• What is a Disabled Students' Allowance and what is it for?
• When should I apply for a DSA?
• How and to whom do I apply for DSAs?
• What evidence do I need to provide with my application?
• What happens after I've applied?
• What kind of help can I get from the DSA?
• What happens after my needs assessment?
• How do I get my support?
• If I'm not eligible to apply for DSAs, what should I do?

What is a Disabled Students' Allowance and what is it for?

Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) are grants to help meet the extra study related costs students can face as a direct result of a disability, ongoing health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty. They help disabled people to study in higher education on an equal basis with other students. They are paid on top of the standard student finance package and don't have to be paid back.

DSAs can help with the costs of:

• academic support workers;
• items of specialist equipment;
• travel; or
• other costs, e.g. internet, photocopying, printing, books.

Top

When should I apply for a DSA?

It's best to have sorted out your DSA before you start your course, so that you arrive at Anglia Ruskin with your support in place, as the application process can take several months to complete. You should therefore apply as soon as you can in order to receive your support promptly. However, you can apply for a DSA at any stage during your course.

If you haven't applied for your DSA by the time you start your course, please contact your Study Support Adviser for assistance in completing the DSA application form.

How and to whom do I apply for DSAs?

You'll need to apply to your funding body (i.e. Student Finance England or NHS).

Please contact us if you need any help with your applications.

What evidence do I need to provide with my application?

You'll need to provide evidence of your disability, medical condition, mental health difficulty, or specific learning difficulty. For example, you could provide a doctor's letter or an educational psychologist's report.

Where possible your doctor's letter should include:

• Information about symptoms and side effects of any medication.
• The effect of that your condition has on daily life.
• The effect that your condition is likely to have on your studies.
• Any previous support you have received.

A report assessing a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia should be written by a suitably qualified professional, such as, an Educational Psychologist, and have been at 16 years or older.

If you do not have a post-16 assessment for your specific learning difficulty, please contact your local Study Support Service team.

What happens after I've applied?

Your funding body will ask you to have a needs assessment which will consider the demands of your course and make recommendations for supporting your studies.

The needs assessment will be carried out at an independent assessment centre or at a centre within a college or university. Your funding body will usually recommend a selection of local assessment centres that you can attend.

What kind of help can I get from the DSA?

The purpose of the needs assessment interview is to establish exactly what your needs are in relation to your course. Assessors may recommend:

• IT equipment, such as computers, printers, scanners.
• Specialist software such as voice-recognition, text-to-speech and planning software or a touch-typing course.
• Familiarisation training for hardware and software, and insurance.
• Study skills tuition, a note-taker, or mentor.
• A book or photocopying and/or printing allowance.

They will also make recommendations which relate to the adjustments your university might implement to enable you to study more effectively.

What happens after my needs assessment?

The assessment centre will send a copy of your needs assessment report to you, to your funding body and to the Disability Adviser at your University, if you give permission for them to do this.

Your funding body will then consider the recommendations in the report and will write to you to confirm the support that they will agree. This letter is important as it provides the evidence that your funding body has agreed to pay for your support.

How do I get my support?

Some funding bodies agree to payment for specialist equipment and training recommended in your assessment report shortly before your course begins. The letter that you receive from them should explain whether this is possible and how you should go about ordering your equipment.

When you arrive and register at University, it is important that you make contact with Study Support as soon as possible, and bring along a copy of your needs assessment and your funding body approval letter. The Study Support Adviser you meet with can then organise for any other support to be put in place.

If you have a copy of the funding body approval letter before you start your course, sending the letter to Study Support before you register at University will help to speed up the organisation of your support.

If I'm not eligible to apply for DSAs, what should I do?

It's important that you contact Study Support as soon as you have a fully confirmed place at the University. A Study Support Adviser will then contact you to discuss the support that you feel is needed.

It's likely that some funding can be made available to put together a package of support and to arrange reasonable adjustments to help you to fully engage with your studies.