Disability and medical conditions

If you need to bring items into the exam room for medical reasons, eg inhalers, food/drink (other than the permitted 500ml bottle of water), wrist supports, etc, you must seek approval from your department (for short-term conditions) or Disability Services (for disabilities, permanent conditions or conditions that have lasted or are expected to last a year or more).

You will be asked to supply recent medical evidence in support of your need for this arrangement.

There are two main groups of students who need alternative exam arrangements:

• Students with a medically diagnosed disability (as defined by the Equality Act) or other condition (eg dyslexia) as diagnosed by a formal assessment undertaken after the age of 16. If you feel you qualify for this you should book an appointment with Disability.
• Students with a temporary injury, condition or illness eg a broken wrist on the writing hand. You should contact your department in this instance.

Applications for individual arrangements on the basis of a disability or a long term health condition are made via Disability Services. It is your responsibility to book an appointment with a Disability Advisor who will work with you, your department and the Exams Office to formulate a case for appropriate adjustments to be made. You will be required to obtain medical evidence to support your request. 

Disability Services must receive appropriate medical evidence by Friday 1 March 2024 in order to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are in place for the Semester 2 examination period. Therefore, you should book an appointment with Disability Services well in advance of this to ensure they can prepare your case and submit the request to the Exams Office.

Disability Services must receive appropriate medical evidence by the stated deadlines in order to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are in place for the next examination period. You should book an appointment with Disability Services well in advance of this to ensure they can prepare your case and submit the request to the Exams Office.

• View the timeframes for the academic year 2024/5.

If your condition is a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) such as dyslexia you will need an educational psychologists' report undertaken after your 11th birthday. If you do not have this, Disability Services can advise you about arranging a full assessment. As this process can take a long time you should contact Disability Services at your earliest convenience. 

If requests are received with less than six teaching weeks to go before an exam period, it may not be operationally possible to put the arrangements in place. In such cases, you may wish to consider that the following is classed as an exceptional circumstance.

• Disabilities for which reasonable adjustments are not yet in place and where the delay is not due to the student.

Please note that if you wish to make an exceptional circumstances claim you may be asked to evidence why the delay in applying for your adjustments was out of your control (for instance, you attempted to obtain medical evidence in good time, and the delay was with your practitioner). 

You will be required to provide medical evidence outlining your disability or condition, and indicating the ways in which, and the degree to which, the condition affects you. This could be a letter from any medical professional involved in your treatment, eg a doctor, nurse, midwife, psychiatrist etc. We do not accept evidence from the Open Door team or counselling/therapeutic services who are not registered health professionals, from supervisors or tutors, or anyone who is not a medical professional.

The University's specialist Disability Advisers will meet with you to consider your case and review your medical evidence. They will decide with you what arrangements are to be requested. 

The arrangements must not give you an unfair advantage over other candidates. They should not reduce the validity and reliability of the assessment and must not compromise the integrity of the examination.

The nature of the arrangement will be determined according to your particular needs. A diagnosed disability or injury may be experienced differently by different people in the way it affects their completion of academic assessments. The recommendation made will take account of the learning outcomes and assessment aims of the work to be undertaken, so you should not expect the same arrangement to apply in all types of assessment or to be necessarily the same as another student in the University, even if they have the same condition as you.

The Standing Committee on Assessment monitors all arrangements to reduce the chances that the implementation of the arrangements across the University might advantage or disadvantage certain students. For this reason not all recommendations are approved, and some proposed arrangements may be varied. 

You will be advised by the Exams Office by email if your arrangements are approved. 

Arrangements depend on individual need, but may include one or a combination of the following:

• Extra time
• Use of a University PC
• A smaller or individual room
• Use of specialised equipment or furniture eg a height-adjustable chair
• Permission to bring food, drink or medical supplies into the exam
• Adaptations to exam materials, eg question papers printed on coloured paper or with large font
• A reader or scribe
• Exemption from being penalised for spelling or grammar errors 
• Other arrangements can be requested based on individual need

If your condition worsens or your needs change after your Student Support Plan has been put in place you must make a new appointment with Disability Services if you require any additional arrangements to be put in place. It is your responsibility to contact Disability Services, even if you have advised anyone else (eg your departmental administrator or supervisor) of your changing needs. Your Student Support Plan will then be updated if these changes are approved. No new arrangements can be added without going through Disability Services. 

If your condition improves, and you no longer require any or all of your arrangements please speak to your department in the first instance. They can recommend to us that your arrangements be reduced or removed altogether. We would however recommend that you also consult with your Disability Adviser to ensure that you are still receiving any support that you do need. Please note that continuing to utilise an arrangement that is no longer required could be regarded as an attempt to gain an unfair advantage and may be subject to Academic Misconduct procedures.

If you have a permanent condition your arrangements will be put in place for the entirety of your course - you will not need to make further requests for the arrangements to be applied in subsequent exam periods.

Please note that if you transfer to a new course (eg you change from studying for a BA in English to a BA in History) or finish your course and start a new one (eg you did an undergraduate degree and then returned to do a Masters), your arrangements will not automatically be carried over onto your new course. You must reapply via Disability Services so they can ensure the arrangements are appropriate in light of the new course. 

If you have a temporary condition, arrangements will be put in place for the forthcoming exam period only. If you feel the arrangements will need to continue in your next exams, you will need to reapply, producing contemporary evidence showing that the condition is still affecting you. If your temporary condition becomes long-term (ie lasting or expected to last a year or more) you should make an appointment with Disability Services to have a Student Support Plan drawn up. This will ensure you are receiving all the support you need, and that any necessary arrangements can be put in place for the duration of your course. 

If you have arrangements in place and your condition changes so that you no longer need them, please advise your department as soon as you realise this. Please note that continuing to use arrangements that are no longer necessary may be construed as an attempt to gain an unfair advantage and as such may be considered to be attempted academic misconduct. 

Not all exam arrangements will be for a long-term disability. You may experience a temporary or short-term condition such as an injury, pregnancy, recovery from surgery etc.

In such cases, you do not need to see Disability Services. However, medical evidence of your condition (eg a doctor’s letter or hospital discharge note) will be required.

If it is not immediately obvious how your condition will affect your ability to complete your exams under standard conditions (eg an injury to your dominant hand will obviously impact on your ability to write), then the medical evidence must also outline how the condition is affecting you and why the recommended adjustment(s) would be appropriate.

Please take this to your department, who will then submit the request for exam arrangements on your behalf. Such arrangements will be implemented for the current or forthcoming examination period only. If you need the arrangements to continue you will be required to provide updated medical evidence before the next exam period to demonstrate how you are still being affected by the condition. 

If you require permission to take a single small item into an exam with you to access during the exam for medical (or related) purposes, such as an inhaler, an EpiPen or an item of medication, but do not require any other adjustments, you do not need to see Disability Services.

Please take evidence of why you require this (eg a letter from your doctor stating that the item will be required during the exam) to your department who will arrange for permission to be granted for this.

Permission to bring in food or any items that may cause a distraction to other students (eg a blood testing kit if it beeps) will not be granted in this way - the standard process for requesting exam arrangements via Disability Services must be followed if you wish to request such items.

If you have any queries about which items may be allowed, please contact exams@york.ac.uk.

If you feel you need more help in putting forward your request for individual arrangements , please contact:

• Disability Services
• Students’ Union Advice Centre