Disability and Learning Support Service

About us

Information about how our Service supports students. BSL videos of this information are available.

Who are the Disability and Learning Support Service*?

*The Service changed its name from the Student Disability Service in August 2022.

The Student Disability Service provides support for students who have a health condition, disability or neurodiverse condition such as dyslexia or autism, which affects their studies.  We can also provide support to students who experience a temporary injury that impacts on their academic work.

All of the support and assistance that we offer is tailored to students’ individual needs, and is based on how their disability or condition affects them, what course of study they are pursuing, and what impact this may have on their teaching, learning and research.

Even if you have had support previously through school, college or university, information about this will not be communicated to our Service automatically, so it is important that you make early contact with the Disability Service to get the support that you need.

Video: Who are the Student Disability Service?
Who are the Student Disability Service at the University of Edinburgh?

 

What support is available?

A key way that we deliver support is through something that we call a Schedule of Adjustments.  This is basically a list of adaptations to how students experience their studies, and can include things like extra time in exams, access to individual study rooms in the library or no penalties for poor spelling, grammar or structure in exams.  We currently have over 100 adjustments that can be added to a student’s Schedule, and in this way, we can ensure that their specific needs for their teaching and learning are met. 

Once we have agreed the Schedule of Adjustments with a student, the information is issued to relevant staff on a need to know basis.  So library adjustments are not sent to the exams team, and teaching staff only get sent the adjustments that are relevant to them.  No information about the student’s disability, health or neurodiverse condition is circulated unless the student wants it to be communicated, or if information is needed for health and safety reasons.

We can also provide specialist one to one support for those students who need it.  This could be BSL interpretation, proofreading, notetaking, mental health mentoring or practical assistance. Basically, whatever support a student needs in order to study can be put in place.  More information about the range of support we can offer is available on our website : www.ed.ac.uk/student-disability-service/students/support-we-provide 

Video: What support is available?
British Sign Language video explaining what support is available through the Student Disability Service

 

How do I get support?

In order to ensure that the support you need is in place for the start of your studies, early contact is vital.  So, as soon as you know that you’re definitely going to be studying at the University of Edinburgh, please get in touch with the Student Disability Service.

Before we can arrange support for you, we will need evidence of your disability, health or neurodiverse condition.  The type of evidence we require will vary depending on what your condition is, but you can find full details of the different evidence requirements on our website: www.ed.ac.uk/student-disability-service/students/evidence 

Video: How do I get support?
British Sign Language video explaining how students can access support for their studies from the Student Disability Service