When I first published this list of college interview tips for disabled students in 2017, I shared several tips and strategies based on the in-person interviews I participated in with undergraduate admissions at two different colleges I had applied to. I noticed that a lot of the college interview prep resources that I had found online at the time weren’t particularly helpful for a student with low vision or a disabled student/chronically ill student in general, so I wanted to put together my own list of college interview tips for disabled students like myself.
Since then, I have participated in additional in-person and remote college interviews as part of the graduate school admissions process, and have gotten even more helpful advice from professors and mentors alike. Updated in 2024 after my most recent round of interviews, here is even more advice on how to nail a college interview and disclose accessibility needs or accommodation needs, from the perspective of a student with low vision.
Should I do a college interview in-person or virtually?
While some universities or specific programs only offer interviews in-person or only offer virtual interviews, students may have the option to choose whether they would like to have their admissions interview conducted online or in-person. This can be a challenging decision to make, so I’ve written out a short pros and cons list for both options.
Considerations for in-person college admissions interview
- Prospective students can travel to the campus or meet with staff members face-to-face
- Students often meet with interviewers in a campus building, such as the student center or another admissions office
- Unfamiliar environments may present unexpected barriers or triggers, such as flickering/flashing lights, excess noise, or difficulties with navigation
Considerations for virtual college admissions interviews
- Students meet with interviewers in their home environment or other setting, reducing the need for traveling to campus
- Many web conferencing platforms offer more control over the environment or experience, such as volume controls, screen brightness, and use of captioning
- Technology issues or problems with the internet may present barriers either due to lack of access or lack of accessibility features
Which is better: in-person or virtual interviews?
The choice between doing an in-person or virtual interview for college ultimately lies with the individual student. When given the option, I personally prefer virtual interviews because I find it’s easier for me to focus in a familiar environment and I don’t have to worry about transportation issues. It also helped to have a virtual interview when I was recovering from surgery, as it was easier for me to focus in a comfortable environment when I still found it uncomfortable to sit in most chairs.
Related links
- Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a College
- Ten More Questions to Ask When Choosing A College
- Places Every Visually Impaired Student Should Visit On College Tours
- How To Find Colleges To Apply To
Scheduling a college admissions interview
In my experience, students that are participating in an admissions interview for undergraduate programs tend to have more flexibility when it comes to scheduling their interviews, especially if they are offered in-person. Interviews were scheduled a week or two in advance, and I had to select potential dates/times from a list online. Because I would often find it more challenging to focus my eyes after a long day at school, I scheduled my interviews for weekend mornings or on afternoons where I left school early so that I would find it easier to focus and not be distracted by eye strain.
For graduate programs, I received an email with a series of dates when virtual interviews would be taking place, and then the department coordinator reached out to me with a specific date/time. Some of my friends had mentioned they had the option to select whether they preferred a specific time of day for their interview, but this was not my experience.
Related links
- College Scheduling Hacks For Students With Chronic Illness
- How To Schedule College Classes
- Disability Accommodations For Fluctuating Eyesight
- Activity Ideas For Vision Breaks
Requesting college interview disability accommodations
When scheduling a college admissions interview, students are prompted to disclose any accessibility needs or disability accommodations they will need during the interview process. These may be arranged with the department conducting the interview, or the student may be referred to Disability Services for more information.
Examples of in-person college admissions interview accommodations can include:
- Requesting interviews take place in a building that offers stairs-free or step-free access
- Close proximity to parking area
- Low-traffic location to avoid having a lot of background noise
- Avoiding spaces with flickering or flashing lights
Examples of online college admissions interview accommodations can include:
- Requesting captions to be turned on
- Asking interviewers to avoid using automatic background blurring tools, which can create a flickering effect
- Copies of files or links that are used when screensharing
- Using a specific platform for interviewing (e.g. Zoom, Google Meet)
For my interviews, accommodations were arranged directly within the department I was interviewing with and I did not have to meet with Disability Services.
