Disabled Students Allowance (DSA)
All UKRI funded students are eligible to apply for Disabled Students Allowances (DSA), funded by their Research Council, to help with study-related disability costs stemming from a mental health problem, long-term illness or any other disability.
Find more information on disability support at Sussex here, and details of the UKRI DSA framework can be found here.
- What can DSA help cover?
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You can get help with the costs of:
- specialist equipment; such as a computer if you need one because of your disability
- non-medical helpers; such as a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter or specialist note taker
- extra travel to attend your course or placement because of your disability
- other disability-related study support; such as having to print additional copies of documents for proof-reading.
DSA does not cover disability-related costs you’d still be incurring if you were not attending a course, or costs that any student might have.
- Getting an assessment
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The first step to claiming DSA is to contact the Disability Support team at Sussex - disabilitysupport@sussex.ac.uk - who will confirm with us your funding status. We will respond promptly to confirm this, and then the Disability Support team will arrange for you to have a Needs Assessment. The Needs Assessment will identify any specific requirements in response to an additional need. It s designed to remove barriers to accessing your studies and is funding by your UKRI scholarship. The Disability Support team will contact your school team to place necessary orders as identified by the Needs Assessment. We will support this process by providing your School with the budget code to which your DSA expenses can be charged.
- What is eligible for DSA?
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Only items/support recommended by the Needs Assessment can be covered by DSA. As a general rule, if any researcher working on that project would need similar equipment, then it is a Research cost not a DSA cost - for example, a powerful computer that is used for data intensive research is needed because of the nature of the research so cannot be charged to DSA, but software for that computer that is required due to someone’s disability can be charged to DSA.
In some cases you will be asked to contribute to some of the costs – for instance, for a laptop you might be asked to pay the first £200 (but not the rest) and for a taxi fare you may be asked to cover the equivalent cost of public transport for that journey.
We recognise that sometimes, needs change. In such cases, a new assessment is conducted and new support is approved.
If you have any queries about the funding process, contact us pgr-scholarships@sussex.ac.uk