Association of Study Aids/Strategies Assessors.

Finding out what equipment and support might be available while studying.

Disabled students often don't realise there is specialist equipment and support available that could help them participate in their course to the best of their ability. Maybe they've never had to use equipment and support before, or just don't realise their might be help available for their particular problems.

If you have any kind of disability, medical condition or other long-term problem and are studying, or thinking of studying, in Higher Education you are strongly advised to get in touch with the Disability Officer (sometimes called the Disability Adiviser or Disability Co-ordinator) at the University. They are often located in the Student Services section. You could try using this link to the search page provided by Skill to find their details.

The Disability Officer will provide confidential advice on the types of equipment or support you might be able to use while studying. They won't tell anybody else outside of their team of workers about you, so your tutors won't find out if you don't want them to know about your disability.

Disabled students are often eligible for funding to pay for any equipment or support needed while studying. This funding is usually administered by the Local Authority, Student Finance England, NHS or other organisation, depending on the type of course you are on or are thinking of studying.

The Disability Officer will advise you about who you need to apply to for funding, and how to go about applying.

Most students will be asked by the people providing the funding to undergo a Study Aids and Study Strategies Assessment. This is meeting with a specialist, where you get to talk about the types of problems you might have while studying and where the specialist helps you identify strategies you can use to overcome these problems. The specialist will then prepare a report that explains all this to the people providing the funding and makes requests for any reasonable items of equipment or support to be paid for. 

If you want to know more about what happens in the assessment or how to prepare for the session, follow the links on this page.

Return to main student advice page.