Today I am attending a Westminster Briefing in London, with the title ‘Preparing for the changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowances. I am keen to see what advice is given to the professionals that work passionately to ensure our dyslexic and disabled students receive a high quality support package, to ensure each student is on an equal footing when studying for their undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses. I understand the governments rationale, a rebalancing and review is needed as many universities should be providing an inclusive platform for learning. But then services and employers should also be inclusive and accessible, however in the real world accessibility for dyslexic and disabled clients is not ordinarily the priority, things have and are improving but this takes time due to the attitude change required when trying to foster an inclusive culture. The wonderful part of the Disabled Students’ Allowance was freedom, it gave our students the choice to go to any University in the country, the students had their own budget for reasonable adjustments so would not be discriminated against due to faculty budgets. I fear we will go back 15 years to when I started my career working in the disability sector, individual students trailblazing to make their course accessible, and it will only be those with the confidence and support network to succeed, that’s not equality.

If your a dyslexic and disabled student looking to go to University please contact us for advice around accessing the right support for you. TheLearningSupportCentre.