The Annual Disabled Student Survey 

Privacy Policy

Our contact details 

Name: Disabled Students UK
Address: 16 Hilden Gardens, Heaton, England, NE7 7LA
Phone Number: 07951832320
E-mail: contact@disabledstudents.co.uk 
Company Websites: http://disabledstudents.co.uk, http://accessinsights.co.uk 

What data we collect and why

This survey collects data about your experiences in Higher Education as well as information about your identity such as your disability and ethnicity. This data is collected anonymously and is not stored alongside any identifying information such as your email address. Providing such information is voluntary, you can choose not to answer questions relating to how you identify. It will not affect your involvement in the research. 

You will also have the option to provide your email address to be entered into a prize draw to win £100. This information is optional and is not stored alongside your survey answers.

We collect data via our annual online survey to understand and improve accessibility within UK Higher Education. Statistics and anonymous quotes from the survey will be publicly available within our annual Access Insights report, which is publicly available on our website: www.accessinsights.co.uk. The report uses the survey findings to highlight best practice and compare universities. For example,we might display results such as:

• 50% of students at the University of Longbow felt they have adequate support
• 47% of students with mobility issues felt that their supervisor is supportive

Prospective students can use this resource to choose a university and universities can use it to improve accessibility. We will also send reports with the survey results to universities and promote our findings on social media, in our newsletters, in relevant publications and at in-person/online events.

When is your data “personal”

The survey is intended to be anonymous and in the vast majority of cases it will be impossible to identify someone from the data. When you are identifiable from your data it qualifies as “Personal data”. When that data is related to medical information (such as your disability) or race it additionally qualifies as “special category data”.

To avoid the risk of identification from someone at your university we will not release the results of groups with fewer than 5 members either publicly or to our collaborators. For instance if there only two blind students who have filled in the survey from the University of Longbow we will not publish:

• 100% of blind students at Longbow felt they have adequate support

We ask participants to try and refrain from including any identifying information, such as names, within open text questions. If this does occur, all identifiable information is removed before it is analysed by the research team. For example, if participants write:

• Joe Blogs said I had to complete a form

the information will be changed to

• [NAME] said I had to complete a form

Your data protection rights

You have the right to withdraw from the research at any time during the survey by simply leaving the webpage. Any data you entered up until this point will not be retained.

You have the right to withdraw your survey responses before August 14th 2025, at which point the data will be analysed. At the end of the survey a unique participant code will be generated. To remove your data, quote this participant number in an email to DSUK Founding Director, Mette Anwar-Westander at Mette@disabledstudents.co.uk.

Under data protection law, you have the following rights:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. 

Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. 

Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances. 

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. 

Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. Please contact Mette Anwar-Westander at Mette@disabledstudents.co.uk if you wish to make a request.

Our lawful bases for data processing

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

Article 6:

(f) We have a legitimate interest

We can use legitimate interests as a lawful basis for processing this information because:

• we have a legitimate interest in seeking this information in order to fulfil our research goals
• seeking this information is necessary to complete this research – we will not use your data for any other reason than that which you consent to 
• your legal rights and freedoms will be protected (see ‘Your Data Protection Rights toward the end’).

Article 9:

(j) Archiving, research and statistics

We can rely on this lawful basis for processing your data because:

• The data is necessary for the research
• We have appropriate safeguards in place: we restrict access to this data, will delete data after a certain time period, and you will be able to contact us to request deletion of your data
• The processing is not likely to cause someone substantial damage or substantial distress
• The processing is not used for measures or decisions about particular people
• The processing is in the public interest.

How we store your data

Your data is securely collected using JISC Online Surveys and then stored with DSUK. Raw data is ‘cleaned’ (ie, any identifiable information is removed) stored within a password protected file and only members of the DSUK research team will have access to this data. DSUK team members who have access to the data have appropriate security measures in place, including restricted access to the data and research team members have training within research ethics. 

In order to aid the Higher Education sector in seeing how the disabled student experience is progressing over time we will retain the data for a minimum of 15 years, after which time the data will be reviewed for either continued storage or deletion.. The annual disabled students survey will be run across a 10 year timeframe, with subsequent analysis and dissemination, hence the long-term data storage requirements

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at contact@disabledstudents.co.uk.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:            
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk