The UK’s Department for Education (DfE) is proposing to reduce the scope of software provided through the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA), stating that advances in technology have led to features provided by assistive software now being available for free “as standard” in modern operating systems.
Students will still be able to ask for funding for assistive technology if there is an “additional disability-related need for it that cannot be met by any other software available to the student”, but will otherwise be encouraged to use free-to-access services.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As technology has moved on, much of the functionality in the tools DSA currently funds is now freely available and already widely used by university students. We want to modernise the system to reflect this, while ensuring that all students continue to receive further specialist help if they need it.”
But there are concerns that this will leave some students without support. More than 88,000 university-level students currently use DSA to access equipment, software and other non-medical help to support them in their studies.
Vice-chair of the British Assistive Technology Association (BATA), Nicole Michael, said: “These proposals, if implemented, would be catastrophic for disabled students in higher education. We are not talking about a software preference. We are talking about the tools that enable students with dyslexia, ADHD, autism and mental health conditions to read, write, research and participate in their degrees on equal terms with their peers.”
Replacing individually assessed, clinically recommended specialist software with free generic tools is not a modernisation of the DSA system. It is the dismantling of it
Nicole Michael, British Assistive Technology Association
Assistive technologies offered to students with disabilities through DSA can range from speech-to-text and mind mapping software to research and task management services.
The DfE stated in its proposal that higher education providers are increasingly providing students with technology to support their learning, and future policy for issuing DSA will assume students already have access to assistive technologies, apart from in specific circumstances where a student’s disability requires additional software that cannot be found for free.
But a Freedom of Information request by Whitehouse Communications asking for documents relating to comparisons between free and paid assistive software and cost-benefit analysis revealed the DfE has not tested whether or not freely available software is comparable with software currently offered through the DSA.
The BATA opposed the DfE’s proposals on this basis, stating in a review of the cuts that they are “presented as an efficiency measure” but are in fact a “withdrawal of statutory disability adjustments”.
The not-for-profit’s report stated: “Productivity tools enhance the output of general users; specialist assistive technology functionally replaces or scaffolds capacities that a student’s disability impairs. The two are different categories of product addressing different populations, and they cannot be substituted for one another.”
BATA’s Michael explained: “Replacing individually assessed, clinically recommended specialist software with free generic tools is not a modernisation of the DSA system. It is the dismantling of it.
“The research evidence is overwhelming and consistent: specialist assistive technology improves outcomes, builds independence and supports disabled students into employment. These proposals move in the opposite direction.”
Where a student requires support that can’t be met through widely available free tools, they will continue to receive funded software through DSA – no one will be left without the support they need to study with confidence
Department for Education spokesperson
But a Department for Education spokesperson emphasised that those who cannot use freely available technology will still be given access to paid-for software if necessary for their learning.
“Opportunity should be open to every young person in our country, especially disabled students, and the right support must be there to help them reach their potential,” the spokesperson said.
“Where a student requires support that can’t be met through widely available free tools, they will continue to receive funded software through DSA – no one will be left without the support they need to study with confidence,” they added.
The DfE’s own research found that almost 60% of students who receive DSA said they would not pass without it. Students who have used DSA in the past credit their success at university to the funding, stating that without it, they would either have not been able to fully engage with learning or would have left university altogether.
Holly Winter, a DSA recipient, said: “I am not joking when I say that without the resources of the Disabled Students’ Allowance, I would have dropped out of university.”
Another DSA recipient, Toby Ferguson, who achieved a degree in interior design, explained: “Through the mentoring support and specialist equipment I received, I was able to achieve a First Class Honours degree. Without this support, my academic performance, well-being and ability to fully engage with university life would have been significantly impacted.”
The use of tech and artificial intelligence has the potential to help delivery of education in the UK, so a committee of MPs has launched an inquiry into its opportunities and challenges.
