DSA Customer Survey 2010

Thank you to everyone who completed our annual Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) customer survey form.  We have now collated all the responses we received. You can view the results here along with an outline of the main issues raised and what we are doing to address them.

Applications and Guidance

At the start of next year, we will review our annual DSA literature. Several of you suggested that we could make the application form simpler. Our annual review will focus on improving the application form as much as possible.  We will also review the information we provide on our website for students eligible to apply for DSA.

Needs Assessment

Some of you have indicated that the whole process takes too long and several of you said that you didn't’t receive your equipment until well into your course. To help try and address this, the Scottish Government has established an agreed quality assurance framework, under which assessments can be carried out. We now have 34 colleges, universities and Access Centres who are authorised to carry out needs assessments. Steps are in place to bring more institutions on board, which should further improve the efficiency of the whole DSA process.

You can apply for DSA and arrange an assessment of need with your institution in advance of the start of your course.

Other issues

We will aim to raise wider issues you raised with the Disabled Student Stakeholder Group (DSSG). The DSSG was established to consider and address issues relating to the support available to learners with additional needs in further and higher education. Further details on the group can be found here.

We hope that you find this information useful and thank you once again for your feedback. It is only by understanding what our customers think about our services and the whole DSA process that we can take steps to improve them.