Hi Deb
Its true, students suspecting that they have dyslexia have
to pay for a dianosis, unlike a medical condition were a
doctors letter often suffices. However, if the DSA paid
for dyslexia assessments it would be open season. Any
student could then give it a go and be assessed for
dyslexia. If it costs nothing, why not? The pay off can be
a desirable computer, additional time in exams and other
goodies. The Access Fund is a good way to help, but it has
its limitations - ours is almost depleted for this year.
However, the fund is to be increased form next year and its
scope widened, which hopefully will help us a little.
Bryan Jones
Equal Opportunites Adviser
London Guildhall University.
On Fri, 9 Jan 1998 17:25:15 -0500 (EST) Deb Viney
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Brian
>
> Thanks for your useful summary of the position regarding cost of
> assessments: I have a query though: is there any other condition
> where the student routinely ends up paying to get a diagnosis? I
> cannot think of one!
>
> Maybe this is an area where we could / should be campaigning to get
> the rules changed & / or some kind of nationally agreed provision for
> these students? Obviously the psychologist or whoever has to be paid
> & to earn their living, but how can we help students in this fix? My
> institution has been known to help with EP (EDucational Psychologist)
> report costs from Access / Hardship funds - but that still leaves
> lots of part time students & post-graduates without any assistance...
>
> I know one possibility is to purchase the services of an EP for a set
> number of hours from the University central resources, but I cannot
> see anyone agreeing to that in the current economic climate, even
> though it offers the EP better job security...
>
> Any comments or suggestions anyone?
> Regards, Deb
>
> On Thu, 8 Jan 1998 09:31:22 -0500 (EST) Bryan Jones
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> > Hi Sarah
> >
> > The grant regulations covering DSA are quite clear on
> > this issue, the Allowance cannot be used to fund the cost
> > of diagnosing a disability - including dyslexia. Some
> > institutions who have the in house expertise and
> > appropriately qualified staff can produce a dyslexia
> > assessment, without the need for an external referral to an
> > Educational Psychologist. The same staff, or colleagues,
> > will often append a needs assessment to the diagnostic
> > report and charge for this. Some (many even) LEAs will let
> > it through although it is stretching the regs a little.
> > Often such set ups rely on the income from DSA to maintain
> > their units - if they had guaranteed salaries charging
> > shouldn't really be necessary. Reimbursing a student for
> > fees paid to an external agent is stretching matters to
> > breaking point. Apart from anything else two individual
> > reports would go the the LEA rather than one compendium of
> > two. Your Finance department would probably query the
> > practice as well.
> >
> > Bryan Jones
> > Equal Opportunities Adviser
> > London Guildhall University.
> >
> > On Wed, 7 Jan 1998 16:21:09 +0000 (GMT) "S.J.Davies"
> > <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > Here at Hull, our Dyslexia Unit performs a lot of screening
> > > tests for students who suspect they have Dyslexia. The
> > > student pays £10 for this test. As a result of this
> > > initial screening test, a full Dyslexia assessment is
> > > recommended for some students. The cost of each full
> > > assessment is currently being met by our Access Fund which
> > > is very quickly running short of money.
> > >
> > > Do any of you bill the LEA for the cost of the full
> > > assessment if it is found that the student is found to be
> > > Dyslexic? The costs of equipment assessments are covered
> > > by a student's LEA, so surely dyslexia assessments should
> > > be treated in the same way?
> > >
> > > Any input on this would be gratefully received by my
> > > colleague and I.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Sarah
> > > -------------------------
> > > Sarah Jayne Davies
> > > The Miriam Hebron Centre
> > > The University of Hull
> > > Cottingham Road
> > > Hull
> > > East Yorkshire HU6 7RX
> > > FAX: 01482 4662055
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > >
> >
> > ----------------------
> > Bryan Jones
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
>
> ----------------------
> Deb Viney
> Disability Co-ordinator
> University of Southampton
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Tel: 01 703 595644 (Highfield, Mon Wed & Fri)
> or 01 703 216200 ext. 518 (Tu & Thur, UoS New College)
>
>
>
----------------------
Bryan Jones
[log in to unmask]
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