Disability Support
Our team of practitioners provide advice, guidance, and practical support; helping students with disabilities to understand and fully access any support on offer to them throughout their studies.
About the Disability Support Team
The Disability Support Team is available all year round to advise you with:
- How to access the support you may be entitled to whilst studying at Leeds Conservatoire, which could include individual adjustments to learning and teaching practices or assessments.
- Support to disclose and evidence, or investigate, any disability, neurodiversity, mental health condition and/or long-term health condition.
- Free diagnostic screening services if you identify with traits of Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, and/or traits of ADHD
- Aaccessing the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA).
- Accessing other support services at the conservatoire, or from local authorities.
Complete our referral form to access our support and services.
Accessing Support for Your Disability
To access the support we offer, you must disclose your disability using the student support referral form.
How to Disclose Your Disability
Using the student support referral form, you can disclose any disabilities, neurodiversity, mental health conditions, or long-term health conditions which last–or are likely to last–12 months or more, and request that individual adjustments.
You can request the form in an alternative format if you require it.
Information and Evidence to Include in your Declaration
You can use the student support referral form to give relevant academic staff details of how your difficulties may affect your learning and what support at you may have had in the past that helped you access your learning.
To request any specific accessible learning and teaching practices that may help you engage fully, and/or any alternative assessment arrangements, you would be required to attach evidence to the referral form.
Your evidence should show any diagnoses or difficulties that you have, and is usually provided in the form of a healthcare letter or diagnostic assessment. You could also attach proof of any adjustments that you had at school or college too.
Questions and Support
If you are having any difficulties filling out the student support referral form, wish to send additional evidence to us, or have queries about disability support at Leeds Conservatoire; contact the Disability Support Team (disability@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk) and we will respond to you as soon as possible.
Adjustments & Support
Once you have disclosed your needs to us, we can put appropriate adjustments and support in place to accommodate your requirements.
Accessible Learning & Teaching
These general accessible learning and teaching practices are embedded in all programmes:
- Lecture capture via Panopto is available for each relevant module on Space – our VLE. You can use this to re-watch lectures and larger teaching sessions.
- Teaching materials and resources are made available on module pages at least 24 hours in advance of your lessons.
- You are allowed to make audio recording of your classes, it is advised that you make the tutor aware if you will be recording a session
- The Skills for Learning service offers you support to enhance your academic and digital skills. You can book in-person and online sessions 1-to-1 sessions, or access self-paced learning resources on Space. They can also help you utilise tools and tips to help you with different aspects of your learning, such as time management, organisation, research, planning, and writing.
Additional Adjustments for Disabled Students
You can inform us of additional learning and teaching adjustments and/or request alternative assessment arrangements by filling out the disability section of the student support referral form.
The referral form gives you the opportunity to: disclose and evidence any diagnosed conditions, explain how disclosed conditions may affect your learning, and request any specific adjustments.
Please see the alternative assessment arrangements page for more information about adjustments to assessments.
Alternative Assessment Arrangements
Alternative Assessment Arrangements are permanent adjustments put in place for students who have disclosed and evidenced their qualifying conditions, and are given to ensure that a level-playing-field is maintained for all students at the conservatoire.
To learn more, please refer to the dedicated page.
External Support & Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)
Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is a government grant administered by Student Finance in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and SAAS in Scotland. It isn’t a loan or means-tested, so you don’t have to pay it back.
If you can provide evidence of any diagnosed disability, neurodiversity, mental health condition and/or long-term health condition, you might be eligible to receive DSA.
How to Apply for DSA
Applying for DSA involves quite a simple process, which can be completed online using your Student Finance online portal. We have created a walkthrough video to demonstrate the application process using the Student Finance England (SFE) online portal, which also helps explain the process for Student Finance Wales (SFW) and Student Finance Northern Ireland (SFNI) online applications as they use similar systems.
For Scottish applicants using SAAS, refer to the application guide on their website.
You can also use paper forms by following the links to the DSA webpages for Student Finance in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, or SAAS in Scotland.
Frequently Asked Questions About DSA
What support could I be offered?
Although support offered by DSA will vary based on each individual’s application and the conditions they disclose, they often recommend funding towards assistive technologies, specialist one-to-one support, or help with travel and/or printing costs.
What evidence will I need to provide when I apply?
During any application for DSA, they will ask you to provide evidence containing confirmation of diagnosis for each condition that you disclose. DSA usually require this in the form of documents produced by educational psychologists or other clinical professionals, depending on your condition(s).
Education Health Care Plans (or EHCPs) that you may have had in place in school/college are not accepted by DSA, unfortunately.
What if I have evidence, but I’m not sure that it will be accepted?
If you want to submit some evidence but are unsure whether DSA will accept it, you shouldn’t worry about having the evidence being ‘rejected’, as this does not affect any future eligibility for DSA.
Rather than rejecting your application, they typically respond within a few weeks by emailing you asking for further evidence of your condition.
