Students with dyslexia or specific learning difficulties

Tell us about your learning difficulty when you apply

You can declare your learning difficulty at any time, but the sooner you do, the better we will be able to support you.

If you do not feel comfortable telling us about it in your application, please contact us in confidence so that we can make sure you get the support you need.

To get help from a Learning Support Coordinator you must provide a current report confirming your dyslexia or specific learning difficulty.

The assessment must have been carried out when you were 16 or older, and the report should be written by a practicing chartered psychologist or a qualified teacher (OCR Diploma SpLD).

If you do not have a report or if you think you may be dyslexic or have a specific learning difficulty, then we can arrange an assessment once you have enrolled.

What support is available?

You will have a Learning Support Coordinator who will be available throughout your course to help you and your department. They will:

• work with you to explore what impact your disability might have within the context of your academic course so that support can be tailored to your needs.
• issue a Learning Support Plan (LSP) to outline any adjustments required for your teaching or assessment methods (e.g. extra time)
• offer advice and support when applying for Disabled Students' Allowance or other disability-related funding
• help to set up support such as specialist mentoring, study skills tuition, assistive technology training, sign language and interpreting.
• provide disability support advice to ease the transition to student life, signposting to other university services where appropriate.

Adjustable computer workspaces with screen readers and other specialist software are available in computer pool rooms and libraries.

Accessing our online services

We try to ensure that all our online services, including Student View and the online library, meet usability and accessibility requirements and the standards issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). If you find that they do not, please let us know by contacting the Service Desk, your Information Adviser or your nearest library help desk.

What financial support is available?

For UK (home) students

If you are a UK (home) student, you could be eligible to apply for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) to help you pay for extra costs incurred on your course as a result of your disability.

The DSAs can help to pay for things such as travel, a note-taker or reader, study skills help, specialist equipment and other course-related costs. The support you are eligible to receive depends on your disability and not on your household income.

If you receive specialist equipment (e.g. a laptop or software) through DSAs, you will be required to pay the first £200 of this cost, but the university's DSA Reimbursement Fund can assist students whose household income is £25,000pa or less.

The application process for DSAs can take four or five months so it is important that you apply as soon as possible.

See the gov.uk website for more information on DSAs.

Healthcare courses

The application process for most healthcare courses is through Student Finance England, as above. However, there are a number of exceptions, where students should instead apply for the NHS Bursary Disabled Students Allowance. This works in a similar manner to the regular DSA but acts as a separate scheme. The courses that follow the NHS Bursary route are:

• Medical students in your 4th year and 5th year (if you intercalated) or 5th year (if you didn't intercalate)
• Social Work MSc students

If you are unsure which route to follow, please contact our team and we will try to help.

For students from other countries

If you are not from the UK you will not be eligible to receive the Disabled Students’ Allowances. However, we will do everything we can to support you and help you find funding to pay for equipment and support workers.

To help with this process, please investigate the following options before starting at Brighton:

• If you have a sponsor, ask if they can contribute money to cover disability-related expenses. Some scholarships offer funding to cover such costs.
• You may be eligible for a grant from your own government, so contact your education department to ask what support they can provide. We know that the Eire, Jersey and Guernsey, Sweden, Netherlands, and Thailand governments provide support, though others may also.
• Finally, you may be eligible for support from non-governmental organisations in your home country.

If additional funding is not available, we will work hard to meet your needs in the best way possible, so please get in touch as soon as you know you are coming so that we can begin to help you.