Confidentiality

Confidentiality notice – disabled students

Information about a disability, impairment, or a long-term health condition is considered sensitive personal data under data protection legislation.

The Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre (ADRC) uses your personal information to enable you to access academic-related disability support while you are studying at the University of Cambridge.

With your consent, we collect certain medical and diagnostic information from you in order that our Disability Advisers can support you effectively. Establishing support may require liaising with a range of people across the Collegiate University.

The ADRC may need to disclose your information to certain people in order to help support you. This information will only be shared where necessary and on a ‘need to know’ basis. We define ‘need to know’ as sharing sufficient information to help set up support and only with people involved in that process. We always ask that the people with whom we share your information respect your confidentiality and do not pass your information onto anyone else unless they are also involved in your support. You may give full or restricted disclosure to the ADRC. You may contact us at any point to change your level of disclosure.

If you give full disclosure those with whom the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre may share your information can include (but is not strictly limited to):

Staff within the Collegiate University

• Non-medical Helpers who are supervised by the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre in their roles supporting disabled students
• University teaching and administrative staff, laboratory technicians, facilities staff
• Library staff in the University Library, Colleges and Department Libraries
• Other student support services such as the Students’ Unions’ Advisory Service or the University’s Mental Health Advisers.
• Student Registry (e.g. Board of Examinations)
• Estates Management in order to make access adjustments to the estate
• The ADRC may also share student data with other University bodies, such as the Careers Service, to help improve their service to disabled students
• The Student Registry, for statutory information purposes and data analysis
• UIS
• Approved contacts at your College
• Approved third parties (e.g. a family member)

External bodies

• The funding body paying for your Disabled Students’ Allowances
• Needs Assessment Centres
• Placement providers e.g. school, industry placement
• Assistive technology provider and trainer, other Non-Medical Help provider not supplied by the University of Cambridge
• Equipment provider
• GP, Consultant, Educational Psychologist, previous education provider

In certain exceptional circumstances (such as where there is an immediate and serious threat to your personal safety or to the safety of others; or a need for confidential counselling, advice or support or of another similar service; or to comply with duties of safeguarding), we may disclose your information without your consent.

You may choose to restrict the disclosure of your information. You can decide to restrict the disclosure of your information to your college only, or only to the University (in choosing these options the ADRC will hold your data but only forward this on to the body identified), or request your information is not disclosed beyond the ADRC or only to specific people. If you choose to do restrict your disclosure, please be aware that this may limit the level and type of support and adjustments which the University, your College and the ADRC can provide for you. We may not be able to speak to the relevant people to request reasonable adjustments or to make recommendations. This could include your Funding Body and any Funding applications you may have made. If you would like to discuss anything related to disclosure please contact the ADRC.

The transfers of your personal information to the above people are carried out with appropriate safeguards such as technical security measures to ensure the safety and security of your information.

We will not speak to your parents/legal guardian about you without your express permission.

We store your details and communications with us in a standalone secure database within the ADRC, in order to manage your information and provide support. We also hold a hard copy file of essential documents for reference in a secure, locked environment.

We retain your record for as long as you use the service and delete them 6 years after you leave the University of Cambridge. Data on applicants, general enquirers and offer holders who do not attend the University of Cambridge are held for 1 year from the last date of contact.

The ADRC may use anonymised data for statistical analysis and evaluation for the purpose of quality assurance and process improvement.

Student Support Documents (SSDs) and information sharing

Please note that the information which describes the impact of your disability and the Student Support Document (SSD) containing recommendations are made available on CamSIS for those staff listed in the distribution list on the SSD. The details of the impact on study will be shared only with those on the list who strictly need to know this information, for example your Director of Studies, Graduate Tutor, or Departmental Administrator. This access does not include, for example, general library staff and lab managers, who will not be able to view this information, but people in these roles will receive the SSD with your recommendations. If you have restricted your disclosure then information will only be shared with those people indicated on the SSD.

Fitness to practise

If you are on a professional course such as medicine or veterinary medicine, you will be subject to additional fitness to practise requirements prescribed by the professional body. This includes a requirement to disclose information about a disability. Restricted disclosure may later compromise your professional registration.  If you are unsure whether or not this applies to you, or are concerned about the implications of disclosing a disability, please contact your Disability Adviser.

For more information about how we handle your personal information, and your rights under data protection legislation, please see https://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/general-data

Confidentiality Notice - University of Cambridge staff

The Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre (ADRC) uses your personal information to enable you to access equipment in the Loan Pool while you are working at the University of Cambridge.

If you are a staff member referred to the Loan Pool by Occupational Health, your information is sent on a form to the ADRC which is then held on the stand alone database, along with any communication with you, and used within the ADRC only.  We retain Loan Pool records for up to two years after the loan of equipment.

For more information about how we handle your personal information, and your rights under data protection legislation, please see https://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/general-data

Confidentiality Notice - Non-Medical Helpers

The Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre uses your personal information to enable you to assist with the support of disabled students.

If you provide support to a disabled student then your name and contact details will be passed on to students you are supporting. Your name and contact details will be held on the ADRC stand-alone database and your name on the pay-rolling software. Any other information relating to assignments is held by the Temporary Employment Service.

Non-Medical Helper details are kept for up to 3 years after the end of their last assignment. 

For more information about how we handle your personal information, and your rights under data protection legislation, please see https://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/general-data

Confidentiality Notice - Annual Disability Lecture mailing list subscribers and booking tickets through Eventbrite

The University of Cambridge’s Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre uses your personal information to send you emails about news and events in line with your subscription(s) to the Annual Disability Lecture mailing list, and to take your booking for the lecture if you wish to attend. Your name and email address are used with your permission and only to send you information that you have requested. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

We use a third party provider, MailChimp, to send our emails and Eventbrite to take bookings. We share your name, email address and details of your subscriptions with MailChimp and Eventbrite. We gather statistics about email opens and clicks using industry standard technologies (including clear gifs) to help us monitor what content is popular and to improve the content of our emails. For more information, please see MailChimp's privacy notice and also Eventbrite's privacy notice. 

Any transfers of your data outside of the European Economic Area, for example to our email service provider, are protected either by an 'adequacy decision' by the European Commission (declaring the recipient country as a 'safe' territory for personal data) or by standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission (which give obligations for the recipient to safeguard the data).

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. For further details about how your information is used, how we maintain the security of your information and your rights under data protection law, please read our general data protection statement.