Accessibility and Disability Support

Neurodiversity includes dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and autism, which impacts things like spelling, grammar, reading and processing information, organization & time management skills, and social communication.

If you suspect that you have a specific learning difficulty (Spld), such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia or dyspraxia, or if your diagnostic assessment is more than five years old, you can contact wellbeing@courtauld.ac.uk  for advice about assessment and support.

You might have coped well up to now and its only at university level you start to be aware that you work differently, and some of the strategies you used previously may not work now and you start to struggle.  At this point you can come to us to find out about having an assessment.  You can do this at any time in your degree and we really recommend you ask for help rather than struggling on your own.

If we think you might need an assessment, we would refer you to a partner organization, and the cost of the test would be covered by the Courtauld.  The report it generates gives us recommendations for support and your reasonable adjustments. Having this report means you can easily apply for Disabled Students Allowance.

We can also provide guidance and support on how to get an assessment if you think you may have a mental health condition.

To help make studying more accessible for you if you have a disability, condition or impairment, we arrange ‘reasonable adjustments’, such as extra time, or use of assistive technology to support you. If you received support during your time at school, you can arrange for the support to carry over into university. If you already have a diagnostic report, we can use this to help us decide the adjustments that will best support you.

If you have a condition you will be invited to complete a Summary of Reasonable Adjustments (SoRA) on Evision and upload your evidence.

The SORA is an electronic document that outlines the adjustments that would help you; these maybe standard adjustments such as having materials in advance, or needing additional time to formulate responses in class, but may be more specific to you. Personal tutors can easily access it to find out who has a SORA and what adjustments are needed.

Standard adjustments for all students with a SORA are 7 days extra time for coursework, and 25% extra time for exams. We will then contact you for a further appointment if to discuss further support.

To confirm your adjustments, we will need valid evidence of your condition.

If you have a specific learning difference, you’ll have a diagnostic report, which really helps us to see what you need. You may have ‘access assessment report’, which you got from school or college or even if you had arrangements at a previous university.  If you have lost this, we can discuss what else can be used as evidence.

• For medical conditions, a free print out from the doctor of your condition is fine. For mental health, it may be a letter from a therapist, psychiatrist or doctor.

Students with Specific Learning Differences and or Neurodiverse condition can often benefit from Specialist Study Skills tutoring which offers student-centred, designed around individual academic needs, and complies with the social model of disability.

Specialist study skills can help with:

• Understanding: how you approach challenges, how you learn best, and how you can succeed
• Strategies: techniques to be effective in reading, writing, planning, and all other aspects of study
• Assistive technology: how you can make the most of technology designed to make you an independent and effective student
• Communication: develop the confidence to ask the right questions, stay in touch with people who can help you, and respond when you need to
• Organisation and planning: learn to organize your time well so you have time for studying, writing, and wellbeing
• Support for Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)

Student with long term mental health conditions can often benefit from specialist mental health mentoring. Mental Health Mentors can work with you to help mitigate some of challenges faced when studying with a mental health condition.

Mental Health Mentoring can help with:

• Support with timetabling, goal setting and prioritising workload
• Help achieve the right mindset to reach academic potential
• Fill the gap between counselling & therapeutic support and the academic support provided by tutors
• Improve you experience at university

Specialist Study Skills Tutors and Mental Health Mentors are all professionally qualified and accedited in their various fields, such as counselling and psychotherapy, mental health nursing, clinical psychology, mental health social work etc. The Courtauld work with external agencies to provide  Specialist Study Skills Tutoring and Mental Health Mentoring where needed. This allows us to access a wide range of professionals who can match a student’s specific needs.

DSA is government funding which you can apply for if you have diagnostic evidence of a condition. It is a grant you do not need to pay back if your ability to study is impacted by a mental health condition, disability, chronic illness or learning difference. It can provide equipment such as a laptop and assistive technology, 1:1 support such through mentoring  and funding for travel costs.

The application process can be complicated so we recommend you apply as soon as possible, even if you don’t yet have evidence of your condition. We can support and advise you through this process.

You apply through student finance, which you can see the link to below, along with the medical evidence form.  You will also need section 5 to be completed by the university, so please email Wellbeing and we will send you this.

DSA guidance notes & forms for the year 2022/23

Disabled Students’ Allowance application forms and notes for 2023 to 2024 full-time students – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Medical evidence form 

Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) Disability Evidence Form (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Completed Section 5 form (university declaration)

Please download from the chat or request at wellbeing@courtauld.ac.uk

After you have submitted your DSA1 form, you will receive a DSA1 Letter, which will tell you if you are eligible for DSA or not. If not, it may be that you have not provided sufficient evidence.

DSA have strict rules on what counts as valid evidence. If you have a specific learning disability you would need a report by an accredited assessor, who has had their accreditation updated in the last three years. For physical or mental health, you would need to use the DSA medical evidence form, which can be a complex process – you have to pay for it, and  if the GP doesn’t write it in the correct way, you may need to pay again. If you have any issues with your evidence, please ask Wellbeing and we can advise you.

