I would like the universe to STOP SUCKING now, thank you.

[baratron]

Dear Miss Helen [0] $My_lastname,

Thank you for your recent application for the Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) to assist you with your graduate Diploma in Chemistry.

It would appear from your doctor's letter that your condition [1] is stable with medication [2]. Furthermore, physiotherapy if necessary, is available through the National Health Service with your doctor's referral [3] and asthma and allergies are very common in everyday life [4]. Therefore, it is not clear what you are hoping to get with the Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) [5].

Please be aware that DSAs are not intended to assist with disability-related expenditure which the student would continue to incur if s/he were not attending her/his course.

Yours sincerely
[elided]
Student Support Manager

[0] There is no person of that name in this house.
[1] Note the singular. Apparently I only have one thing wrong with me?
[2] Or rather, my mental health was stable before I incurred the stress of going back to university. Since then I have done rather more crying in the toilets/in people at college's offices than I would like.
[3] WTF? Physiotherapy? This makes NO SENSE. I have a congenital spinal malformation, the best physiotherapy can do is stop it getting worse.
[4] And even more common in a chemistry lab full of allergens.
[5] Oh, you know, things like:
* A specialist mental health counsellor/mentor to help with my academic study organisation and stress levels.
* A personal assistant to help me in the library and to carry heavy books to and from college for me.
* Additional photocopying expenses needed due to difficulty in handling heavy books.
* A decent back-supporting chair and desk - as the type of chair you need for hours of study is not the same as a comfortable chair for sitting in at home.
* Occasional taxi fares, for when I am too exhausted to manage public transport yet well enough to concentrate on the lecture.
* Additional photocopying expenses needed due to the fact I will miss more lectures than the average person because of illness, and will need to make copies of other people's notes.
...and I haven't even started thinking yet.

What the hell are these morons on?

Yes, I am going to set the college Disability Services Manager on the council (I've spoken to him already), and he is going to KICK RIGHTEOUS ARSE. Nonetheless, I Do Not Need This. Not on top of being sick and stressed and behind with my course. I just don't.

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is that the DSA form itself sucks. You are expected just to list your ailments by title, and write nothing about how they affect your day-to-day life or ability to study. If the council gatekeeper has never heard of one of my diagnoses (VERY probable), would s/he think to telephone my doctor and ask for more information? No, it simply gets ignored.

The idea behind this is that it's up to an access centre to determine what support you need, rather than for you to say what you want. It may be that the best support for you is something you hadn't thought of. Nonetheless, a person with my diagnoses should get DSA more-or-less automatically. Having bipolar disorder ALONE is enough to get it, without a bunch of mobility issues. Grah!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Right, so it's "unclear" what would help you because they never let you tell them. I suspected as much. Jerks.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Yup. The point of the council gatekeeper is to look at the form, say "Oh, there are several serious diagnoses there that meet the Government criteria", read the doctor's letter to confirm that I genuinely have them, then rubberstamp the application and send me to an access centre, who will decide what I need/how much money I need. It's not for me, the college or the local council to decide how much money I need, that is left to a professional access centre whose only function is to allocate central Government resources for students with disabilities.

It's not even the local council's money! It's central Government money which does not come out of the council's budget at all! The councils are just there to spread out/speed up the allocation of funding to students living in their area. Grah.