One of the hardest things I’ve had to do while on my PhD journey has been self-advocacy. I think all of us who have a disability find that at one point in our education journey, or even outside of education in a professional setting, we have a need to raise awareness for something that has gone wrong, or where we need additional support. In some instances, this process may be smooth and easily remedied: a report is made, the issue is resolved, and you can move forward with little time spent! In other instances, it may be a prolonged process that causes stress and requires a great deal of time spent by you to be invested. 

As someone who is in higher education, my talk in December 2024 with the Disabled Leadership Network was focused on advocating for yourself in a higher education setting. Hopefully some of the tips and pointers I’ll discuss here will benefit you and help if you should ever find yourself in a situation where you need to raise a complaint or get help! 

First: Seek Help from Others

When making a complaint or trying to raise awareness about a potential issue on your campus, doing so alone can be a daunting task. If you feel spread thin by all your existing commitments (school, work, clubs, social) this is just one more thing that you don’t want to have to deal with; and you shouldn’t have to deal with. 

Finding a person to help advocate for you or an organisation on campus that can assist you is key to help lighten that load. Often times your Student Union can signpost you to existing resources like an Advice Place (that’s what ours is called at my school) or even Disability/Wellness services that can aid you in the process of making a complaint. 

Second: Know the Complaints Process

Between you and your advocate, get to know the complaints process. At your university they should have an existing complaints process and procedure posted for you to download and view. This will give you an understanding of the expectations of what can and can’t be complained about as well as how to submit a complaint. It will also go over any important deadlines for filing a complaint and timelines for when you should expect to hear back from the university in the process. 

Third: Keep Copies of Everything Offline

If your complaint involves things like emails or documents that are saved in your university chats/OneDrive make sure you have saved these copies offline on your hard drive or have them forwarded off your University account. One thing that can be frustrating is that if you leave school for any reason, you can lose access to your account and any evidence you may have or need in the future! Having a backup copy of this is imperative for if you may need to further the complaint outside of school to an Ombudsman or to a legal proceeding. 

Fourth: Finding Evidence

Sometimes you may find yourself in a process where you know something happened, but you need proof. If reaching out to the individuals in question has not proved fruitful you can file a Subject Access Request (SAR). This is a request made to your university and is typically done through the school’s Data Protection Officer. You have every right to file multiple SAR requests if you need to and compliance by the people who you have requested data from is mandatory. Sometimes you may only need one SAR or sometimes one SAR may lead you to file a few! 

Fifth: Look for External Help 

If you find yourself hitting a wall, don’t be scared to look outside your school. The Equality Advisory Support Service is a national helpline established to advice people on issues relating to equality and human rights. This service is available in England, Scotland and Wales. They offer a phone service or a means to contact them via email. I have used them to help clarify the Equality Act provision to me, to help point me to resources to provide to my school, and they have also helped give me links when I have faced discrimination from businesses. 

If you are in the complaints process with your university or even with another organisation, you may also find yourself referred to an Ombudsman. An Ombudsman is an impartial third party typically in your council area that looks into complaints about businesses, companies and organisations. The Ombudsman has rules on what they can and cannot investigate which will be on their site. Your Ombudsman for your area will be listed on the council page and can be found most likely through a google search. 

Sixth: Don’t be Afraid to Follow Up 

If you are in the process of a complaint and feel that things are taking too long or that a deadline is being exceeded, follow up with the people involved and ask for an estimated time of completion. Email and request when they think this will be done or have your advocate step in for you. 

Remember: you are not being a bother when you are making space for yourself! 

Making a complaint is a difficult and scary process and it is made all the more difficult by processes that are very often unfriendly, purposely obtuse and hard to navigate. You are not alone in your frustrations with the process! However, don’t let the process stop you from raising your voice and being heard. It is often not a huge movement that you make when you have a successful complaint but even just a small push forward can spark change. 

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Written by Julie Ann Fooshee