Apologies for sending this message to a number of forums and to those of you who will see my rant more than once. 

Before we all start giving ourselves pats on the back for delaying the implementation of the changes to the DSA; let us consider what the message says:

 

1.    "There was widespread agreement that universities should discharge their duties under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled students, as other organisations do."

 

What this actually means is that the DfES saw this, as a great way of cutting cost in view of their massive overspend.

 

2.    "For the academic year 2015/16, we will continue to provide Disabled Students’ Allowance funding to help with the additional cost of a computer and assistive software if needed solely because of the student’s impairment. This will be subject to the student contributing the first £200 of the computer’s cost – broadly equivalent to the cost of a basic computer"

 

This is a nightmare of a scenario, how is this to be implemented? What are the cost implications for the DSA in supporting students own machines? Installing AT? Also what happens to those students who have already purchased an unsuitable machine prior to applying for DSA are they to be expected to find another £200.

 

3.    "Additional items such as printers and consumables will not be automatically provided, with alternative provision in the form of university provided services such as printing services and books and journals in electronic format to be considered as alternatives."

 

Looking forward –not – to SFE’s approach on this, how is an assessor to decipher what an institution offers, most employees of institutions would not know the answer to this one.

 

4.    "A number of commentators made proposals to streamline the assessment process for Disabled Students’ Allowance to reduce the burden for students, universities and the taxpayer."

 

Who are these commentators? And what does streamlining really mean other than less cost obviously? We do not want to have to busy ourselves picking up the pieces of another debacle such as the telephone assessment of a few years ago.

 

5.    "The changes summarised in this Statement other than non-medical help changes will apply….."

 

Yet again the NMH provision is being swept aside, yet this is the one singular major cause of the dramatic rise on cost to the DSA.

 

It seems to me that the government has realised that far more work needs to be done on realising their proposed cuts and that maybe they can make even more cuts, if they are given the time.