Related links
- Tips For Screensharing With Low Vision
- Flashing Lights and Photosensitivity in the Classroom
- How I Take Notes During Video Lectures With Low Vision
What to wear to a college admissions interview
Some departments will specify a dress code for admissions interviews, though others are less strict and may treat interviews as more of a casual meeting. For undergraduate interviews that don’t provide any other information, it is reasonable to follow a business casual dress code for an in-person or virtual interview. I personally wore a knee-length dress and flat shoes to my interviews along with some of my favorite jewelry, and I had other friends who wore blouses or button-down shirts with dark jeans or slacks.
The most important tips I can offer for what to wear to college interviews include:
- Wear something that is familiar or that has been worn before, as this can reduce discomfort that can come from wearing unfamiliar clothes
- Related to the first point, stick with familiar makeup and cosmetic products as well. I don’t wear makeup and didn’t wear any for my interviews since I knew this would make me uncomfortable.
- Choose fabrics and materials that feel smooth/comfortable against the skin, as these are less likely to feel like a distraction.
- Find a way to incorporate personal style— I love choosing unique earrings or colorful items to wear, as I feel this helps me express myself and ensure I don’t blend into the background in a video call.
- While this isn’t a time to dress like it’s spirit day, wearing school colors can be a nice touch or conversation starter, especially for undergraduate students. I wore a scarf with school colors for one of my interviews, and for another interview I wore earrings with the school colors along with matching shoes. I got lots of compliments from my interviewers and it was a great conversation starter!
Some interviewers may require students to bring a copy of their CV or résumé, but I uploaded documents in advance.
Related links
Research practice interview questions in advance
One of the most valuable things I did when preparing for my college admissions interview (especially for graduate school) was research practice interview questions and practice writing out my answers to them, or just writing bullet point answers. The point wasn’t to create a script for what I would say, but instead to think about how I might respond and identify important pieces of information that I would want to highlight. Some examples of questions that I wrote practice answers for and that were actually asked during my interviews include:
- Undergraduate: If you could have any living or dead person from history over for dinner, who would you choose and why? I wrote out three potential answers for this question as practice, and also added what our ideal “dinner menu” would be.
- Undergraduate: Describe a time when you helped someone else and didn’t know until later, and then when someone else did the same for you. This was a great opportunity to share a story from volunteering in a nursing home, something that I had mentioned as part of my application.
- What inspires you to pursue a degree in this field of study? I broke this down into four bullet points.
- Graduate: Share an interesting professional book you’ve read recently and how it incorporates into your practice/your thoughts on the subject. I read a lot about visual impairment, assistive technology, and accessibility, so I chose a book that I had read about a month earlier that discussed assistive technology for a specific type of visual impairment that I hoped to include in my research.
- Graduate: What made you want to apply to this university? I shared specific names of professors that were conducting research in my areas of interest. When this question was asked as an undergraduate, I mentioned specific classes I was interested in taking or opportunities I would want to pursue.
For prospective undergraduate students, guidance counselors may offer practice interviews or mock interview options for students. When it came to preparing for graduate school interviews, I reached out to mentors and other contacts who had interviewed students for similar programs and asked for advice (note that none of these people were involved in my admissions process).
Related links
- Why I Study Assistive Technology
- How I Write Research Papers On Accessibility Topics
- How My Guidance Counselor Helped Me As A Low Vision Student
Should I disclose my disability?
Not all disabilities are visible, and it can be challenging to decide whether to disclose an “invisible” disability during the interview process. At the time of my first undergraduate interviews, I didn’t use a blindness cane (white cane) and did not have a diagnosis for my neurological condition, so I could theoretically pass as being fully sighted in this context.
For my undergraduate interviews, I made the choice to “partially mask” my disability, for lack of a better term. My disability impacts every aspect of my life in some capacity, including academics and why I want to pursue my specific academic interests. I mentioned my low vision as part of the story in why I chose to study a specific area of interest, and didn’t mention it during any other questions. One interviewer had no idea what the term “low vision” meant and asked me several questions about what that would mean, while the other interviewers didn’t mention it again. I didn’t bring up the undiagnosed neurological condition at all because I didn’t think it was relevant to the interview questions, though I did ask someone to turn off a flickering lamp so that it didn’t make me dizzy.
