All students with a disability or significant ongoing illness in UCD have the opportunity to receive relevant reasonable accommodations or supports. To receive these supports students are invited to complete a short meeting called a Needs Assessment with UCD Access & Lifelong Learning.
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Time lineWhat is the main idea or gist?
What does this initiative/support/project look like?
All students with a disability or significant ongoing illness in UCD have the opportunity to receive relevant reasonable accommodations or supports. These supports may include academic support such as awareness support for your lecturers and/or exam supports such as extra time for exams (10 minutes per hour). To receive these supports students are invited to complete a short meeting called a Needs Assessment with UCD Access & Lifelong Learning.
A needs assessment is a meeting to discuss the student’s needs, they can accept or decline any supports offered and may have specific requests. When completing a needs assessment Disability Officer’s will consider what the student identifies as challenges and link to a support. For instance, if a student says they have difficulties with spelling in exams, they could refer to grading guidelines support and describe how extra time could be used to proofread the exam.
At the Needs Assessment meeting students agree on a plan for their reasonable accommodations. Examples of classroom accommodations used by students in UCD are outlined below, a full list is given in a further section.
The coordination of the processes associated with the provision of reasonable accommodations is undertaken by Access & Lifelong Learning, in collaboration with Assessment (UCD Registry), Academic Schools and Programme Offices and the student. The particular responsibilities are as follows:
The UCD Disability Service has a number of supports that they offer to ensure students receive reasonable accommodations including classroom accommodations, assistive technology, training for staff, exam supports, an occupational therapy service, learning support and a Dyslexia Screening Service.
Classroom Accommodations
Below are some further examples of classroom supports that the Disability Service would coordinate with academic staff depending on student’s requirements that are established at their needs assessment:
Exam Accommodations
Below are some examples of exam supports but they would be determined with a student at a needs assessment:
Temporary Exam Supports
Temporary Exam Supports are intended for students who have an injury or temporary condition, with documentation dated within 4 weeks of the application for Temporary Exam Support. This applies to in-person end-of-trimester exams.
Students with ongoing conditions, including those who have applied for temporary exam support previously, are invited to apply for ongoing support through UCD Disability Services.
For temporary exam support, students must supply recent medical documentation which must cover the exam period and be dated within 4 weeks of the application.
Medical documentation must meet the following requirements:
Dyslexia Screening Service
Students who are experiencing significant difficulties with reading, writing or spelling can attend a free Dyslexia Screening Service. The appointment will last approximately two hours. You will then be invited to come back for a session to give you the results of the screening process and advice about next steps.
The screening aims to provide students with an indication of whether or not it would be useful for you to get a full Educational Psychologist’s Assessment. It is then the student’s choice as to whether they pursue a full assessment.
The screening does not provide students with a diagnosis. Students will not be provided with supports or accommodations in UCD on the basis of the results of a screening alone.
If students wish to pursue further testing after the screening a list of all registered psychologists can be found on the Psychological Society of Ireland website, or a reduced rate/cost may be available from the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.
The screening aims to provide students with an indication of whether or not it would be useful for them to get a full Educational Psychologist’s Assessment. It is then the student’s choice as to whether they pursue a full assessment.
Background Information
There is legislation that governs what disability supports should be implemented in the education system in Ireland. There is also a Disability Advisors Working Network (DAWN) which is the professional organisation for Disability Officers who are primarily responsible for supporting learners with disabilities in Higher Education in Ireland. This professional network works together on a number of projects including the legal requirements and the required exam and classroom accommodations. This network also developed the current disability service that is in place. They worked to streamline services nationally and all universities follow a similar model. In addition to the Disability Advisors Network, all staff who come on board at each respective university undertake the same baseline training, which is run by AHEAD, an independent non-profit organisation working to create inclusive environments in education and employment for people with disabilities.
The training that they offer is called AHEAD Start, it is an online learning training course on supporting students with disabilities in Further and Higher education. Available to: Professional staff, such as teachers, careers advisors or dedicated support staff working within Irish Further Education & Training and Higher Education. This ensures that all professionals in this area are working off the same approach.
