Ahh Red Route (or North South Campus Access Route, as no one calls it). Essential for accessibility for a campus built on the side of a hill, but also great for getting from A-B when it's raining, or just having a lunch time stroll when it's cold/wet/inclement. Just not on the hour.

Naturally the Red Route/L10 corridor is first on Paul’s list of outstanding features of UK HE; but to think of it as a long corridor is to miss how magnificent it is from the outside. (Photos from Simon Phipps’s brilliant Brutal North book)

Two of the most important ideas in autism research that every educator should know: Monotropism. The double empathy problem. Nine minutes of video. A changed classroom. stimpunks.org/access/educa... #autistic #education

Sense of belonging is so important!

FE colleagues - there’s a survey from JISC - let them know what your digital needs are www.jisc.ac.uk/news/all/sec...

The three new Reform councillors for our Ward (who all look identical, it's uncanny) have finally broken cover with their email addresses and a post on the village Facebook group and it is all KICKING OFF. The list of things people expect them to fix is hilarious! 🍿

The only good thing about this cold, wet, miserable weather is that the two of my kids who are doing their A Levels and GCSEs at least don't feel like they're missing out on any sunshine and sunny weather good vibes 🌧️

So weird that women are always coming down with a case of the hysteria

oh is Starmer banging on about steel again

Well here's a thing. Eldest had her DSA Needs Assessment today and was assessed by someone* with the same disabilities as she has and doesn't that just make all the difference?! Lived experience in specialist roles matters! (*Obviously this was StudyTech not Capita)

"Neurodiversity and disability acceptance doesn’t just mean only ever feeling awesome about our disabilities; it means we’re just as entitled to the full range of human emotion & experience as non-autistic or non-disabled people." From @epballou.bsky.social: chavisory.wordpress.com/2026/04/04/t...

Bit of bombastic side eye from Woody as we exercised our democratic right #DogsAtPollingStations

Your vote is precious. Today millions of people across Wales, Scotland and England are voting in the hope that their choice will improve their lives. I hope it will. Politicians are asking for your vote; it grants power and removes it. Use it and remind them never to take you for granted.

Feeling strangely proud at taking my newly-minted 18 year old to vote today for the first time 😍

@OhHeyMonsterBoy

Ok, let's try again. In the spirit of 'nothing new under the sun', this latest report is both a re-hash of arguments going back over 10 years, and a whole lot of contradictions. Let's take a look..

Alison Scott-Wright was busily selling her services way before Instagram - I was 'gifted' one of her books when my kids were babies. Dangerous then, dangerous now, but way more so now that social media is so prevalent and it's so easy to beam your message into the eyes of sleep deprived parents

The rising 'children need to get used to being uncomfortable' anti-neurodiversity discourse is at once evidence of improved visibility & understanding (which always provokes dissent), & also lazy, pathologically incurious, harmful propaganda, mostly not from frontline teachers, pushed by the media.

Will probably write more on this later, but I'm currently too overwhelmed with the endless white knuckle fire fighting that is being responsible for disabled students in #UKHE to cope with any more DSA drama just now wonkhe.com/blogs/non-me...

Kids have pulled it out the bag this year...My 11 year old made me a delicious gluten free birthday cake all by herself, while my 18 year old crocheted me my very own Rocky 🥹 (16 year old is busily creating something in her room because GCSEs)

Popped out for my traditional age-denying celebratory birthday slow and steady half marathon run (well, technically 24km, thanks to a spicy off road detour). Lovely day for it! 🏃‍♀️ ☀️

The number of students who tell the OIA they are disabled is up again, to 42%. The themes are always the same: poor implementation of reasonable adjustments, poor communication, lack of accountability, but this time with the addition of poor support for placements share.google/z0FlmRUQ5pa9...

