Transforming support for students with disabilities in UK Higher Education

Intended UK government changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance will have a significant impact on the support that UK universities provide for students with disabilities. In this paper we examine the types of transformation that may be required to university support for students with disabilities from a socio-technical perspective. The research reported in this paper involved a year-long case study in a UK university. The potential changes required to support for students with disabilities within the university studied to cater for the proposed UK government changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance included providing non-medical helper support through external agencies, the development of a dyslexia screening process, providing enhanced library services including access to printers and scanners and assistance with assistive software, provision of laptops with assistive software, making assistive software available in a limited form in computing laboratories and more co-ordinated special examination provision