Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve accessibility to higher education for people with progressive neurological conditions such as Friedreich’s ataxia.

This government is committed to ensuring that all students are supported to both access higher education (HE) and to thrive while they are there. For example, in our recent Skills White Paper we committed to significantly increasing the take-up of the Adjustment Planner. This allows all individuals to go through the support that they think would be right for them and discuss this with the people they are studying with.

It also remains the case that HE providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for all their disabled students.

Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their provider.

In addition to reasonable adjustments, the Disabled Students’ Allowance is available for the provision of more specialist support. For students with progressive neurological conditions, such as Friedreich’s ataxia, this may include assistive technology.