Adapted accommodation

In recent years the University has invested heavily in its campus provision for disabled students, but sometimes demand exceeds the number of rooms available. The University cannot always guarantee an adapted room, even if you have been offered a place here. Adapted rooms are provided in halls of residence which offer catered and self-catered contracts at varying costs. While we offer rooms based on availability and can’t always guarantee that the room you are offered will be your first choice or at your preferred location, we are committed to working with to ensure that as far as possible your accommodation is the most appropriate to meet your requirements.

You will need to provide us with supporting evidence of your disability and/or health condition. If you have the support of a social worker or occupational therapist, their involvement would be helpful so we can make appropriate adaptations to a room based on the impact of your disability.

The University endeavours to offer accommodation to all first-year undergraduates and we recognise that as a disabled student you will likely need to live on campus for the whole of your degree programme. However, we can’t guarantee that we can offer you the same room on campus for the whole of your undergraduate programme. We try to keep such changes to a minimum, but we will work with you to ensure that whatever room you are offered, it will meet your needs.

For students who are studying at postgraduate level, we will endeavour to offer you a room on campus if you require it, based on availability.

If you need an adapted room you should:

• Apply for on-campus accommodation as soon as possible and ensure Edge Hill is your first choice.
• Contact the Inclusion and Accommodation teams early in the application process and arrange a visit.
• Think about whether you need a regular en-suite room with minor adaptations including a grab rail, shower seat and others, or a fully adapted room.
• Consider what adaptations you need in the kitchen, bathroom or sleeping area.
• Think about what other adaptations you need such as automatic door access, heights of shelving, extra space for specialist equipment and software.
• Tell us if you require personal care or a carer’s room.
• Tell us if you experience medical emergencies such as seizures which may require First Aid so we can ensure you have a way to call for help.

Personal care or a carer’s room

DSA does not cover your personal care needs so if you need personal care and/or a carer’s room, please contact your local Social Services team as soon as possible and keep us informed. Information and advice is available on the Disability Rights UK website.

Managing complex medical or health conditions on campus

Edge Hill University understands that among our student community there will be those who are managing complex medical and/or health conditions. We recognise that you are the expert on your own medical conditions and the expectation is that you should be able to manage these independently with appropriate support from health professionals if you are living on campus.

Edge Hill University has arrangements in place to manage incidents relating to injury or ill health through the provision of first aiders and first aid equipment which should be utilised when required. If you live in halls of residence and/or if an incident occurs out of hours, first aid will be administered by Campus Support Officers. If an emergency arises elsewhere on campus, fully trained and designated first aiders will be the initial responders to an incident. These first responders could be any member of staff. They will assess if an ambulance needs to be called based on their judgement of the situation.

If you live on campus and need additional support because of a medical condition such as diabetes or epilepsy, you may be provided with an alerter device for use at times when you are in your halls of residence and may be alone. The device can be activated and will summon Campus Support Officers to the halls of residence to offer help in the event of a medical emergency. If you feel you would benefit from one of these devices, please let us know.