Case Studies
Case studies
- Case 1: James – Autistic & visually impaired.
James was diagnosed autistic in primary school, and was diagnosed with Stargardt disease in secondary school. This causes progressive sight loss, however currently James requires printed material to be a minimum of size 16 font, and reports that low contrast colours can make reading tricky. James has a reduced field of vision, meaning he is not always aware of things happening in his immediate surroundings unless he hears them, and has reduced distance vision.He experiences noise sensitivity, and finds large amounts of background noise cause him difficulties in concentration and focus.
- Case 2: Ramandeep – d/Deaf.
Ramandeep is Deaf and has cochlear implants. She comes from a Deaf family, and BSL is her primary language. She has attended mainstream school for her entire education, and is used to communicating in spoken English. She needs anyone speaking her to look directly at her face as lip reading supplements the input she receives from the cochlear implants. Ramandeep reports that the concentration required for a full day of speaking and listening causes her to become fatigued, and that she may need extra breaks.
- Case 3: Kai – mental health.
Kai has been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. They attended a small, independent school and have said they are struggling with constantly being surrounded on campus, the number of students around them in lecture halls and lack of quiet areas to de-stress. They are particularly nervous about the unknown lab environment, the number of people and the expectation to attend for the entire 6 hour class. With the laboratory being completely different to anything they have experienced before, they aren’t able to suggest what support they need, but think they may regularly need to leave the room and calm down.
- Case4: Rosie – MS.
Rosie has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune condition which is known to wax and wane. She suffers chronic pain, and at times needs to use a wheelchair to get around. In periods of remission, she manages with paracetamol but cannot remain standing for long periods. During relapses, she can suffer from dystonia which causes sudden uncontrollable limb movements, similar in presentation to tics which may pass in minutes or persist throughout the day.
- Case 5: Derrin – dyslexia.
Derrin has been diagnosed dyslexia by an educational psychologist at 15, and the report also states has slow processing speed. As a result of this he sometimes needs instructions repeated, or presented in a different way. He finds reading easier if materials are provided on blue paper. He says his handwriting can be messy and he sometimes finds it hard to read his notes back, he was allowed to use a laptop for his GCSEs and A levels, and has asked if he can bring his laptop into the lab rather than use a hard copy lab book.
- Case 6: Princess - type 1 diabetes.
Princess has type 1 diabetes, as long as she is able to eat and drink regularly and can monitor her blood sugar she rarely has issues. If she does experience a hypoglycemic episode this often presents as anxiety, feeling generally stressed and she gets easily irritated/ snappy. She needs to be able to view her CGM (continuous glucose monitor) app on her phone whenever she hears a notification, and would prefer if she is able to always see her phone.
- Case 7: Li - chronic fatigue syndrome.
Li has chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as myalgicencephalomyelitis/ ME), a long term condition with fluctuating symptoms. Li reports that they tire easily, suffer from regular “brain fog”, and sometimes have days where they are in a lot of physical pain. Li commutes an hour to university. Li has told the disability advisor how useful lecture capture is to catch up on days they have been unable to attend, or were not able to concentrate fully during in-person teaching.