Information about a disability, physical or mental health issues or specific learning difficulties is considered to be personal sensitive information and is protected by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) and the Data Protection Act. Therefore this information cannot be passed onto others without your permission.

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students are required to disclose a disability, or medical condition within the guidelines for ‘Fitness to Teach’ regulations. Students on other courses are not obliged to let us know if you have additional needs but we encourage you to inform us, so that we can put appropriate adjustments and arrangements in place to enable you to fully participate in your course and University life. We encourage you to disclose as early as possible, for example on your UCAS ITT application form, at induction, or at any other time during your course.

When you disclose to us the Inclusion Coordinator (Disability) or Mental Health Adviser,  will contact you and ask you to sign a ‘disclosure’ form (see disclosure form below) confirming your agreement to share relevant information with staff who need to know, in order to provide you with the necessary assistance. This will normally include your lecturers, the library (in the case of eligibility for extended library loans), exams and assessments. and the Partnership Coordinator, in case of teacher training students. If you need any arrangements to be put in place for you on a work placement or school experience placement, we encourage you to disclose to them, so that they can assist you in making the necessary arrangements.

If you do not wish anyone to know about your disability, health condition or specific learning difficulty outside of student support, you can decline permission for this information to be disclosed to other people, but if you do so you should understand that this may restrict the assistance that can be provided.

Partly adapted from information by SKILL, National Bureau for Students with Disabilities.