Ian Francis wrote:
> It seems to be a huge assumption
> that student X might be more properly fed or better able to eat if 'at
> home', and that it costs more to eat now he or she is at uni. I can't
> see it as a DSA claim.
I wasn't making assumptions Ian, huge or otherwise. My
comments were made on the basis of feedback from several
diabetics I have interviewed over the years. The only assumptions
being made are your own: that the case couldn't possibly arise, or
that if it did it would not be DSAable. It can and it would be.
Estimating its cost is another matter.
If you know any diabetics you will know the extent to which diet
affects the things you go on to list later: fatigue, concentration,
mobility, visual impairment etc.
(As regards whether students generally can eat better at home or
in college, I recall the times I've watched them in the canteen piling
their plate with both (and only) chips and spaghetti, especially
when funds were running low, and find the idea very believable.)
This is not so far removed from a request from someone with sickle
cell anaemia, living in a freezing cold flat, with an electric fire
hooked up to a very greedy meter, asking for support towards their
heating bills, without which their lives would be unendurable.
Dave Laycock
Head of CCPD
Chair of NADO
Computer Centre for People with Disabilities
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1N 5AL
tel. 020 7911-5161
fax. 020 7911-5162
WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/
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