By the time I started graduate school, I had been writing publicly about low vision assistive technology for many years, and I was specifically pursuing degrees in assistive technology with a focus in visual impairment. I’ve also become a lot more confident in talking about my low vision, and shared how my own lived experiences have influenced my research interests over the years. While I didn’t get into specifics about what I can or cannot see, I did give examples of projects, presentations, and other publications where I had used these experiences to inform my practice.
Related links
- Disclosing Disability In College Applications
- How I Respond To Questions/Comments About My Eyes
- How I Talk About Disability With New Friends
Find ways to incorporate areas of interest
When asked to share what I am passionate about or things I am interested in, I tried to highlight things that a lot of other applicants might not talk about or have experience with, since these were more interesting conversation topics that often connected to my areas of interest.
For undergraduate admissions interviews, this included topics like:
- Playing multiple types of clarinet, including a very uncommon type of clarinet that I would want to continue playing in college
- My mentorship at a local elementary school and what I learned from shadowing teachers there
- Earning Microsoft Office Specialist certifications— this was asked about a lot!
- Volunteering at a popular museum and how this connected to an interest in design/accessibility
I know that students with chronic illness may not be able to participate in as many extracurriculars, but there are still opportunities to incorporate interests. One of my friends talked about a book they were writing, another friend showed off their amazing digital art, and someone else talked about how they had been playing a particular video game that the college had a club for.
For my graduate interviews, everything more or less connected back to my work with my website and different projects I had worked on over the years.
Related links
- Learning Clarinet With Low Vision
- Ten Skills I Learned During My High School Mentorship
- Microsoft Office Specialist Certification and Low Vision
- Classes That Prepared Me For A Microsoft PM Internship
Find a way to turn negatives into positives
I was originally inspired to study assistive technology following experiences related to academic ableism and being the only student identified with low vision in the schools I attended, but I wasn’t interested in talking negatively about my teachers or being tempted to rant about a specific incident. This is where practicing answers in advance was helpful, as I was able to connect these negative experiences into something positive, like how not receiving textbooks inspired me to learn more about print disabilities or how a particularly fantastic teacher taught me about universal design in learning. This was one of the college interview tips a high school teacher shared with me, and it helped a lot!
For my graduate admissions interview, I mentioned a very specific negative experience that had happened recently when taking a standardized test that was required for admissions. I mentioned how this test advertised itself as “breaking down barriers” for students yet was actively constructing barriers for disabled students who use assistive technology, and shared how I would want to address some of these barriers in my own studies. I don’t think I would have shared something so specific in my undergraduate interviews, but I wanted to showcase examples of actionable solutions I would take to solve this problem in the future.
Related links
- Why I Study Assistive Technology
- Receiving Accessible Educational Materials With NIMAC and AIM-VA
- My Appearance On AT The Heart: Assistive And Inclusive Technology Stories Podcast
Answering questions about goals
Some of the best advice I had received when asking for college interview tips was that it was better to have difficult goals than it was to have no goals at all. It also helped to incorporate in specific ways that attending this college or university would help me achieve them, such as engaging in specific extracurriculars or participating in different programs. This was paraphrased from the goals statement I submitted with my application, but I did not recite the entire thing from memory.
For undergraduate admissions interviews, I was asked about my goals that I hoped to accomplish during my studies or the “next four years,” and less about long-term goals for employment (though I did work this into my answers). For graduate admissions interviews, I was asked to share more long-term goals, including what I hoped to do with my degree and what type of research I would want to engage in. Because I had worked in specific university resources when developing my answers, it was much easier for me to achieve these goals during my studies.
More college interview tips for disabled students
- Check what is in the background of video calls before starting a virtual interview! I use a privacy divider to block out my own background, but virtual backgrounds can also be an option— check out Choosing The Best Custom Video Backgrounds For Low Vision Audiences
- It’s okay to slow down or pause before answering a question, or to take some time to think. I often think of advice a friend shared with me to pretend that I talk like Barack Obama, who is well-known for the way he speaks in public.
- Want more college preparation tips? Check out College Transition Archives | Veroniiiica
Published October 5, 2020. Updated November 2024