> I recently met a student with a visual impairment who needs to wear
> prescription safety glasses during her lab classes. I contacted the
> students' ELB who said they had never funded such equipment through DSA
> before and believe that the University should be responsible for
> providing the student with the specialist glasses.
As a short-sighted chemistry undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh,
I chose to buy my own prescription safety glasses. This was a a number of
years ago and the Department would have paid for prescription safety
glasses for a postgrad student, but provided free safety glasses to all
undergraduates. These free glasses were designed to be used over standard
prescription glasses, but I found this arrangement uncomfortable and had
quite a
large gap between frame and face.
It sufficed for the first few years study, but as I was handling
progressively more dangerous chemicals, I felt snug fitting prescription
safety glasses were desirable. This progression in risk is probably why
postgrads
and staff were (part) funded by the Chemistry Department for prescription
safety glasses.
Granted that this is old information and not covered by the DDA, but it
may shed some light.
Robert
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