If you are eligible for DSA, you will receive a list of providers for a needs assessment. It is your responsibility to contact these providers to book an assessment (which DSA pays for). You will then receive a DSA2 letter, explaining what support you need and who will provide it. Again, it is your responsibility to contact the providers.

Applying for DSA takes time and can be confusing, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for help. It is well worth applying for if you have any condition, impairment or disability.  There are also plenty of videos on youtube, including one sent out by UCAS each year, on how to apply.

If you are neurodiverse, or if you have physical or mental health conditions that affect your ability to concentrate or attend a lecture, we have some software that can really make a difference. You may access these through the DSA, and we also have licenses for some of these at the Courtauld.

Our study skills tutor introduces students to this technology, which may be software, apps and equipment that has been designed to address difficulties you encounter. There is also a lot you can use within the programmes we all use such as Word and Powerpoint. There’s also a lot that’s free. The specialist tutor would be able to provide the best advice on what might help you.

For example, you may see students using Audio recording and note taking software for example, Glean in lectures. This helps you make a recording that is easy to navigate afterwards. It also means you can make notes alongside each slide with the audio, too. You might also use the software for planning and research.

Mindmapping software helps to get your ideas down without worrying about sentence structure or spelling, and you can add references and pictures, and then you can copy all this into word to write your essay. For some people this is the main tool they use to write their essay.

Dragon is a dictation software, it’s very sophisticated and you can train it. It can make a huge difference to how you study and how you feel about it.

DSA may provide you with a laptop that is compatible with this software. You would need to pay £200 towards it, but the Courtauld has a fund to reimburse you for this.

For a guide to free software and free trials of paid for software:

Resources | D&A | Diversity and Ability

Through the DSA process if you have a physical or mental health condition, you tend to be allocated a mentor; which is one to one support, emotional support and support for strategies about how to ensure any difficulties you are having, do not impact your work. This may be weekly, fortnightly, monthly, either short-term or for the duration of your  degree, depending on your needs. We also work with a company called UMO who we can refer you to for mentoring, if there are any difficulties with the DSA process, as this can take some time.

Students can enlist the support of our two Royal Literary Fellows, Jane Rogoyska, and Ella Frears. Jane and Ella are both professional writers and offer support to Courtauld students thanks to the Royal Literary Fund’s Fellowship Scheme. The RLF website has a very useful guide to writing essays.

Students can book an appointment to see them by emailing Jane.Rogoyska@rlfeducation.org.uk or Ella.Frears@rlfeducation.org.uk

Please pick one of the fellows to contact rather than contacting both at once, this is because Fellows have independent booking systems.

The Royal Literary Fellows can help you to improve your academic writing skills, reading strategies, and organisation of material. If you would like to improve your style, clarity of argument, if you need help with structure, tone, or simply getting to grips with the writing process, please do get in touch with them. (Note: this is not an editing or proofreading service).

Ideally, they will look at some of your written work in advance and then discuss it with you in person at the meeting. Please state in your email the times you are not available so that they can allocate you a session that fits in with your schedule. It’s best to book well in advance, if possible. If you leave it until the week your essay is due, you may find there are no free slots.

If you find you can’t make the appointment, please email them as soon as possible so that they can use your time for someone else. Students can book one or two tutorials per semester, and sessions are available for any Courtauld student, from BA to PhD.

Every student at The Courtauld is allocated a Personal Tutor for the duration of their studies. If for any reason, you do not feel able to talk to your Personal Tutor, you should speak to the Senior Tutor. If you have any queries about which Tutor you should be contacting, please ask SAS (sas@courtauld.ac.uk) so that we can direct you to the correct member of staff.

• BA students: Your Personal Tutor is allocated at the start of your degree
• Graduate Diploma students: Your Personal Tutor is the Graduate Diploma Coordinator
• Post Graduate Diploma – Conservation of Easel Paintings students: Your Personal Tutor is given to you in your first year
• MA History of Art students: Your Personal Tutor is your course tutor
• MA Curating students: Your Personal Tutor is the Head of Curating
• MPhil/PhD students: Your Personal Tutor is your supervisor. If you prefer not to speak to your supervisor, you can speak to the Head of Research Degrees

The responsibilities of the Personal Tutor include:

(a)       Maintaining regular contact. For BA and Diploma students this means meeting students at the beginning of the first term, and then during the second week of subsequent terms and during office hours or by appointment at the student’s request

(b)       Following up unexplained absences from classes.  Personal Tutors are notified of all your absences.  Two unexplained absences may lead to a formal meeting with your Personal Tutor

(c)       Giving guidance on course selections for future BA2 and BA3 students

(d)       Discussing progress reports submitted by BA course tutors

(e)       Giving guidance on assessment procedures, and advice on improving examination performance

(f)        Signposting you to appropriate advice for personal or medical support. Personal Tutors are not trained to provide financial, medical, or mental health advice, but they should be able to direct you to professionals who can provide this advice

The responsibilities of students include:

• Attending meetings arranged by the Personal Tutor, whether you have matters of your own to raise, and responding to what is discussed
• Informing your course tutors in writing, in advance if you must be absent Please inform Student and Academic Services by emailing seats@courtauld.ac.uk, copying in your class teachers
• Taking the initiative in raising with the Personal Tutor any problems or difficulties affecting your academic work
• Giving the Personal Tutor enough information about course preferences and general academic aims
• Responding promptly to messages from your Personal Tutor

We offer specialist study skills support, which may be with our specialist tutor, or through the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). They work with those of you who are neurodiverse or have a specific learning disability to make studying more accessible for you.

