Disability Centre

Our sevice to students with disabilities is dedicated to the implementation of TUT’s mission statement, ‘We empower people’. Disabled students face unique stumbling blocks in a tertiary education environment.  Our service aims at facilitating a process of identifying these stumbling blocks, and to find practical solutions that empower our students to participate to the full extent of their ability.

Our services include:

• Advice on reasonable accommodation with respect to assistance, and extra time for tests and exams.
• Consulting these students and link them to specific services and resources available at TUT.
• Access to specialised computer equipment that make it possible for our students with visual impairments to do their assignments and use the Internet.
• Conversion of study material into electronic or Braille format.
• Facilitating tests and exams (in collaboration with academic departments and the Exam Department) for students with visual impairment who have to use specialised computer equipment.
• Support to lecturers and staff on issues relating to the accommodation of disabled students in their academic programmes.
• Assistance to students via advocacy and appropriate liaison with the relevant departments concerning matters of reasonable accommodation (residence accommodation, transport matters, class accessibility, etc.).

Important information for lecturers on testing procedures:

Some students with visual disabilities need to write their tests on a specialised computer with or without the
added assistance of Braille. Lecturers should make arrangements for the test with the SDS disability coordinator
on campus at least two weeks in advance.