As an OU student you may be eligible for a Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). These grants are available to disabled students in higher education to help with study-related costs that arise directly from your disability or specific learning difficulty. They are not affected by your financial circumstances. To qualify, you must be registered for an OU undergraduate or postgraduate module that lasts for more than one year and does not take more than twice as long to complete as an equivalent full-time module. This will usually mean that you take 60 credit points each year, although students are eligible when they begin by studying 30 credit points and remain eligible if they complete their qualification within the time limit.
DSAs can be used to pay for a variety of study-related equipment, software and non-medical help.
These may include:
Equipment: computers, ergonomic peripheral devices (eg keyboards, document holders), ergonomic chairs, software (eg speech input, text-to-speech, advanced language tools, screen magnifiers, mind-mapping programs), braille note-takers, low-vision aids, scanners, printers, dictaphones.
Non-medical helpers: note-takers, lip-speakers, readers, study support assistants, specialist dyslexia tutors, specialist mental health mentors.
General allowance: Miscellaneous expenses such as photocopying, printer cartridges, computer disks or CDs, blank audio cassettes, tactile diagrams.
Travel costs: 75% of taxi fares to tutorial.
Please note: DSAs will not pay for obtaining evidence of your disability (eg dyslexia assessments). See the Funding section for ways of paying for these.
Complete and return the application form (pdf format) to the DSA Office (address details below, and on the form itself).
DSA information and application form
If your application is succcessful, you will be assessed (normally at your home) by a Study Needs Assessor. This takes about one hour. The assessor will then write a report about your study needs and this will be considered in due course by the DSA Office. In practice, the whole process may take several weeks.
If you have questions about the process itself or to obtain an application form with accompanying notes, please contact the DSA Office.
DSA Office
The Open University
Milton Keynes
MK7 6ZN
Voice telephone 01908 654136
Textphone 01908 659955
Fax 01908 659956
Email: dsa-queries@open.ac.uk
