Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on disabled students, including on educational outcomes and equality, of proposals to restrict funding for specialist assistive software through Disabled Students’ Allowances in favour of free tools.

Supporting disabled students to access and succeed in higher education is a government priority. Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) provides support to remove disability-related barriers to learning, enabling students to access academic opportunities. DSA-funded support is designed to meet disability-related needs and promote independence in study through appropriate equipment, assistive software and support.

The department’s consultation on assistive software funded through DSA seeks to gather evidence on how best to modernise the support provided, taking into account the significant advances in technology in recent years.

A key purpose of the consultation is to understand the extent to which advances in mainstream functionality can appropriately meet disability-related needs and where specialist software continues to be required. The intention is to ensure provision is appropriately targeted and represents value for money.

The department has not made a final assessment of the adequacy of free-to-access tools as we are seeking evidence of this through the consultation process.