Accommodation for disabled students

[Piglet6776]

Hi
My daughter is starting uni in September, she has unconditional offers as has grades in hand. We’ve been discussing accommodation with the uni as she has quite specific requirements due to disabilities. Disability team agreed that she would be best off in a studio flat. The difference in cost between a standard room and a studio for the year is £4000. This is no longer covered by Disabled students allowance and I was under the impression that it was covered by the university - this is what I’ve been told at all the open days.
We've now been told that the uni policy is they have an accommodation allowance for disabled students of a £1400 contribution to this extra cost but only if we earn less that £40,000 - which we don’t.
Daughters maintenance loan is just less than £5000 so we knew we’d be paying her living expenses but to have to pay an extra £4000 for her accommodation which the disability team agree she needs due to her disabilities doesn’t seem right at all.
Would be grateful to hear of anyone else’s experience with accommodation costs for disabled students.
Thank you

Year behind you so can be of limited help, but I was also under the impression that the Equality Act means that extra cost for reasonable accommodation adjustments should not be paid by the student regardless of parental income.

Can you name the university (by message if you prefer), so I make sure he doesn’t apply there please.

Sent you a PM

Have you looked at private student accommodation? Can be cheaper than uni ones.

I think the difficulty with reasonable adjustments as mentioned by PP would be whether it’s a requirement or just the better option. For example I have had a student not pay the difference for a studio because it was the only accessible option for their specific wheelchair, but a student with sensory issues did need to because there was also an option for them to have the cheaper option and have adjustments there. Ultimately he preferred the studio and sucked up the cost.

When the additional cost is due to disability the university should not be passing the additional cost on. Here is the DSA practitioners guide stating so (pg77).

I may be waaay out of date cos it is 20 years since I went to uni (and also had disabled student grants etc)

the LEA paid for all my adjustments would this be an option for you to look into?

Being self contained is necessity, the disability team have agreed with that.
We haven’t looked at private as the accommodation team have been really helpful in sorting out the perfect accommodation.

Thank you I’ll have a look