Disabled Students’ Allowance: Scotland
This guide was created by Lead Scotland, a charity providing support for disabled people to learn.
About Disabled Students’ Allowance
If you are disabled, have a mental or physical health condition, or additional learning support needs, your college or university have a duty to support you and remove or reduce the barriers you face in learning and studying.
Support could include getting extra time to complete your exams, offering you specialist equipment, or providing you with an educational support worker.
If you are studying at Higher National Certificate (HNC) level or above, you may also be able to claim extra funding to support you to learn.
This extra funding is called Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). DSA is available regardless of how much income or savings you have, it does not need to be paid back and it does not affect any benefits or other student funding you get.
It is provided by the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) if you are ordinarily resident in Scotland.
DSA is split into three parts
Consumable items allowance
This is for items such as extra photocopying, braille or Livescribe paper and ink cartridges. The maximum amount each year is £1,725 (pro rata for part time study).
Equipment, software and accessories allowance
This is for items such as assistive technology, specialist software, laptops, scanners and printers. The maximum amount is £5,160 for the whole of your course of study (not per year).
Non-medical Personal Help allowance
This is for any course-related personal assistance you need. For example, sign language interpreters or communication assistants, proofreaders or autism/mental health mentors. The maximum amount each year is £20,520 (pro rata for part time study).
Travel costs
You can also get help with travel costs if you cannot use public transport as a result of being disabled. For example, if you experience anxiety on buses then you may be able to get funding for a taxi, or if you have mobility issues you may be able to get mileage paid for you or someone driving you.
How to apply
If you are applying for DSA for the first time, follow the below steps. The whole process of applying for DSA and arranging support can take a few months to arrange, so it’s really important you don’t wait until your course starts before you apply.
Applications for DSA open every year around the end of April. This is a quick guide to the process; please follow this link for the full SAAS guidance notes on applying for DSA. Although most colleges and universities will not start to process your DSA application until you have a confirmed offer, some will, so contact the provider you are expecting to attend to discuss it with them as early as possible.
Steps to applying
Step 1: Speak to an adviser
Speak to a disability adviser at the college or university to discuss the impact your impairment or health condition might have on your learning and studying. Each college and university will have a Disability Services department, but they may have slightly different names, such as ‘Learning Support’, ‘Supported Learning’ or the ‘Inclusion Team’.
Continue to Step 2.
Step 2: Your appointment
If the disability adviser thinks you are likely to be eligible for DSA, they will invite you to an appointment to discuss this further, unless you are a distance learning student, in which case skip to Step 6.
You may have to wait until after you have a confirmed offer for this appointment. When you go to the appointment, make sure you take an accepted form of medical evidence (page 7), or ask a medical professional to complete this medical evidence form.
Remember that even if you are not eligible for DSA, your college or university still have a duty to provide you with support.
Continue to Step 3.
Step 3: Needs assessment
A needs assessment looks at what support, adjustments, and equipment you might require while studying. See our factsheet on how to prepare for a needs assessment here.
Most colleges and universities in Scotland are validated to carry out needs assessments, but if yours is not, SAAS will refer you to one of three access centres in Scotland.
Skip to Step 5 if your college or university is not validated to carry out needs assessments, otherwise continue to Step 4.
The following providers are not validated to carry out a SAAS DSA needs assessment:
- Edinburgh Napier University
- The Open University
- The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Step 4: The DSA form
After the needs assessment, the assessor will support you to complete the DSA form, as they need to sign it and fill part of it in themselves. They will also produce a needs assessment report, stating what support and equipment they recommend. The assessor will let you review this, to make sure you agree with what they are recommending.
Once the form is completed and the needs assessment report and medical evidence documents are all ready, you can upload them in your online SAAS account using the document uploader.
Go to Step 8.
Step 5: If your university/college can’t carry out assessments
If your university or college is not validated to carry out needs assessments, the disability adviser will support you to complete the DSA form at your appointment, leaving the recommendations section blank, and instead ticking the box requesting a referral for a needs assessment at an access centre. There are three access centres in Scotland:
- The University of Dundee
- Edinburgh College
- New College Lanarkshire
You may also be able to request a home appointment if you cannot attend an access centre due to being disabled. You should then upload the DSA form and your medical evidence in your online SAAS account using the document uploader.
Skip to Step 7.
Step 6: If you are a distance learning student
If you are a distance learning student, the disability adviser will provide guidance on filling in the DSA form over the phone or in an online meeting. They will then ask you to send the form to them along with a copy of accepted form of medical evidence (page 7) or this completed medical evidence form.
When the disability adviser receives your DSA form, they will complete their part, sign it, and send it back to you. You should then upload this in your online SAAS account using the document uploader. SAAS will then make a referral for you to have a needs assessment at an Access Centre. A needs assessment looks at what support, adjustments and equipment you might require while you are studying. There are three access centres in Scotland:
- The University of Dundee
- Edinburgh College
- New College Lanarkshire
If you are studying at the University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI), you may be able to have your assessment carried out via video conferencing – discuss this with your disability adviser. You may also be able to request a home appointment if you are unable to attend an access centre due to being disabled.
Continue to Step 7.
Step 7: Report for SAAS
You should receive a letter/email/phone call from the access centre with an appointment to go in for your needs assessment. After your needs assessment, the assessor will produce a report for SAAS, recommending what support and equipment you need. You will have a chance to review this before they send it off to SAAS.
Continue to Step 8.
Step 8: Your award letter
If your application for DSA is successful, you will receive an award letter in the post from SAAS, confirming what funding for support and equipment they will provide.
Read the DSA guidance notes or speak to your disability adviser to find out when and how you will get the money and what you need to know about purchasing equipment and arranging non-medical personal help.
Appeals
If you are unhappy with the needs assessment report, you should discuss this with your assessor. If you cannot resolve the situation informally then you should make a formal appeal to ask them to review the decision.
In rare circumstances you can ask SAAS for a new needs assessment from a different assessment centre independent to your case. If you want to appeal a decision made by SAAS related to your application then you can access their appeals process here.
Further information
- You can download the DSA application form here. Make sure you download the correct form as there are two versions, depending on your circumstances.
- You can download a factsheet here that explains what a needs assessment is, what to expect, how to prepare, questions to ask, how to advocate for yourself, top tips and more.
- You can also contact the Lead Scotland Disabled Students’ Helpline about DSA or with any other queries related to being disabled in post-school learning on freephone: 0800 999 2568.
- Lead Scotland also has a full range of guides related to post-school learning and disability available on our website.
- Check out Lead Scotland’s Tick the box blog, which talks about the importance of letting your college or university know you are disabled.
Questions about applying for DSA?
If you have any questions about applying for DSA, you can phone the SAAS helpline on 0300 555 0505 and then press option 1.