I got a letter recently from student finance direct informing me that a
student had been written to saying they could arrange an assessment, so it
is happening. As it turns out, I contacted the student and she told me that
she had been informed told that her evidence provided is sufficient to
approve her application and so she doesn't need to arrange an assessment.
She is visually impaired and had provided a recent and comprehensive
assessment carried out in relation to an access course.
Barry Hayward
Disability Coordinator
Goldsmiths, University of London
Tel. 020 7717 2292
On 18/06/2009, IanF <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I hope disability officers are actively chasing up all students applying
to
> start this September and monitoring the progress of their DSA
applications.
> We're now nearly in July and I haven't seen one student with a serious
> physical or sensory disability for DSA assessment yet.
>
> Regarding the online form, I think it was a mistake to remove the word
> 'ideally' from that section i.e. "and, ideally, how your study will be
> affected ... " - because the whole point of the form is to enable the
> student to have an assessment to work out how studies might be affected by
a
> disability.
>
> I also think there is a serious problem with the question in section b in
> "DSA information and evidence" - "On what date was your disability, mental
> health condition or specific learning difficulty last assessed". Many
> students won't be able to answer that question while being perfectly
legally
> entitled to apply to DSA due to having a permanent disability. They often
> won't have had their 'disability ... assessed' in years. End result being
> they're unable to remember the date, so can't complete the application
form,
> resulting in them not applying for support they're entitled to.
>
> Expecting a GP or specialist to assess how a disability will affect
studies
> (in a ten minute consultation?) or a student with a permanent disability
to
> remember when it was last 'assessed; could be seen as placing an
> unreasonable barrier on accessing DSA and seems to me to go against the
> spirit and the letter of the DDA. It's all gone very medical model ...
> again.
>
> Ian Francis
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