A Learner Adjustment Plan (LAP) is created in in collaboration with:
- You
- Your School
- Our Disability Support and Inclusion Team
Your LAP contains recommendations on how University staff can support you as a disabled student.
It explains what reasonable adjustments we recommend that your School and professional services should put in place to enable you access your course.
The primary goal of the support recommended in the LAP is to remove or reduce any disadvantages you might encounter while studying due to your disability.
Our aim is to create an environment where all students are given an equal opportunity to succeed, independent of their background or disability.
The LAP Process
Arranging a LAP
To arrange a LAP you should follow the below process:
- Register with our Disability and Support Inclusion Team
Your next step depends on whether you have evidence of your disability or conditions. Information about the evidence you should provide is available on our Disability support and inclusion evidence page.
If you have evidence of your disability or condition
Provide your evidence to the Disability Support and Inclusion Team by raising a case through the Student Hub online portal and attach your evidence
Book and appointment with a Disability Practitioner to create your LAP
If you so not have evidence of your disability or condition
- Book an appointment with our Service Coordinator to discuss getting evidence
LAP appointments
At a LAP appointment, you will meet with a Disability Practitioner, either in person or online, to create your LAP together. In the appointment, you will discuss the following:
Self-declaration statement
We do not put your diagnosis onto your LAP. Instead, we encourage you to think about what information you would like to be communicated to the academic teams and support teams. This could be your diagnosis, it could be a list of impacts, or it could be left empty if you do not wish to share any details of your condition.
Reasonable adjustments
We will discuss your disability, condition or neurodivergence and how this impacts your teaching and learning. We will discuss possible reasonable adjustments to support you throughout your course. These could include recommendations for:
- Examinations
- Assessments
- Document and resource accessibility
- Timetabling locations
- Teaching environments
- Placement arrangements
Sign off
Once you have agreed the adjustments, we will ask you to sign off the LAP to show you are happy with the recommendations.
What happens next?
Once your LAP has been created, and you have approved the recommendations, these are communicated, in a report, to the teams who need to action these.
Your academic tutor may contact you to discuss your recommendations. You will also be sent a copy of the LAP so that you know what recommendations have been made.
The support you receive
The recommendations in the LAP report are just that - recommendations.
The Disability Support and Inclusion team is making these recommendations to your School to explain what the School should do to remove or reduce any disadvantage that you may experience as a disabled student.-
While it is expected that School staff will make every effort to put this support in place, there may be occasions where elements of the support may not be possible or may conflict with assessment criteria and/or competencies to be demonstrated.
If this is the case, this will normally be explained to you by the relevant tutor in your School, and they will explore with you other ways of ensuring that you can access your course.
Sometimes, Schools may also have other ways to meet your support requirements. For example, some of the recommendations in your LAP might already be complied with by current good practice for all students in inclusive teaching, learning and assessment methods on your course. Where this is the case, some of the recommendations in your LAP report might not be necessary.
For more information about the recommendations around exams arrangements, deadline extensions and audio recording sessions on your LAP, please visit the Disability Support and Inclusion website.
Your responsibilities
As an independent adult learner, it is very important that you take responsibility for your own learning, and also for helping School staff and other University staff to support you effectively.
You need to be proactive in accessing support and communicating your needs with academic and support staff. It is our experience that support is more effective when all parties take responsibility and work together.
LAP and support needs changes
If you feel that your support package is not working
In the first instance, you should contact your academic tutor to discuss your concerns. After that, if you feel that it is still not working, you should contact the Disability Support and Inclusion team to discuss your concerns.
If your support needs change
During your course, you may be contacted by the Disability Support and Inclusion team to check how your support is going and to ask you whether you feel it would be useful to meet to review your LAP.
However, you do not need to wait for us to contact you. If at any time you feel that your support needs have changed, or your LAP needs to be reviewed, you should contact the Disability Support and Inclusion team to arrange an appointment for this purpose.
Your LAP might also be reviewed at other times. For example, if you are waiting for a Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) Assessment of Needs report, and this was not received at the time of agreeing your LAP, then your LAP might be reviewed once your DSA Assessment of Needs report is available, to make sure you are getting all the support you require.