Apologies for cross-posting, and if I'm asking a question that has been done
to death before. Feel free to reply off-list.
I am helping a wheelchair-using student with disabilities for whom it is
accepted that personal help is required. However the institution is
apparently insisting that such help should be restricted to the campus and
that it should be paid at £15 per hour. The student wants to have it at her
home (where she has a PC bought through the DSA with all the software she
needs in one easily accessible place etc) to make it easier to get her work
done and thinks it should be bought more cheaply (so she can have more
help). I cannot see the 'in principle' restriction on this that the
HEI says is there. Not having dealt with this before, I am uncertain how to
expect the LEA to approach this question. Does anyone have either useful or
cautionary experience with this issue?
The student is also having problems with getting the PC to function properly
to do the things she needs (e.g. running graphics and text magnification
software, voice recognition software) which are demanding on the processor.
She can't really upgrade (at the moment anyway) because she still needs
other things and is close to being spent up on her DSA. The supplier
says the problem is really the demanding software she wants to run,
recommended by the HEI, and the HEI says its really a consumer problem
between her and the supplier, although they selected and chanelled payment
to the supplier. What responsibility do colleagues think the HEI to take an
active role in resolution of technical problems in such circumstances, or
are they right to say it's between her and the supplier?
Thanks
Paul Hubert
Welfare Officer
Leeds Metropolitan University Students Union Student Advice Service
B Building
Leeds Metropolitan University
City Campus
Leeds LS1 3HE.
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Tel 0113 209 8408
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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