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RE: Message from Paul Dilley in connection with voice-activated software and DSA 4th December 1997. I have not had any difficulty with the two LEA's from whom I have requested support for voice activated software. I have asssited three students in similar situations involving two severe cases of RSI and one of severe arthritis. To keep this message short I will describe just one of the three cases. A student came to seek advice in connection with support with DSA. He had previously worked for many years in IT, and his main reason for entry to HE was, that his RSI had reached the point that it was now impossible for him to use for any significant length of time a key board. Even a period of some 15 minutes often led to complete inactivity of his wrists as swelling would occur leaving him in some considerable pain. His LEA was Northhamtonshire. We contacted and recieved considerable help from Robin Cameron at Responsive Systems`. In the first instance the LEA agreed to supply the following : Dell XPS 60 (incl 16Mb RAM) at £1619,Kurzweil voice input package £825, Office Pro (Word 6 for Windows)£75 Total plus VAT £2,959,83. This amount was supplied in 1995. A further £446.50 incl VAT was provided for extended warranty. As the student progressed on his degree and the voice activated systems available improved, it was neccessarry t argue for upgrades and a further £587 was provided for this. This student graduated this year witha first class Hons degree and is likely to return as a post-graduate. He tells me he feels sure that without the voice activated systems on which he spent many months voice training he would not have had a chance to get the degree classification that he got. Unfortunately DMU has no dedicated IT support for disabled students ie we have no voice activated systems of our own. This does mean that it is essential that with the student, Access Centre, myself and Martin Fletcher (Head of Learning support) we insist that LEA's provide the support that is needed. I do recall that Northamton did suggest that the equipment was expensive. We simply increased the amount of medical evidence to show that it was wrong to expect this particular student to use a coventional key board. That in short his GP and a consulatant treating him for RSI, provided letters stating that in their opinion handwriting and lengthy periods using his hands and upper limbs would make his condition worse. That in an academic setting if there were an alternative, then one should be used. The LEA paid up in the end. I feel sure that if they had decided not to agree I would have assisted the student to contact the DSA Unit in Sheffield directly to seek their intervention. I did do this another case were the LEA were simply not being reasonable. A few days after contacting the DFEE DSA Unit who were given details of the situation the LEA changed its decision. The good and bad thing about DSA is that it offers little in terms of adjudicating such disputes. There are clear advantages of a DSA system that is not over regulated. If contacting the DFEE does not work I would have advised the student to write to is MP and ask for his/her intervention. The only legal alternative is Judicial Review this has been covered in dis-forum before and the caveat remains that JR can have a negative effect. My view is that as long as the diagnostic/medical support is available and that the equipment has been reccomended the question of costs (as long as they are within the set limits)is only an issue, if of course the LEA with its expertise (sic) can come up with alternatives to those suggested. In no case should the LEA be allowed to simply say its too expensive(unless it is over the set limits) without a suitable alternative suggestion. Bhopinder Basi Student Welfare Officer De Montfort University - Bedford. TEL-01234-793112 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%