DS will use a laptop for A level exam due to poor handwriting. Can he also do this at Uni?

[Treylime]

DS in y13 took GCSEs and will take A levels on a laptop at school. He has no SEN just poor handwriting. His school and 6th form assessed his writing and let him use a laptop.
He has 5 offers for Uni (for Geography) and I'm not sure whether he will be able to do the same for his Uni assessments/exams.
Who should he contact to ask about this? The Geography departments?

my son had the same arrangement to use a laptop at school for exams. When he went to university, they asked us to provide a letter from his school confirming that he needed a laptop for exams and he has been able to use his laptop for all exams since.

DS went to Uni in Sep - we just had to get the school to write a letter outlining his requirement of using a laptop
and that was deemed acceptable

Depends on the university. The one I work in has traditional exams in addition to course work for most courses.

There’s a great deal of emphasis these days on a student’s ‘usual way of working’, so if the school can provide evidence, you might find that it is accepted by the university but worth contacting the institution to check their requirements.

Do check with the unis. There was a thread recently where a first year undergrad was denied use of a computer in his exams because the school arrangement wasn’t enough to see him classified as having a disability at his uni (I think it was Oxford, and I know Oxford can be fusty, but I doubt it’s the only one). Better to find out from the uni/prospective unis now so that you/he knows what evidence would suffice.

Yes that was the post that got me thinking about it. He choosing between Birmingham and Southampton. Good idea to contact his school to get copies of paperwork from them. Thanks for all your advice.

DD is a first year in uni and they accepted her existing arrangements and normal ways of working. So they gave her a laptop, agreed rest breaks and extra time and suggested a couple of other additional supports which have helped too.

This was all done by the disabilities service and they chased the sixth form themselves.

Go to the offer holder days and speak to the disability support teams. He wouldnt qualify for exam adjustments where I work with nothing diagnosis wise, we dont accept usual practice at schools.

I also wouldn’t rely on anecdotes of ‘everything’s done on laptops anyway’ - how exams are done can change year to year, module to module.

And with the increased levels of students cheating by using GenAI in unauthorised ways, we are being encouraged to include traditional written exams rather than 100% continuous assessment.

E-mail the unis see what feedback you get before firming . My OH has the same problem to the pint even he cannot understand his own writing when he comes back to it . Not an issue as an adult as everything is done on a pc or laptop or writes lists on his phone , but struggled at school.
its not for want of trying. E-mailing the unis would be my first step .

Geography at Southampton is very good.

His hand writing must be messy for a reason. Ask gp to refer to nhs occupational health he might have hypermobile joints in fingers and if he does nhs will write letter supporting use of computer

Also if you have such a letter or letter from school he can apply through student finance for free computer

He needs to get an assessment through disability services

Yes your son will be allowed to use a laptop at Uni. He will have to show he has a need and a pattern of needing to use a laptop. He can do this as he has previously had permission from exam boards. GCSEs and A levels. You do not need a diagnosis to be given support. If you speak to DSA your son will be treated the same as a person with a disability. My ds is in exactly the same position.

I don't know if it's my thread you're thinking of - I did have a thread about this and my YP is at Oxford, but I don't think I named the university on the thread. However, I have just been through this exact scenario and today found out the use of a laptop has been granted - yay! However, it has been a stressful process, largely because we only enquired just before Christmas when the YP was already there, which you are already not doing so that's good. I would say it is essential to contact the uni as soon as you have firmed or even before as, as shown on my thread, there is huge variation between what universities will accept.

Oxford categorically would not accept use of a laptop at school/college as reason for them to allow it unless Spld were at least suspected - school just giving a laptop because writing was poor and then telling JCQ it was the 'usual way of working,' was absolutely not sufficient. I have had to pay for a private OT report which did not give a diagnosis as such but did identify physical 'markers' or traits that would be impacting on handwriting and this was accepted by the university. The DAS also gave YP a screening test for other conditions which has flagged up possible dyspraxia so YP can now have a free assessment with their ed psych. Poor timing meant I'd already paid £££ for the report but that's on us and YP will see the ed psych as that may be useful in the future if there is a diagnosis. I cannot say strongly enough how important it is to contact the university well before any exams are looming and find out their policy because they do vary and you can't assume anything.

Needing to use a laptop in exams does not qualify you for DSA.

Mine was at Cambridge and they wouldn't accept normal way of working but they did arrange a proper assessment for him which gave him a diagnosis of dyspraxia (no surprise) and ADHD (complete surprise but explained a lot).

Wouldn't get a laptop without a diagnosis at Birmingham I'm afraid, every uni is different so don't rely on folks telling you it will be fine.

I had an old injury in my right hand and deveoped RRI with all the hand writing in my undergraduate degree. I had some physio at the hospital and a letter from my specialist enabled me to negotiate to do all my final exams on a computer in the department. I was just put into a separate room and a tutor popped in every half hour or so. There was a bit of resentment from another student when she found out. She argued that she had been crippled with period pains in her finals. In her position I would have taken a contraceptive to delay my period. You do what you have to do in these situations.

Should add that this was back in the mid 1980s when laptops had not yet been invented and word processors were still a novelty. I was using a word processor at home and was able to borrow one that another graduate student had in the department. This was also long before the Equality Act and the concept of reasonable adjustment. Things have moved on a little since then.

My ds has the same problem due to hypotonia, he does all his university work on his laptop, he is studying
Urban Studies & Planning .

Please speak to the universities at open days and/or contact the disability support service. At the uni where I work (top tier London uni) we would not accept a letter from his school. Students need to be formally assessed by our in house DSA team/specialists for this sort of thing as otherwise everyone would claim they had poor handwriting and get their school to write a letter. If approved it may also likely include other suggestions such as extra time, and a referral to be formally assessed so that any missed needs can be met. If the "standard" exam is paper based then it is likely he will also be in a different room with the other students with adjustments, as keyboards clacking can be distracting for other students. That said, in my department a lot of essay based exams are now BYOD exams (Bring Your Own Device) using a web based platform which the students have training on before their exams take place, as it is something that both students and markers agree makes life "easier" for them, so depending on his module using a laptop could be the default option anyway.

Also, again at the university where I work, if he declared he had a "disability" of any kind on his UCAS form AND accepted a place, that would trigger an email from either exams or the disability team to discuss exam arrangements as these need to be approved asap and certainly with at least 6-8 weeks before an exam period. But obviously if he would reject an offer outright from a uni who would not definitely allow him to use a laptop then this conversation needs to happen before then.

No - unis don’t accept school letter or documentation from JCQ.