Things have really gone downhill in the way of helping make things accessible for students needing extra support with technology and equipment.

 

There are large allowances that can be used for technology such as read and write, mind mapping and more. However the essentials such as new laptops are rarely funded correctly.

 

Interestingly, going through DSA for a laptop I was offered a laptop which I could buy cheaper elsewhere by quite a bit. It was extremely low spec and would be very slow to run the software. Essentially one of my disability support workers said, it was equivalent to running things on a potato and whilst the assisted tech would just about run it would lead to more frustrations than help.

 

After chatting with a few students, we still can't understand why laptop technology costs more than buying from the actual manufacturers. This is even if you wanted to install all the other study tech on it yourself.

If you search the web there are theories similar to PPE, where money is being filtered through organisations in ways that it shouldn't be.

Once you pay £200 towards the laptop, you might as well wait for Black Friday or similar sales to buy the laptop directly from the manufacturer, as it comes to the same price as the money you will send to DSA.

 

Essentially there is no support for the laptop itself, which in the modern world can be more essential than loads of software tools, as many apps can provide limited freebies for the same assisted technology per month.

 

There are opportunities to upgrade the laptop, but many of these are still not viable. My options we macs, where again it would be cheaper just to buy it from apple, but also my course is unable to run macs. I was asked if I wanted to send a few links to laptops which would work for my course. I sent too which would've run faster than what was offered, although both would be classed as low-end laptops still.

Guess what they quoted I'd have to pay. MORE than what the manufacturer was selling the laptops for before you even considered adding discount codes they advertise throughout their website.

 

For a process that's humiliating and dehumanizing to go through and the amount of proof you have to share with Student Finance, there is a big need for better support.

 

Student Finance needs to be able to support students better. The essentials and basics should not be neglected and ignored, and how giving higher quality items could help students study further as well as reduce costs for the government in the long term.

 

Interestingly I was told if the laptop was too slow and not working correctly I could just keep getting replacements or have it fixed multiple times. This would lead to being more in the long run than a slightly more expensive laptop that would function better and break less.

 

All students with disabilities, from dyslexia, neurodivergent, spinal, autoimmune, genetic, and more deserve technology that functions and supports them to perform at their best not make things harder.

 

With the way things are right now, it feels that disabled students are just being thrown scarps.