Information for Study Needs Assessors can be found here.
The Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA) scheme has been subject to the most radical and far-reaching reforms in its history over recent years.From September 2015 students have been expected to pay the first £200 toward the cost of any computer paid for through the DSA and from the start of Academic Year 2016/17 DSA no longer pays for what was previously known as ‘Bands 1 and 2’ support, e.g. note-taking, laboratory support, etc. for students making new claims for a DSA.For up to date information about the Disabled Students’ Allowance scheme still funds please speak to one of our advisers, or your DSA needs assessor.
If a student has been assessed by the Student Loan Company as having a low household income then they will be eligible to apply for a £200 award from QMUL. This can be processed upon receipt of an application accompanied by a valid ‘DSA2’ letter from their funding body which confirms that they will be expected to pay this amount toward their computer.
Students will only be able to apply for this award after they have enrolled at the university.
More information about applying for a £200 award towards the cost of a computer provided through the Disabled Students’ Allowances can be found here.
QMUL's DSA-QAG NMH Provider Accreditation Certificate is available here. [PDF 1,340KB]
Period covered - 01/09/2019 - Current
The table below shows NMH rates. The grayed out cells indicate that the institution does not offer these services. Please also refer to QMUL's Disability and Dyslexia Service policy on accommodating third party NMH [PDF 238KB]
Click here for information about NMH support provided by Queen Mary University of London.
Note: NMH Support Rates shown per hour in the table below.
(All of our support workers are paid above the level of the London living wage).
If you are assessing an existing or new QMUL student and you plan to recommend specialist mentoring we would strongly recommend you make contact with one of our Disability Advisers (Mental Health).
At Queen Mary University of London academic departments (i.e. schools and faculties) provide scribe support in examinations and examination support workers, in line with our anticipated duties under the Equality Act. As such, there is no charge for this form of support through the DSA.
If needs assessors require quotes for these areas of NMH support (with the exception of Assistive Technology Training) in the London area please contact the Disability and Dyslexia Service on 020 7882 2756. Please note that quotes for Assistive Technology Training should be sought from equipment suppliers or other local training providers directly.
Queen Mary University of London do not provide students with any proof-reading support through the auspices of the Disability and Dyslexia Service, although students with specific learning differences such as dyslexia are offered the use of a SpLD Cover Note, (see below).
Disabled students supported by the Disability and Dyslexia Service at Queen Mary University of London can expect to access the following reasonable adjustments:
Queen Mary University of London has site licences for the following assistive software programs: ClaroRead Plus, MindView. These means that they are available across the university’s teaching service, i.e. on all computers based at the university.
We also have district licences for both ZoomText and JAWS, which means up to five users can access these programs concurrently. These programs are available in the Assistive Technology rooms managed by the Disability and Dyslexia Service; one in the library at Mile End and one on the second floor of the Francis Bancroft Building adjacent to the DDS reception office. They can also be installed on other machines by request, including in the Jade Room, a computer suite available to Lincolns’ Inn Fields to students supported by DDS.
In addition to the above software, DDS also has a number of copies of Dragon Naturally Speaking which can be installed on disabled students’ computers, either as an interim while their DSA funding is being implemented or on a more permanent basis for students not in receipt of a DSA, e.g. international students.The two main Assistive Technology rooms at Mile End have dedicated computers earmarked for blind and visually impaired students; the one in the library includes a CCTV system. We also have a further CCTV system located within the Whitechapel Library.
SensusAccess is a self-service, alternate media solution for educational institutions. SensusAccess allows students, faculty, staff and alumni to automatically convert documents into a range of alternate media including audio books (MP3 and DAISY), e-books (EPUB, EPUB3 and Mobi) and digital Braille. For more information about SensusAccess please see here.
QMUL has a license for SensusAccess which can be used by students registered here, allowing print-impaired students to independently convert documents into formats they find more accessible.
QMUL does not offer any free printing for disabled students. A variety of text-to-speech programs are installed on our network (please see above for more details) which enable students to access electronic materials, reducing the need to print for disability-related reasons.
Queen Mary University of London has an in-house lecture capture system called ‘Q-Review’, which uses the Echo 360 system. At the time of writing, around 80% of all teaching venues have this technology installed in and enhancements, including the delivery of Q-review to more venues, are planned each Summer. The Faculties and Humanities and Social and Sciences and the School of Medicine and Dentistry both have an ‘opt-out’ policy on using Q-review. This means all the lectures taking place in Q-Review enabled rooms will be recorded automatically unless a lecturer decides to opt out. Take up is also very good in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Queen Mary University of London’s virtual learning environment is called ‘QM Plus’, which is our branding on the Moodle system. The Disability and Dyslexia Service encourages staff to utilise this resource as much as possible, e.g. by uploading documents such as lecture slides in advance of lectures and allowing students to post questions to staff.
Our colleagues in Library Services manage a resource called Reading Lists Online that allows staff responsible for teaching modules to upload the reading lists for their subject, along with a commentary on the most relevant sections of text. This is particularly helpful for our blind and visually impaired students who may require texts in an accessible format. The Disability and Dyslexia Service are currently working on a specialist project with Library Services to increase the number and scope of those reading lists available to the students that we support.
The Disability and Dyslexia Service does not think that agreeing blanket deadline extensions to coursework, projects and dissertations is in the best interest of the students we support; rather, we will work to provide students with specialist support to make sure that they can manage their workloads successfully, including meeting deadlines.
This tallies with one of the university’s key strategic aims, designed to support students’ employability:
1.2 Support students to ensure that they can succeed and match their own and the university’s high expectations for their academic and personal progress, providing both academic support and co-curricular development.
However, we recognise that on occasion there may be extraordinary reasons why students cannot meet deadlines and in instances like this we would refer students to the university’s Extenuating Circumstances (EC) procedure. NB: any EC applications must be completed by the student, although we can offer advice with this.