FAQ 1619
What do I need to do before the DSA Needs Assessment and what to bring?

You will need to provide us with the following information, which is required no later than five working days before the assessment:

  -Evidence of your impairment, condition or learning difficulty (a photo copy is sufficient) e.g. a Doctors letter or an Education Psychologist Report -Confirmation letter from your Funding Body that agrees to a DSA Needs Assessment

-The completed Pre-Assessment form

-A copy of any previous DSA Assessment reports if appropriate

If this documentation is not received we may be unable to go ahead with the appointment. Please contact us if you have any problems.

 It will be helpful if you have a think before you come to this appointment about how your course of study and the likely impact on you e.g. lectures and seminars, whether your course has placements or field trips and how your learning will be assessed and how this will impact you. The assessment is also an opportunity to review your study methods.

 

What to bring

We can only assess for the conditions we have evidence we have for. If there are conditions affecting your studies, for which you have not sent evidence to your funding body, please also forward us copies of this.

If you already have your own computer, please bring with you a note of the specifications (make, model, processor type and speed, hard disk drive, software installed etc) and approximate age of equipment. This will help us when we are evaluating any additional software as assessment.

If your equipment has been recently purchased (although we strongly advise that you DO NOT go ahead and purchase equipment prior to your Needs Assessment), please also bring with you copies if any receipts as we need to check the length of any warranty of insurance cover you have arranged.

If you have hearing aids, glasses, coloured lenses or use magnifiers or any other portable aids, please bring these with you to assessment.

If you need practical support/assistance or other support at the Needs Assessment you can bring your own support worker with you, or if you contact us, we will arrange for support to be made available. For interpreters we need as much notice as possible these will need to be booked through external agency.