About our disability support services

Disability Service

The Disability Service provides advice, practical support and reasonable adjustments to enable disabled students to access and make the most of their studies. This work begins at applicant stage when you tell us about your impairment or medical condition, or at any time in your study when you disclose as disabled.

We work in partnership with students, other professional colleagues and academic staff to identify any barriers and develop strategies or support to enable access. The typical areas we can work collaboratively with students on includes:

• help applying for reasonable adjustments
• information about Disabled Students' Allowances and how to apply
• guidance on assistive technology
• guidance on disclosing an impairment to UWE Bristol as an applicant or as a student
• disabled car parking guidance
• a Support Worker Service (SWS), who can assist disabled students to identify and organise non-medical support workers in order to access their studies
• information for Study Needs Assessors.

Access and Learning Strategies team

We offer advice and support for students who have, or think they might have, dyslexia or a Specific Learning Difference (SpLD). This includes:

• specialist one-to-one support
• SpLD screening
• PEEPs (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans)
• diagnostic assessments for dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or a SpLD with attention difficulties.

Access West of England

Access West of England (AWE) carries out Study Needs Assessments for disabled students and applicants undertaking Higher Education courses. The assessment looks at support and strategies to help you succeed on your course.

Study skills and library services

All UWE Bristol libraries offer a specific service to disabled users. The library service has staff who can tell you how the service can be adapted to meet specific needs. This includes help to reserve and collect books, use specialist equipment (such as scanners and CCTV), photocopy, and convert material to alternative formats.

The University also gives help or advice about developing effective study skills. More information is available from the Study support section. It includes specific study skills tuition sessions and essay writing workshops, which are available to all students. If you experience difficulties with organisation, time management and structuring work you may find this extra support particularly useful.

Course requirements

You can find details of your course, including content, assessment arrangements, modules and placements, using the course-finding utility.

Standard adjustments to learning and teaching will be arranged where we have received your Study Needs Assessment, and you will be informed to check this in your MyUWE record. For exceptional adjustments these will be arranged on an individual basis through a meeting/telephone conversation with a disability adviser. If you would like to find out more, please contact us.

Access to Placement Plan

An Access to Placement Plan is a document that recommends adjustments, support and strategies for students on professional practice placements (health or education). It is put together following a meeting between a Disability Adviser and student, and occasionally attended by a programme and/or a placement or Trust representative.

If you are a disabled student or are a carer of a disabled person and need reasonable adjustments to access your placement, your tutor will need to complete an Access to Placement Plan request. The Disability Service will be in touch if a meeting is needed.

Please note that we do not carry out Access to Placement Plan meetings for students with Specific Learning Difficulties. Instead, please refer to the placement guidance (PDF) which provides guidance to support discussion between the placement and the student in identifying reasonable adjustments and strategies.