Studying with disabilities

With a study program, you start a new and independent life. It involves many new people, environments and experiences. With health restrictions, this new life requires more energy and more attention.

Ulm University would like to treat you equally at every stage of your life. This includes students with mobility, visual or hearing impairments as well as students with chronic and mental illnesses or partial performance disorders. Students can have different health impairments, both visible and invisible. However, it is not only disabilities expressed as a percentage that can affect a student's studies. Regeneration times after accidents, chronic or long-term illnesses and partial performance disorders also limit personal performance during studies.

22. Social Survey - results regarding "studying with health impairments"

The results of the 22nd Social Survey are based on the student survey " Eine für Alle", conducted in the summer semester 2021. A total of around 180,000 students from more than 250 universities took part in the survey in summer 2021.

Group of students with impairments that make studying difficult

For 16% of all students, studying is made more difficult by one or more health impairments (= approx. one in six of all students). Proportion in 2016: 11% (still excluding distance learning students). The absolute figures have almost doubled (2021: approx. 472,000, 2016: approx. 264,000).
60% of students with study-related impairments report severe or very severe study difficulties (= approx. one in ten of all students). Hardly any change compared to 2016 (= 57%).
Students with mental illnesses are by far the largest group of students with study-related impairments in 2021. Their share has once again increased significantly - by 10 percentage points - compared to 2016 (2021: 65%; 2016: 55%). At the same time, mental illnesses have an above-average impact on studies compared to other impairments (66% vs. ø 59%).
At the time of the survey (keyword: corona pandemic), students with impairments felt stressed and overloaded significantly and much more often than students without study-related impairments ("very often stressed": 45.6% vs. 24.1%).

Source: German Student Union