UCAS - What provisions are there for disabled students?

What provisions are there for disabled students?

Choosing a course to study at university is a tricky enough decision, but there are all sorts of extra things to think about if you have a disability or specific learning difficulty. Thankfully, there is a huge range of support mechanisms available to ensure disabled students are treated fairly and have as much access to university facilities and services as others.

What should you think about when applying? Firstly, if you have a disability, you should first contact a university or college directly to talk about your requirements before you submit your UCAS application. Thanks to the new Equality Act, institutions cannot discriminate against you and they have a duty to make "reasonable adjustments" so you are not put at a disadvantage.

When you apply through UCAS, you will be asked about any disabilities. While it is not essential to give details, it is worth disclosing what your disability is as this will give universities extra time to make arrangements.

Good people to talk to are disability coordinators at individual universities. They can be found on the Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities website (www.skill.org.uk). You can call advisers at Skill free on 0800 328 5050 (information service) or 0800 068 2422 (textphone).

The Skill website also lists case studies of students with a range of disabilities. One of these is Laura Bailey, who is studying Combined Honours Special Needs and the Advanced Study of Early Years at Holy Cross College University Centre in Bury. She explains on the website how she has overcome her disability and been given the assistance she needed to succeed. "The best part of my course has been all the support I have received from the college and realising that I can achieve a degree despite my problems," she says.

When you talk to individual universities and colleges, think about what potential problems may arise. Things like building access, dedicated facilities for disabled students, accommodation and whether there are current people there with a similar disability are worth discussing. Also, you can ask about support services, additional funding and teaching methods to get an idea of how well-suited the institution is to your needs.

While the university will do its best to accommodate you, they may not pay for everything that you need to study there. In this case, you can apply for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSA). These are grants to help meet the extra course costs students can face as a direct result of a disability, ongoing health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty. DSAs are paid on top of the standard student finance package and, unlike student loans, do not have to be paid back and are not based on household income.

What will DSAs cover? Grants under the scheme will be given to pay for equipment needed for studying, such as specialist computer software, as well as non-medical helpers. Extra travel costs incurred because of your disability and items like tapes or Braille paper may also be covered by DSAs. Once at university, you will find there are all kinds of support on hand. Most universities will have people whose job it is to ensure you get the kind of assistance you need.

Claire Gandy, from Sheffield Hallam University's Disabled Student Support Scheme, explains the ethos that is improving access for disabled people to the UK's universities. "The basis of this support is a belief that students should not be disadvantaged by their disability, whatever form it takes, and that a commitment to inclusion and equality of opportunity is intended to enable all students to realise their potential."

The National Union of Students also runs campaigns and projects for disabled students which are independent of the universities themselves.

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