Members of King’s College London’s (KCL) Disabled Student Society and other students with seen and unseen disabilities have publicly spoken out about their experiences at King’s.
Speaking to SWLondoner, Sakina, a Social Sciences student, described her experiences with chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic migraines and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She explained that hidden disabilities are misunderstood as: “people assume what they’ve seen from me once on a good day is what they can expect all the time.”
Another student, Naz Kaynakcioglu, discussed how she often feels unseen and alone with her struggles, feeling exhausted with having to explain her conditions.
King’s Inclusion Plans (KIPs) are supposed to help students with disabilities to access the support required.
“Some lecturers, in my experience, don’t always appear to engage with KIPs, and that defeats the purpose”
Naz Kaynakcioglu, Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences student at KCL
Roar ran a survey of 15 students with chronic illnesses and disabilities. We asked students to evaluate the level of support they had received on a scale of one to six, six being perfect and consistent support. In the survey, 40% of students gave KIPs a three out of six ranking.
All students surveyed provided an average ranking of three out of six on the level of support they have received at Kings. Those with hidden disabilities or chronic illnesses ranked lower, with only one student providing a ranking of five out of six and none reporting six out of six.
Within Roar’s survey, students reported a range of experiences, with some not being informed of the accessibility options available to them and others being given the wrong accommodations by tutors who had failed to consult with them first.
“Advocating for myself at KCL feels like a full time job which never ends and has caused me more stress than my actual studies”
Anonymous student response to Roar‘s survey of students with disabilities and chronic illnesses
One student described having to take a year off from university and repeat the second year due to a lack of support.
Both students, who spoke to SWLondoner, were keen to highlight that their experiences did not reflect all staff at KCL, as many report positive experiences as well:
“It’s straightforward once you make it known”
Naz Kaynakcioglu, Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences student at KCL
The KCL Disabled Student Society helped Naz feel seen as she met other people like her.
The overall response of students when asked what more KCL can do to support students was communication. Students felt that the support available at King’s should be more clearly promoted to them, with some students highlighting how on “low energy days” (i.e. during chronic illness flare-ups) even “the admin side of getting support is taxing”.
Students also noted that more community support and face-to-face engagement with support members would assist in building more personalised plans.
A spokesperson for King’s College London said:
“We are proud to be able to help more students than ever to get the right support for them, thanks to recent investments into our Wellbeing and Disability Support Services, and National Student Satisfaction survey results demonstrate the progress we are making – with 78% of 4480 student respondents rating the communication and experience of mental health and wellbeing support at King’s as ‘positive’.
We want all our students to thrive at King’s, and in September 2025, we introduced a new digital system for updating and sharing King’s Inclusion Plans (KIPs) and Personalised Assessment Arrangements between the Disability Support & Inclusion team and students’ Faculty staff. The experience of our disabled students is central to how we design and deliver our services, and we always value feedback that helps us to strengthen the support we provide.”
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