What should I provide DSA if my initial evidence is rejected?
Using a DSA Disability Evidence Form (for England; Wales; Northern Ireland; Scotland) is an effective way to gain sufficient evidence if you are required to provide further evidence after applying, although for Specific Learning Difficulties (such as Dyslexia or Dyspraxia), you will be required to provide them with a full diagnostic assessment as evidence.
Please see the screening section if you identify with traits of Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and/or ADHD but haven’t been formally assessed for SpLDs.
Why do I have to apply for DSA myself?
This is to ensure that you can decide whether to access DSA support or not, and have full control over your support in adulthood. It also gives full opportunity to choose who can access your disability information when applying for DSA, in-line with UK GDPR guidance.
Be assured that the Disability Support Team are happy to offer advice on all aspects of the DSA application process, from application to the organisation of any recommended support. We regularly assist students to organise all aspects of their support packages, so please do contact us if you would like any further information on all things DSA.
What if I’m ineligible for DSA?
For international students who are ineligible to apply for UK funding, it would be worthwhile contacting your home funding body to explore similar additional support or funding that may be available.
Students who require support with their academic or digital skills can access Skills for Learning services, which have support options and resources are available both in-person and online to help with these aspects of your learning.
We’d also encourage students that are ineligible for DSA-funded Mentoring support to contact the Disability Support Team at the conservatoire; it may be possible to organise some short-term disability support sessions aimed at helping you to get organised and engage fully with your studies.
Assistive Technology
All students can take advantage of assistive technology, regarless of whether they have a disability or not.
Through your Leeds Conservatoire Microsoft 365 account, you can access accessibility features to support you with reading documents and writing your own.
Microsoft Assistive Features
Immersive Reader is a text-to-speech tool in many different microsoft productions.
Dictate lets you use speech-to-text to author content in Microsoft 365 apps using your voice.
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Disability Support for Long-Term Dignosed Mental Health Conditions
The Disability Support Team can put in place permanent adjustments to Teaching & Learning and Assessments as a part of a long-term support strategy for students who disclose and evidence their mental health conditions on the Disability section of the Student Support Referral Form.
Our team can also assist students to access additional support when they are eligible, such as Disabled Students’ Allowance, which often funds assistive technology and regular Mentoring support.
For students who are ineligible for DSA, we can offer similar support to this through our Disability Support Advisers and the Skills for Learning services.
Support Available from the Health and Wellbeing Team
You can visit the Health and Wellbeing page to find out more about how to access wellbeing and occupational therapy services during term-time.
They also explains more about the types of short-term wellbeing support their services offer, how to refer in for this support and gives signposts to relevant external support services when necessary.
Please see this page for urgent wellbeing support options available in Leeds if you need immediate support with your wellbeing.
Screenings & Diagnostic Routes
Our specialist mentors offer screening services for Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, and traits of ADHD.
We can also offer advice about the formal diagnostic routes, if this is something you wish to explore.
Dyslexia, Dyspraxia & ADHD Screening
If you would like to have a diagnostic screening for Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), you can start the process by filling out our screening form.
Once you submit Part 1, you will receive instructions to your conservatoire email from QuickScreen to complete Part 2.
Results will only be provided once you complete both parts 1 & 2
To ensure clarity, some post-screening tests may be available to eligible students who do not have access to a full package of support from DSA yet.
Screening Form
Complete the first part of our screening process.
Although our process can identify indicators of ADHD to support DSA applications, this would not constitute a medical diagnosis or allow any medical or therapeutic intervention.
We therefore strongly suggest that you seek a full diagnosis of ADHD from the NHS or privately, alongside completing our process. ADHD UK have a guide which provides further information about diagnostic pathways.
If you have any questions or difficulties filling out the questionnaire, please contact disability@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk.
Autism Spectrum Conditions
Information and diagnostic routes, note that Leeds Conservatoire cannot screen for Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs).
If you wish to seek a medical dignosis for ASC, you can explore the following routes:
- Through your GP
- Through a local self-referral service, such as LADS in Leeds
- Through a private medial practitioner
We do offer a questionnaire, which can help you to investigate any traits of ASC that you feel you identify with. Our questionnaire is not part of a screening process, and is not a diagnostic route.
ASC Questionnaire
This is not part of a screening process.
Once you have completed and submitted the questionnaire, the Disability Support Team will contact you with the results. This usually is within a few working days of submission; however, please be advised that in busier periods results may take slightly longer to be given.
Getting Support
If you are on the waiting list for Autism, you may be able to apply for DSA support if you gain evidence from your GP stating that you have “working diagnosis of Autism”.
Waiting Lists and Right to Choose
Autism diagnostic testing waiting lists are generally extraordinarily long currently, with some NHS locations showing over 2 years from initial referral to diagnosis.
We would advise you to seek information on how to use the NHS Right to Choose initiative to see how students can bypass unreasonable waiting times for NHS services, see the Psychiatry UK website for a detailed guide to Right to Choose.