Well I guess the student could suggest to the LA that he will be taking
them to court invoking the DDA as the LA is refusing to meet his access
requirements as recommended by a neutral and suitably qualified
assessor. He/she could perhaps get support for his case from the NAS or
similar organisation. The LA must have a formal complaints procedure and
it might be worthwhile the student initiating a formal complaint.
Perhaps the student/you should suggest to the LA that they fund a second
assessment to see if a different support package is recommended? Would
they move if you offered a compromise of using a mobile phone as a
reminder device?
If the LA will not move then the student could well ask your Uni to fund
the equipment as otherwise his/her access requirements will not have
been met. Do you have a fund to support such requests? (ALF seems a
sensible suggestion). It might also be possible for the student to
approach trusts/charities. But it does seem invidious if you are
expected to provide equipment that the LA has turned down when an AESN
recommends this and, on the face of it, all the recommendations seem
logical. And what is the "principle" that they are adhering top when
they refuse the recommendation? Is it "Always refuse reasonable
requests"?
Good luck,
Claire
Claire Wickham
Senior Disability Officer
Disability Resource Centre
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol BS16 1QY
Tel: 0117 328 3737
Textphone: 0117 32 83644
Fax: 0117 32 82935
Please note that this e-mail was written using speech input and may
contain some small voice recognition errors.
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Adrian McDonald
Sent: 04 September 2008 16:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: recommendations refused by funding body
Just to give some further information, the arguing and backing up of all
the recommendations has already been done, it is more a case of what can
we possibly do now?
The reason for the PDA is so that it will remind the student of
appointments/lectures etc. The funding body is saying that the student
can get the laptop out, boot it up and use that as an organisation tool.
It has been pointed out that a laptop will not remind the student if it
is turned off, whereas a PDA will actively remind the student.
The funding body refuses to agree to the recommendations on principle
and refuses to look at the students individual needs. The assessor
still stands by the recommendations, is there any way of getting this
decision overturned?
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