Gateways guidance: 9.2 Reasonable adjustments to the interview

The letter of invitation to interview should ask if the applicant has any accessibility requirements for the interview. There might be a requirement, for example, for questions to be written, or for physical access arrangements to be made, or for lip-reading or large print information.

At this stage, and at all stages, it is important to ask about the person’s requirements rather than the impairment. For example, the question should enable a candidate to say that the room should not have fluorescent lighting, not that they have epilepsy.

Most medical schools use interviews as a crucial part of the selection process. It is therefore essential to plan the reasonable adjustments in advance to accommodate the requirements of a range of disabled applicants. It would be discriminatory not to interview an applicant because they have an impairment or long-term health condition if it is by interview that the school would normally seek additional information about an applicant.

Medical schools should anticipate reasonable adjustments that might be required by disabled people in general, and should be able to put them in place very quickly, if necessary.