Learner Adjustment Plans

To arrange a LAP, you will follow the below process:

• Step 1: Register with our Disability Support and Inclusion Service.

Your next step depends on whether you have evidence of your disability or conditions. Information about the evidence you should provide is available on our Disability support and inclusion evidence page.

If you have evidence of your disability or condition

• Step 2: Provide your evidence to the Disability Support and Inclusion team by emailing disabilityadvice@yorksj.ac.uk.
• Step 3: Book an appointment with a Disability Practitioner to create your LAP.

If you do not have evidence of your disability or condition

• Step 2: If you do not yet have evidence of your disability or condition, you can book an appointment with our Service Coordinator to discuss getting evidence.

At a LAP appointment, you will meet with a Disability Practitioner either in person or online to create your LAP together. In the appointment you will discuss the following: 

Self-declaration statement

We do not put your diagnosis onto your LAP. Instead we encourage you to think about what information you would like to be communicated to the academic teams and support teams. This could be your diagnosis, it could be a list of impacts, or it could be empty if you don't wish to share any details of your condition.

Reasonable adjustments

We will discuss your disability, condition or neurodivergence and how this impacts your teaching and learning. We will discuss possible reasonable adjustments to support you throughout your course. These could include recommendations for:

• Examinations
• Assessments
• Document and resource accessibility
• Timetabling locations
• Teaching environment
• Placement arrangements

Sign off

Once you have agreed the adjustments, we will ask you to sign off the LAP to show you are happy with the recommendations.

Once your LAP has been created and you have approved the recommendations, these are communicated to the teams who need to action these, in a report.

Your academic tutor may contact you to discuss your recommendations. You will also be sent a copy of the LAP so you know what recommendations have been made.

The recommendations in the LAP report are just that – recommendations.

The Disability Support and Inclusion team is making these recommendations to your School to explain what the School should do to remove or reduce any disadvantage that you may experience as a disabled student. While it is expected that School staff will make every effort to put this support in place, there may be occasions where elements of the support may not be possible or may conflict with assessment criteria and/or competencies to be demonstrated.

If this is the case, this will normally be explained to you by the relevant tutor in your School, and they will explore with you other ways of ensuring that you can access your course.

Sometimes, Schools may also have other ways to meet your support requirements. For example, some of the recommendations in your LAP might already be complied with by current good practice for all students in inclusive teaching, learning and assessment methods on your programme. Where this is the case, some of the recommendations in your LAP report might not be necessary.

If examination adjustments have been recommended in your LAP, the Disability Support and Inclusion team will communicate these to the Assessment team on your behalf. If reasonable adjustments have been approved, you will be able to view these on your personalised timetable on e:Vision.

More information about examinations adjustments, including the deadlines the Assessment team need to receive these by can be found on the Exam arrangements page.

Deadline extensions can be useful in the short term, however, using extensions for every assignment can take time from the next module, causing a backlog of work which can impact on progression through the course. Where possible, students with a LAP are encouraged to complete their work within the standard timeframes.

However, the University recognises that disabilities can impact a student's ability to manage their studies and submit their work within a timeframe which adequately demonstrates their knowledge and ability. Through the LAP, students may be granted a deadline extension to their assessments.

LAP deadline extensions are generally applicable for written assessments. They are not suitable for the following types of assessment:

• School and central examinations
• Practical examinations
• Timed assessments longer than 24 hours
• Clinical assessments
• Live presentations
• Vivas
• Group work

If deadline extensions have been recommended in your LAP, these will be communicated to the Programme Administration and Support Service (PASS) team, who will apply these to relevant assessments on Moodle. You will be notified by the PASS team if there is a reason these cannot be applied to a written assignment, or if you need a different length extension than the one recommended in your LAP (due to it clashing with another course activity).

You will be able to view your adjusted assignment submission dates on e:Vision and will be given access to the submission link on Moodle. A separate submission link will be visible alongside the original submission link, allowing you to submit your work to either the original submission link if you don't wish to use your extension, or the extended submission link if you do. Information on how to submit your assessments to Moodle can be found on the Exams and assessment page.  

We strongly recommend meeting with your tutor once you have your assessment schedule, to discuss how to best use your additional time and to space out your assessments when necessary. The Study Development team can also support you to further develop study strategies around managing multiple deadlines and commitments. You can find out more information about this service on the Study Development webpage.

Please note that LAP deadline extensions apply to first attempts only. Extensions on assessment resits may be applied upon request to the PASS team, once your resit has been confirmed. This is dependent on assessment period deadlines. We would recommend discussing this with the PASS team and your module tutor.

Recording taught sessions is considered a reasonable adjustment in situations where other students are expected to make written notes. It is important to remember that audio recording is to substitute and support your note-taking, therefore there are likely times that it is not suitable for any students to make notes of any kind, such as classes that involve a great deal of self-disclosure, personal reflection, or confidential discussions from students or presenters as part of the class.

In these instances, the lecturer should make a general announcement to the class and ask all students to stop note-taking in addition to turning off any recording devices.

You are encouraged to approach the lecturer, out of courtesy, and ask permission to record a lecture. 

Use of audio recording is subject to the following conditions: 

• Recordings of class lectures are only for your personal use in study and preparation related to the class.
• You may not share these recordings with any other person, whether or not that person is in your class. The only exception to this would be for transcription purposes in connection with your disability.
• You may not post the recordings on external websites, including social media networks.
• You agree to destroy any recordings that were made when they are no longer needed for your academic work.

Any misuse of recordings will result in action under the University disciplinary procedures.

You have a responsibility to attend all scheduled learning sessions. Asking someone else to record a lecture is not a substitute for attendance at and engagement with teaching sessions.