.

Further resources

Use the below resources to explore the topic further: