… by Harry / from Dalgety Bay / BSc Mathematics / 1st Year (UG)
As anyone who has dyslexia knows, the special circumstances given to you for having a learning disability is crucial for both the exams you sit and your overall learning. If you are like me, one of my biggest worries in coming to university was losing the special circumstances I get as I would not be able to finish any exam without them. Thankfully the University has an extremely simple system in order for you to obtain the support you need for your studies.
The first thing I noticed was that during Welcome Week, the Student Disability Services emailed me to make an appointment to discuss my learning disability, and the help I currently receive for it. They asked for my assessment report (the test you do to show you have dyslexia). If you have been recently diagnosed (after your 16th birthday) with dyslexia by a trained psychologist or Specialist Teacher then all you need to do is give the staff member a copy of your assessment report and you’re done! I was diagnosed earlier in life, so I had to email my assessment report, and take another assessment.
Don’t panic! This sounded much more frightening that it actually was, and all this assessment did was prove what I already knew; that I have dyslexia. It took less than an hour from the moment I walked in the door and then that was me done. Processing the assessment may take some time, mine personally took a couple weeks, so don’t worry about hearing about your results straight away. Once the assessment has been processed I received an email containing the results. This is important to keep a hold of as you will be able to use this as proof of your dyslexia for roughly the next three years.
I also received a second email informing me of another appointment with the Student Disability Services. The student disability services are normally quite flexible with times and dates so if you cannot attend a specific appointment, don’t worry! Simply email them back with times and dates that you can attend. This appointment was again nothing to worry about, and we just went over the results of the assessment together. However, it was very important as this was where I discussed what support I currently received and crucially what new support I may need in order to help with university.
My advice would be, don’t worry about asking for something you currently don’t have. If you truly think it will help with your studies the Student Disability Service will try to make it possible, within reason of course!
Once you’ve finished that appointment, you are able to see all the support granted to you on one of the University’s websites, EUCLID. This blog may make it seem like a long process but in reality you only do about one hour of talking and less than an hour of work, which I believe is worth it for the incredible support you get here.