Disability support

The RCA is committed to celebrating diversity and supporting and helping all of its students to reach their full potential. Comprehensive support exists for students with disabilities, and we encourage disabled students who will be studying or are studying at the College to contact us at the earliest opportunity to discuss their requirements.

The Disability Advisors can offer confidential advice to enable you to make informed decisions about support options that might assist you during your time at the RCA. When we refer to the term disability we also include long-term medical conditions (e.g. diabetes, Asthma, HIV), mental health conditions (e.g. depression, anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders) and specific learning difficulties (dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD).

The Study Skills Tutor can provide academic support for students with Specific Learning Differences (e.g. Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD). This includes: screening tests; strategy workshop sessions; individual tutorials; study skills and time management.

The Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) is funded by Student Finance England to UK (and some EU) postgraduate students who can show that they have a disability (e.g. medical condition, Mental Health Condition, Specific Learning Difference, etc.). If you are unsure whether your disability qualifies for the DSA, please ask the Student Success team.

Under the the Equality Act (2010), a person is considered disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial (more than minor or trivial) and long-term (lasting or likely to last 12 months or more) adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

You are encouraged to share a disability as soon as possible, preferably before you start your programme, so that we can understand any difficulties and work with you to explore suitable support strategies.

What counts as a disability?

The Student Success team can assist with access to study for students who have, for example:

• a long-term mental health condition such as anxiety, depression or an eating disorder
• a sensory Condition (e.g. vision/hearing loss)
• a social communication Condition (e.g. autism) a mobility difficulty
• a specific learning difference such as dyslexia or dyspraxia

Should I share my disability?

The main reason for letting the College know about your disability is to allow for adjustments to be made and support to be put in place to ensure that you can fully participate in your course and life at the RCA.

If we have accurate data on how many students have a disability we can use this to make sure that adequate resources are designated to disability support.

How to inform the College of a disability

As part of pre-enrollment, you will be invited to complete a simple Disability Sharing Form. As part of the form we will ask you to complete a consent form so that we can inform your course team of any adjustment you may require. You can complete the Disability Sharing Form at any point in your degree to inform the College of your disability. A member of the team will email you within 15 working days to schedule a meeting to discuss support.

What happens once I have completed the Disability Sharing form?

One of the Disability Advisors will be in touch within 15 working days to offer an appointment. During the appointment you can tell us more about how the condition affects you and we will discuss support we can put in place for you. Any information that you share with the College about a disability will be treated as confidential. The information will be recorded on your student record and will be only passed to your department with your consent.

What is an inclusion plan?

An inclusion plan is a formal support document that details the reasonable adjustments the College can make to support you. It is created with your consent to share necessary information with relevant staff who will implement your support.

Each plan is tailored and individual, as adjustments may vary depending on a student's specific needs.

It is a working document and it can be reviewed at any time in your course by your Disability Advisor if your needs change.

What is a reasonable adjustment?

A reasonable adjustment is a change made by the College to remove or reduce a barrier faced by a disabled person. Examples of adjustments include: one week’s extension, permission to record lectures, receiving class material 24 hours in advance.

An adjustment must effectively address disadvantage, be practical and economical to implement, and not cause undue disruption. Reasonable adjustments do not constitute preferential treatment and will not affect the integrity of your course and degree.

Please note that adjustments that you received at another university might not be possible or appropriate at the RCA and vice versa.

How will the inclusion plan be shared?

After you have met with a Disability Advisor, they will send you your inclusion plan to check that you are happy with it. Changes can be made at this point if needed. The Disability Advisor will then share the inclusion plan with your Head of Programme, Course Administrator, and other key members of staff across the College (e.g. Library manager, Technical Services manager, etc.) depending on the nature of your condition. Your Course Administrator is responsible for sharing it with tutors who play a role in your teaching and learning.

You do not have to give consent for an inclusion plan to be shared with your department, but please be aware that we will not be able to put support in place without this plan.

Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs) are a group of learning differences affecting how information is learned and processed.