Neurodiversity includes dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and autism, which impacts things like spelling, grammar, reading and processing information, organization & time management skills, and social communication.

You may already have your diagnosis and have had adjustments in other education institutions, or you may who feel you may have a condition and are seeking a diagnosis.

You might have coped well up to now and its only at university level you start to be aware that you work differently, and some of the strategies you used previously may not work now and you start to struggle.  At this point you can come to us to find out about having an assessment.  You can do this at any time in your degree and we really recommend you ask for help rather than struggling on your own.

We will meet with you and if appropriate, we make a referral to a partner organisation who can do the assessment. Firstly we will use  a checklist to decide if there are enough characteristics to justify going on to have a full diagnostic assessment, which is an in-depth process. We would talk to you about the implications this assessment, and would then make the referral and explain that process to you.

The Courtauld pays for this assessment, and the report it generates gives us recommendations for support and your reasonable adjustments. Having this report means you can easily apply for Disabled Students Allowance.

One to one support is available for students who feel they need some additional assistance with academic writing conventions, speaking for presentations, or any other academic skill.

How to book an appointment:

Email our Academic Skills Tutor, Anjali Thakariya (Anjali.Thakariya@courtauld.ac.uk), outlining the course you are studying, assignment details, and what you would like to focus on. You can choose to have your work looked at via email or if the appointment is in person send no more than two pages three days before the appointment.  Please note appointment requests and support via email must be made no less than a week before deadlines. If you have a quick question this can be answered via email at any point in the writing process.

What to expect:

The aim is to help you to improve your academic skills.  If you wish to focus on your written work, you will need to send a sample of your writing.  This should be a maximum of 2 sides of A4. The tutor will be happy to look at your work or discuss any skills issues with you. At the end of the session they will try to summarise the areas in which you can improve future pieces of work.  Please do not expect the tutor to simply correct and proof-read your essay or to improve the subject content.

What you can do before your consultation:

Please check your written work carefully before you come. For example, use your spell-check and grammar-check facilities on Microsoft Word.  If you have lots of careless grammar and spelling mistakes, there will be no time left to discuss more important aspects of your work such as academic conventions, structure and your writing style.  Also, try to identify areas of academic skills or language you have particular problems with, and come with some specific questions if possible.

anjali.thakariya@courtauld.ac.uk

The Courtauld places a strong emphasis on enhancing the student experience by providing a supportive and inclusive learning environment.

To maximise the student experience and promote success, attendance and engagement are considered key.  Lack of engagement with a programme of study allows staff to identify students who require additional support or may be at risk of academic failure or interruption of their studies.

To benefit fully from your programme, you are expected to attend all timetabled activities, including lectures, tutorials, academic skills sessions, Personal Tutor meetings, study trips and language classes at King’s College London.

The Attendance and Engagement Policy is accessible here. It specifies that you should attend all your timetabled activities. If your attendance falls below 80%, you will be contacted by the Wellbeing team to establish how they can offer you support.

Over the coming months we will be introducing an online (app-based) attendance system, SEAtS, which allows you to confirm attendance at teaching activities and to request approval for an authorised absence.  If you cannot attend a lecture due to ill health or other issues, please log on to the SEAtS system to inform us you cannot attend and the reasons for this. SEAtS will automatically inform the relevant staff.

You will be required to download the attendance monitoring app to your phone, and we will show you how to do this during ‘Welcome Week’ or at your course induction sessions. You can also access the SEAtS Student Guide and video from the VLE (to be uploaded shortly).

If you are absent from lectures or other teaching activities then you will be emailed about your non-attendance and asked to meet with either your Personal Tutor or the Wellbeing Manager.

If you have a disability, mental health or long-term medical condition, which may affect your attendance, do let the Wellbeing Manager know at the start of the academic year.

All universities are required by the government to have 10 (ten) contact points, evenly distributed throughout the academic year, to ensure that all students on a Tier 4 visa are both attending and engaged with their programme of study.  The 10 (ten) contact points are a mixture of face-to-face and remote meetings.

Contact points for the purposes of Tier 4 monitoring are:

• Submission of coursework and attendance at examinations
• Attendance at meetings with your Personal Tutor
• Use of the Virtual Learning Environment – Moodle and Library activity
• Attendance at teaching and learning events, such as lectures and seminars