What support is available?

There’s a lot of different support available for disabled students at the University of Sheffield. Together, we’ll ensure you have access to support that works for you.

On

Disability advisers 

All students who access DDSS are allocated a disability adviser who can support you before and during your course. 

Your adviser is your named point of contact for ongoing queries and advice within the service. They’ll put in place academic support for you based on discussions with you about your specific requirements.

You’ll have a lot of control over your support. If you ever want to review or make a change to what’s in place for you, just let us know at disability.info@sheffield.ac.uk. 

Examples of support we can offer

  • A Learning Support Plan to ensure all staff working with you know how to support you.
  • Support with the transition to University, eg tailored one-to-one orientation support to help you get used to the University environment and find your way round.
  • Help with travel from accommodation and with getting around campus.
  • Face to face support to help with managing your studies or to work on literacy skills.
  • Computing equipment and software to facilitate independent study.
  • Support workers to provide notes or assistance in lab sessions.
  • Exam adjustments such as extra time, rest breaks or use of a computer.
  • A social group for autistic students (including those who think they are autistic but have not received a formal diagnosis)
  • Establishing whether you are eligible for additional study-related funding support (eg Disabled Students' Allowances).

Learning Support Plans (LSPs)

A Learning Support Plan (LSP) is the document we share with your academic department(s) to confirm that you are a disabled student and are entitled to support to ensure that you are not disadvantaged during your studies.

Disability Liaison Officers

Each department has a Disability Liaison Officer (DLO), who can help you with any issues.

Find your DLO's contact details

Resources to help you settle in to University

Our Autism and Uni toolkit provides information about university life and suggests strategies to help with challenges you may encounter.

There are ‘AccessAble’ access guides for all of our buildings and facilities, including route guides to assist travel around campus.

University accommodation 

If you have disability-related accommodation requirements (eg you need a wheelchair-accessible or ensuite room), you should mention these in your accommodation application form so they can be taken into account when rooms are allocated.

If you have any questions about accommodation, contact the accommodation team. 

How to apply for accommodation

Personal care support

If you require assistance with day-to-day living and personal care activities such as washing, getting dressed, going to the toilet or cooking, you can apply for Personal Care Support through the Social Services department of your local authority. The University of Sheffield is not able to provide this type of support either in University accommodation or in private housing. 

If you are a UK student

You should contact your local authority Social Services to discuss how to access any care support you will need at University. There are likely to be different options available to you, and these might include recruiting, managing and paying your own carers via a personal independence payment or a third-party support agency overseeing the provision and management of your care. 

Care support can take a long time to set up, so you should ideally apply around a year before the start of your course. The Disability Rights web pages have more information about how to apply for personal care support.

If you are an international student

You won’t be eligible for Social Services funding towards day-to-day living tasks. If you require this kind of support, you will need to be able to fund the cost of this yourself.

Personal care support in the UK can be very expensive. It is important that you research the likely cost of this support well before you arrive in the UK, to ensure that you can afford this. 

If you have minimal support needs (for example you are able to wash and dress yourself but need someone to help with laundry or occasional meal preparation) then you may want to pay a UK care agency only for the few hours they help you each week. The NHS web pages have information on how to find and choose a care agency in the UK.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) provides ratings and reports on the quality of care provided by some agencies.

If you require a larger package of personal and domestic support including multiple visits per day (for example to help you to get out of bed or get washed and dressed in the morning, and to help you to use the toilet), it may be worth investigating if it is cheaper and/or more convenient to have a personal carer with you for most of the day or night. If you think that this level of support is required, you should let us know as far as possible in advance of the start of your course and we can send some information about the agencies we are aware of who provide this support. 

The accessibility of our digital learning tools

You can find information on some of the accessibility features that are in place for the University’s core digital learning tools, and where to find more support with each of these services, on our S&AS web pages.