Autism Uni Toolkit Dublin City University

Leo Migdal

-Dec 13, 2025, 11:35 PM

autism uni toolkit dublin city university

Tools and tips that will help you with choosing your course and applying to university. Tools and tips to help you make the most of your first year in DCU. Find services and facilities for autistic students at our university Recognise key buildings on the campus and familiarise yourself with room layouts as well as how to get to and from university buildings. Learn from other autistic students' experiences of higher education Find out more about the Nine Principles that our autism-friendly initiative is built.

Campus life can get pretty hectic. Here are some tips to help you find a moment or two of calm. Autism & Uni is a toolkit of resources and advice for autistic students entering University. If you are autistic and want to use a sensory pod contact disability.service @ dcu.ie or DCU's Autism Friendly Coordinator fiona.earley @ dcu.ie. There is a pod on every campus. DCU has become the world’s first designated autism-friendly university.

We are committed to supporting and celebrating our DCU Autistic community. We will be adapting the environment to make it more autism-friendly, raising autism acceptance through training and webinars. We aim to ensure that autistic students and staff have equal access to participate fully in all aspects of university life. Congratulations on earning your place in DCU! We hope you feel a warm welcome into our DCU community. This webpage acts as a toolkit will hopefully provide you with the tools and tips needed to succeed in your time here in DCU.

In DCU you’ll be able to study subjects that really interest you, and you’ll be able to find people who share your passions. Student life is about more than just lectures. You’ll have the chance to explore new hobbies, meet people from other cultures, and take part in campus life. You’ll have a range of ways to take part, whether it’s through joining a club, volunteering, playing sport or getting involved with the student union. You may not feel like being involved in lots of activities beyond your course – sometimes getting coursework done and spending time with classmates can be more than enough to keep you busy. However, if you have time and energy there is bound to be an activity that you’d enjoy.

This video was created by AHEAD, an independent non-profit organisation working to creative inclusive environments in education and employment for people with disabilities. Learn more about AHEAD and the work they do here. When you have an offer of a place at DCU you will receive access to Discover DCU, DCU’s online transition and learning skills programme. Discover DCU is a series of 8 short interactive courses designed to help get you settled in and introduce you to the tools and skills you need to succeed at university. For more info and to access Discover DCU, see here. Each student has their own set of needs when it comes to attending lectures, studying or sitting exams.

Students on the autism spectrum may experience particular challenges relating to their sensory environment, communication or task completion. Sometimes, it can be hard to find the words to communicate this to university staff. DCU have an online profile form specifically for autistic students which offers you the chance to share the small things that may have a huge impact on their ability to engage fully with student... Consider sharing it with staff from the Disability & Learning Support Service by completing the online form. There are approximately fifteen short questions. Click here to start writing your personal profile.

Dublin City University was recognised as an autism-friendly university by AsIAm, Ireland’s National Autism Charity and Advocacy Organisation, in 2017. The designation marked the conclusion of an 18-month research project. Research findings by DCU showed that autistic students in third-level often experience greater levels of difficulty settling in and adapting to university life than do their peers. Frequently cited issues were discomfort in noisy environments; difficulties in managing schedules, deadlines and workload, challenges in participating in group work and unease in new social situations and extracurricular activities. To achieve the autism-friendly university designation, DCU must address eight generic principles that were established as part of the research study. To read the full report click here.

One of the principles is: Encourage and enable autistic students to transition and participate in university programmes; So the opportunity to participate in the Autism&Uni project was a timely one as it specifically addressed transition. We had created a lot of resources which were on our main webpage, but the volume of information can make it difficult to filter. The structure of the Autism&Uni toolkit is clear and concise. It really helped us collate information specific to new students in an autism-friendly way.

It highlighted gaps in our information and also information duplication. The pages “student voices” and “professional interviews” were particularly welcomed by us as we have a strong autistic student voice in DCU. We used video and transcript to get student and staff perspectives from the NeuroDSoc and dcu.ie/disability. This is something we will continue to develop. Visit DEVELOP to find Digital Resources on Loop for College, Life and Career Need help finding your way around DCU?

Meet your new Campus Ambassador, a friendly AI guide designed to help you find your way and feel right at home. DCU HealthyA culture of care and wellbeing across our entire DCU community Home » My Uni Life 2 » Dublin City University DCU campus is full of support for budding entrepreneurs and creators, from lecture halls to the community gardens, business ideas can grow and prosper. DCU as a university is an innovator – its the first autism friendly campus and believes in making education as accessible as possible for all types of students – something close to the heart... DCU are committed to supporting and celebrating students and staff who are on the autism spectrum.

Through adapting the environment, raising awareness and acceptance, and building initiatives to make it easier for autistic community members to participate in university life, DCU has become one of the world’s first designated autism-friendly... In this series we meet Fiona Earley, the Autism-Friendly University Coordinator and Matthew Smith, a student studying Early Childhood Education in DCU. Matthew is Autistic, so when it came to third-level education Matthew’s choice was influenced by the University’s student support system. He recalls “In particular, the Autism Friendly University programme was the deciding factor that made me put the course as my number one choice in my CAO.” The people on his course were very friendly and the teaching staff were open and approachable. “Everyone there is just really enthusiastic about wanting everybody to succeed.

There’s lots of support and it was just a really cool experience,” says Matthew how has gained a new perspective on college life. The underlying ethos of the toolkit is that students can use it in their own time, do research about issues concerning them, and come back to it when particular difficulties arise. The toolkit is freely available for universities to adopt and adapt. Built on an open-source platform, the toolkit is available in English and can also be translated into other languages. We can help with the initial set up and give advice on how best to support your autistic students. Here’s what others have said about the Autism&Uni toolkit:

“The toolkit came pre-installed with content. We then adapted and further extended the content to make it fit the Trinity context. It was easy to integrate our existing resources, e.g. videos, infographics and text copy from other sources. Toolkit content is organised in a logical manner, focusing on direct calls to action.” Declan Treanor, Director of Disability Service Trinity College Dublin “As a large Russell Group university, we have a well-developed website with a lot of information on it.

However, the sheer volume of information can make it difficult for students to navigate and adapting the Autism & Uni toolkit has allowed us to ‘distil’ what is most important for this group of...

Autism Uni Toolkit Dublin City University

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