So I'm not an academic, but in our offices in student support we've had three major leaks, a floor closed due to a forest of mould, a ceiling cave in, an 8 month foul smell caused by a poorly connected sewer pipe, dead pigeons in our downpipes and an infestation of maggots dropping from the ceiling

The prevalence of mental conditions is not defined by what governments think is correct to spend on supporting those experiencing them. The subtext is always 'there's too many of them. We know because we think we're spending too much' 'Too much' is always based on current economic conditions

There's no debate which is improved by the intervention of Tony Blair. This is ableism. It frames anxiety, depression and ADHD as things people just need to get on with, with no acknowledgement of how damaging that attitude is, or how hard it can be to be recognised and diagnosed in the first place.

This will be great because all of Pete's writing is great, and his experience an a former autistic secondary school teacher uniquely positions him to speak with authority and empathy

There's much we can learn from the Double Empathy Problem, especially in #UKHE. Always a key part of any training I do, and useful in helping people understand that their neurotypical communication and actions may be the problem, not those of autistic students they are working with. Great thread ⬇️

Milton: "I may lack a social imagination, but I have a sociological one." Jim Sinclair, 1993: "Recognize that we are equally alien to each other, & my ways of being are not merely damaged versions of yours." Sinclair introduced Milton to Autistic Network International & autistic forums. #INSAR2026

Royal Agricultural University’s PAQ revealed that messaging in induction from different parts of the uni should be better coordinated; mixed views, expectations and anxieties; again a disclosure gap in disabilities. #ActionableFindings

In particular international students were 35x more likely to report disabilities via PAQ than in student record suggesting anxiety around stigma, admission equality etc. The gap was 5x among PG. Missed disability needs turned out to be a risk factor for withdrawal.

UEL also used the PAQ to find missing data about priority groups for access, such as students with disabilities, for whom there was a 27-point gap in disclosure (11% by record, 38% by self-reporting).

Whoever dubbed this is great

Leeds trams update

Had an evening-and-into-the-early-hours migraine last night, no sleep, then a fitful nap almost immediately after getting up, then sitting in two different online conferences at the same time and sorting out some Big Student Issues. My poor brain is entirely addled 😵‍💫

I sometimes think about the fact that my friend and I, both extremely naïve 18 year olds from Norfolk, set off travelling in Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and S. Africa with NO WAY for our parents to contact us, except via a) poste restante or b) fax, if we knew where we would be (we never did)

The study found that the frogs from the book Tuesday, used in the standard autism assessment, appear to autistic people in their final moments. In these visions, they seemingly explain the story, allowing autistics to pass to the other side finally at peace.

Anyone working in Disability Services in #UKHE will have a wry smile at this one...

We’re very sorry sir but you cannot bring your emotional support dragon in here.

Also, side note, but idioms such as these are also frequently confusing for some neurodivergent people and people who acquired and use language differently (e.g. D/deaf sign language users). And I'd imagine using plain English is especially important in the realm of giving healthcare...

I see the recent BBC article about 'maths dyslexia' (ugh) aka dyscalculia is bringing out tiresome old chestnuts such as this

Eldest's DSA application was approved in 2 days, which just shows that all our Disability Practitioner advice about applying early is spot on! I'm finding in fascinating watching this side of proceedings...

And the woman did speak unto the hound, saying, What do you mean, normal men, and the hound answered the woman, saying, We are just innocent men. And great was her emotion

This is lovely ❤️ (Also, small fact that EH Shepard is my great, great uncle - he married Florence Chaplin, my great, great aunt, and a pretty fine artist in her own right) www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Not a big fan of calling dyscalculia 'maths dyslexia', but this article does do a good job of explaining how dyscalculia is largely ignored in education and other settings, and is certainly not viewed on a par with dyslexia (I say this as a proud dyscalculic!) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I didn’t know this, did you? Amazing!

Are autistic people ‘just making it up’? In a recent podcast conversation, I was asked a question that carried a striking implication: What if increasing numbers of people identifying as autistic are just not coping? 🧵 1/11 #Autism #Neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD

Eldest and I are beyond excited to see our favourite book in film form (finally!) 🤩

Sending out our email to all applicants who have mentioned disability on their UCAS applications. Our numbers are up by 26% on last year, sending it off to 6800 applicants, and I might have to go an cry in a corner for a bit 😭