Let Me In: How disabled college students are offering accessibility expertise to transform communities

with Ben Bastin, Treloars College

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Earlier this year, Natspec, the association for specialist further education (FE) and training organisations, announced the latest winners of its Innovation Awards. We thought it would be a great summer feature to highlight the work of three of the 2025 winners to showcase their great practice. First up is the amazing residential college, Treloars, near Alton in Hampshire.

Treloar College is a residential specialist college that supports physically disabled young people from all over the UK. Its students also attend some classes at the nearby mainstream sixth form/FE college. Treloars won the award for a ground-breaking project, Let Me In. Ben Bastin, Head of College, has written all about it for us.

How Let Me In is helping build a more accessible world for all, by Ben Bastin, Treloars College

Treloars students are at the heart of everything we do, and we are committed to providing them with a transformative education that prepares them for their lives beyond college.

We are incredibly proud to have won the Natspec Innovation Award for our ground-breaking project, Let Me In, a student-run enterprise providing accessibility assessments to a variety of organisations, including shops, community facilities, workplaces, venues, charities and public spaces. The Let Me In curriculum we’ve designed teaches students how to provide essential feedback on their accessibility needs. They also learn to consider the needs of others, understanding their work can improve accessibility not just for themselves, but for all 16 million disabled people in the UK.

The curriculum is designed to build students’ confidence and skills gradually. Students begin by conducting internal assessments within their familiar environment and then progress to assessing spaces in their local community. Our vision for Let Me In is to create fully accessible work and social lives for disabled people across the UK and empower our students to be agents of change to meet that vision

Who is Let Me In for?

We introduced Let Me In to empower our students and provide them with real-world experiences that develop essential skills for employment and their future. It addresses the challenge of limited accessibility in the community and the need to change perceptions around disabilities. Our project demonstrates the value disabled people bring to workplaces and makes organisations more accessible.

Let Me In involves students from across our community. Students apply for specific roles, such as social media manager, administrator, marketing or sales roles, giving them real experience of the job application and interview process. This experience supports their preparation for the future. Students at different points in their education with us can get involved with one-off audits during their time in our school as preparation for wider work experience opportunities and to support their transition to college.

How is Let Me In having an impact?

Let Me In is making a significant difference in the lives of our students and the wider community. Students are empowered and confident when conducting assessments and feel that their opinions are valued and respected. This is particularly important for our students, who may not have had such experiences before.

“Let Me In has made me feel more confident about going into new places. I know that my feedback can help make things better for me and my friends.”
Let Me In Student**

Since our inception, we’ve completed 24 assessments. The organisations that we work with are hugely appreciative of the accessibility advice they receive and are making positive changes to become more accessible. This is helping to create a more inclusive community for our students and for them to start to see their impact. Our community is coming together and expressing a desire to be more inclusive.

“Seeing first hand and hearing from Treloar’s students has enabled us to see that the lives and possibilities of people with disabilities are not limited. These opportunities enable our community to think again about their perceptions of others, truly ‘Mind Changing’.”
Let Me In Client**

Employers are learning about the value of employing disabled people and how to create more accessible workplaces. We are seeing how our community is becoming more accessible and inclusive, with positive changes happening in local businesses and infrastructure.

“We loved learning from you and to get your input into how to make our office more accessible and taught us all so much. Through the feedback provided to our facilities team have made Microsoft more physically accessible and helped make a step to making it more inclusive for all from a disability employment and access perspective.”
Microsoft, Let Me In Client

Promoted

What’s Next for the Let Me In team?

We want to share Let Me In with schools and colleges across the UK and are developing the ‘Let Me In Network’ by expanding our reach and impact. We will partner with other education settings to create the Let Me In Network. This network will provide access to curriculum resources, training, a centralised website with a searchable map of venues and member schools and colleges, and connections to national employers. We will continue to work with local mainstream primary schools to educate children about disabilities and promote inclusion.

Winning a Natspec Innovation Award

We entered Let Me In for a Natspec Innovation Award because we believe it is a truly innovative project that is making a real difference. Winning this award is a huge honour for our college, our students and our community. It validates our hard work and inspires us to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Category judge Nigel Evans said: “This is an excellent project that has positive implications for the students involved, their peers, other disabled people and other members of the community and beyond. The project has excellent links with local community and demonstrates the powerful contribution young disabled people can make in influencing society. Students develop a wide range of valuable skills that will be necessary as they progress into adult life.”

We see Let Me In as more than just a project; it is a movement that is empowering students, changing perceptions, and creating a more accessible and inclusive society. We are proud of the achievements of our students and the positive impact they are having on the world around them. If you’d like to join in our vision for a more accessible country, then please get in touch.

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Special Needs Jungle was founded in 2008 as a personal SEN blog by Tania Tirraoro. It is now a multi-author, award-winning site covering special needs, disability, mental health and rare conditions in children & young people birth-25 years.

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