They can impact a wide range of skills, including literacy, information processing, numeracy, coordination and organisation.

SpLDs are often hidden, can co-occur with other difficulties, and appear across all ability levels with varying degrees of severity.

Common examples include Dyslexia, Dyspraxia (DCD), Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD).

The SpLD support service at the RCA is committed to enabling students to achieve their full potential while at the College.

The SpLD Support service offers:

• advice on SpLD academic-related issues.
• individual screening tests for SpLDs and assessment referral (only when appropriate and eligible).
• academic support.
• strategies workshop sessions.
• support for organisational and time management skills.
• individual tutorial help with dissertations, study skills, time management, and presentation techniques.

Materials about SpLDs

Books and videos about SpLDs are located inside the library.

One-to-One Library Tours

You can book an additional induction session to help you find your way around the Library. Students can ask for more information at the library reception desk or visit the Library Moodle page.

Extra Equipment

There are coloured overlays and a magnifying glass kept by the desk. If you want to use these, ask at the Library.

Contacts

Rosey Briggs-McCracken Study Skills Tutor
[email protected]

For any further information please contact the Disability Advisor:
[email protected]

The Royal College of Art has worked with AccessAble to create Detailed Access Guides to teaching, meeting spaces and routes across its Kensington, Battersea, and White City campuses.

The Guides include facts, figures, and photographs to help students, visitors and staff plan their journey to and around the College, covering everything from parking facilities and assistive listening, to walking distances and accessible toilets.

You can find Detailed Access Guides for each RCA campus on the AccessAble website.

Support is available if you are experiencing any challenges with your mental health and have a range of services. We have Mental Health Advisors who can offer support for immediate and significant issues, or plan ongoing support if needed during your studies. They can also help you navigate external support with your GP and NHS services if needed.

The College offers a short-term counselling service. The service is free and confidential. To book an appointment, please email the team at [email protected].

24/7 Counselling and Advice through Spectrum.Life

Current in-session RCA students can access a free, confidential service that provides emotional and practical support for concerns big or small via Spectrum.Life. You have unlimited access to a telephone helpline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Once you can access our learning platform, Moodle, you can view the Student Support’s Confidentiality and Information Sharing Policy.

A range of support is available from Technical Services, depending on your needs and the work you are looking to produce. We have over 40 workshops across the three campuses, so it’s important for us to know which spaces you will be using, so we can best identify any additional support which would be useful.

We encourage students to share their inclusion plan with any Technical Services staff they think should have access to it. Once you are enrolled, the Technical Services team will be able to discuss the support you may need. For more information on how students with an inclusion plan can be supported in the workshop, see here once you are enrolled: Inclusion Plan Support in Workshops.

Students with an Inclusion Plan can access tailored library support, including a designated librarian, personal inductions, and search assistance. Services include accessible reading formats, book retrieval, an increased 10-book reservation limit, postal returns, and equipment for use in the library, like adjustable furniture and reading magnifiers. For further information please see here: Additional support services from the Library

All students are required to complete the orientation modules once they are enrolled. A number of these Modules will help with navigating Moodle (the RCA student VLE).

The Brickfield File Conversion allows students to convert content created within Moodle by academic and professional teams, such as Pages and Books, into accessible formats such as MP3 narrations, large-format or tagged PDFs and Braille.

While animals and pets are not allowed on campus, the RCA is committed to facilitating the inclusion of students that may need an assistance dog to carry out day-to-day tasks.

A comprehensive policy is in place to clarify the specific situations in which an assistance dog may be allowed on campus, the process to request access for an assistance dog, and the responsibilities of the dog owner when bringing in the assistance dog.

Please get in touch with [email protected] for further information.

For students with a diagnosed long-term health condition, where symptoms can fluctuate in nature and severity, a streamlined EC process should be adopted. This can be applied to situations in which additional time is required beyond the Inclusion Plan extension due to a flare-up of the pre-existing fluctuating condition. This process would remove the need for students to repeatedly re-submit evidence where they have already informed us of their chronic condition and have an Inclusion Plan detailing the effects it can have on them.