Type of Support
The support offered is generally 1 to 1 or small group support. Below are the steps students need to take to arrange Disability Support:
Students can arrange supports with Access and Lifelong Learning (ALL) at any time during their course of study. However, it is recommended that students arrange supports as early as possible as some accommodations can take time to organise.
The procedure for all students who wish to arrange disability support is as follows:
Students who require exam accommodations are advised to book a Needs Assessment appointment by week 6 of the current trimester. Students who contact us after this date cannot be guaranteed their exam accommodations in the end-of-trimester exams.
What are the goals?
All students with a disability or significant ongoing illness in UCD have the opportunity to receive relevant reasonable accommodations or support. The service is successful when we see students being empowered to be independent learners as a result of getting the necessary accommodations, classroom support and assistive technology.
How are students involved?
What underlying constructs or ideas inspired the design?
There was a lot of research undertaken by the Disability Advisors Working Network (DAWN) on best practices in Disability Services which fed into the development of the current model that is in place across Ireland.
There are a number of materials – see below
The Role of the Disability Officer and the Disability Service in Higher Education in Ireland
The Equal Status Act 2000 – A Brief Guide for Students with Disabilities
What the success criteria and the points of attention?
The service is successful when we see students being empowered to be independent learners as a result of getting the necessary accommodations, classroom support and assistive technology.
The current model is very much dependent on students producing evidence of their disability and on disclosure. There is a general consensus that moving from this approach would be a move towards a service that is more equitable and can be accessed by all.
(How) does the effectiveness get tracked?
We also benchmark our service against the best practices set out by DAWN (Disability Advisors Working Network) and other universities offering similar services
strongly agree
(How) is this initiative/support/project evaluated?
Quality Assurance assessment is undertaken every 5 years.
How is it communicated and advertised?
What is the current and ideal timing and duration?
The principle of the service is to focus support on first years in the first instance, with the idea being that they will become more autonomous as they progress through the university system. It is recommended that students arrange supports as early as possible as some accommodations can take time to organise. So, it is best to contact the disability team as early as possible so that any support you require can be put in place without delay, but students can arrange support at any time during the academic year. If students have had a Needs Assessment and wish to review their support, they can do so at any time by meeting with a member of the team.
During regular ‘school’ hours.
What resources are needed to run this initiative?
UCD Access & Lifelong Learning has prepared a selection of guides with tips for students on how to navigate university in relation to their disability. Click on the links to download guides on each of the following disabilities:
Further Guides for Staff
Disability Fact Sheets
UCD Access & Lifelong Learning has prepared a selection of fact sheets for staff on how to support students with particular disabilities in college. Click on the links to download fact sheets on each of the following disabilities:
For general guidelines on how academic staff can support students with particular disabilities please refer to DAWN Handbook – Teaching Students with Disabilities: Guidelines for Academics.
Is it easily transferrable to other contexts or groups?
We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.
Other Irish universities have based their disability services on the UCD system, so it is definitely possible to replicate the service.
The UCD Disability Services works very well in the context that it is being delivered in and services a very large cohort of students.
The current service is very streamlined, which is part of the reason that it works so well and can assist a large number of students. UCD uses software which has been customised for the Disability Services specific requirements. For each needs assessment that is completed with a student, details are submitted on this online system which then generates a letter outlining the students’ required accommodation to all relevant staff (module co-ordinators). These staff only see the information they require to assist the student, they do not have full access to all of the student’s information.
This specialised software means that the administration requirements are streamlined, and the support is standardised. It is possible to buy software and when setting up a service it would be important to ensure that you buy software that meets the requirements of the service.
It is also important to note that students complete a needs assessment with a Disability Officer and from there they may be referred to the Occupational Therapist or Assistive Technology Specialist for more specialised support.
In terms of some challenges or things to consider when setting up the service:
When setting up a service it would also be important to consider the numbers that you think will be accessing the service, in UCD it grew exponentially so it would be crucial to be specific on the type of support that can be offered and what your capacity is.
As advised the current model is very much dependent on students producing evidence of their disability and on disclosure. There is a general consensus that moving from this approach would be a move towards a service that is more equitable and can be accessed by all. Unfortunately, the systems and resources are not in place to move to an approach like this. In the meantime, the service has adapted to work within the current structures and has succeeded in providing a very successful service.