Support for students with disabilities and additional needs

Cliff College has a strong track record of providing support to students with disabilities and/or additional needs so they can access education and reach their full potential. This includes support for students with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, health problems and neurodiverse conditions. This support is catered to each individual student based on their needs and diagnoses and is provided by Cliff College and/or Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA).

Please note that, to access this support from DSA and/or Cliff College, you need to have a medical report or formal diagnostic report for your condition. We can direct you towards some DSA registered services that may be able to help if you believe you have a non-medical/non-physical condition that has not yet been diagnosed.

Support from DSAs

DSAs can provide a variety of support directly for you, which may include computers or other devices and assistive technologies to support you in your studies, mentors to assist with learning or financial support to cover additional costs associated with your disability or needs.

• The support you receive will be tailored to your needs and worked out by a DSA assessment centre.
• We recommend that you apply for DSA when you have accepted a place on one of our courses; this may be at the same time as you apply for Student Finance.
• DSA is available to students on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes only.

Support from Cliff College

Cliff College can provide reasonable adjustments to support you in your studies. These may include additional time for submitting work, additional library allowances, being able to access classroom resources ahead of time, access to a college learning support tutor, making lecture and tutorial spaces accessible for students with physical disabilities or receiving a guided reading list.

• The adjustments made will be tailored to your needs and worked out in partnership with you.
• If you have indicated in your application form or application process that you have a disability or additional need, the process of working out reasonable adjustments begins once you have accepted a place on one of our courses and can provide a medical or diagnostic report of your condition(s) and how it/they may impact your studies.
• Reasonable adjustments are available to students at all levels of study with Cliff College.

You can access support at any point after accepting a place on one of our courses, including after you’ve started studying with us. If you are applying partway through your studies, we recommend you speak with your course administrator or with our Disability and Inclusion Student Support, Allison Cooper, before contacting DSA.

If you have any questions about how we support students or how to access DSA, please contact Allison Cooper on DISS@cliffcollege.ac.uk.