A student's mobility needs seem to vary from week to week — is that unusual?
No — many mobility-related and chronic conditions genuinely fluctuate day to day. Agreeing flexibility in advance, rather than treating each instance as a new request, is the most practical way to handle this.
Should I always offer to carry a student's bag or push their wheelchair?
Ask first, and respect the answer either way. Many wheelchair users manage their own mobility independently and may find unsolicited help intrusive, while others do want assistance — the only way to know is to ask.
What if the only accessible room for a practical session is much smaller than the standard one?
Raise this with your timetabling or estates team as early as possible — a room that is accessible but too small for the group is still a barrier, and needs a proper fix (a different accessible room, or adapted group sizes) rather than being treated as good enough.
A Second Illustrative Scenario
In Practice — An exam requiring three hours of continuous handwriting
A student with a condition affecting hand strength and stamina (a composite, illustrative example) was expected to sit the same three-hour, entirely handwritten exam as the rest of the cohort, despite an agreed adjustment allowing typed responses.
What helped: the exams office confirmed, ahead of the exam date, that a laptop with exam-mode software would be available and tested in the exam room — closing the gap between the adjustment being 'agreed' and it being genuinely ready to use on the day.
The lesson: as with several other categories in this toolkit, the barrier was not a lack of an agreed adjustment — it was the absence of a check confirming the adjustment was actually operational before the student needed to rely on it.
