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Dear Student,

DBS aims to provide appropriate advice, support and information to help all our students with any disabilities. If you are a student with any medical or learning disability , you may be entitled to extra support and will need to register with the Disability and Inclusion Officer to ensure that reasonable accommodations are in place for you during exams and assessments .

Please contact our Disabilities and Inclusion officer, visit the Helpdesk Portal (via the Helpdesk tile on students.dbs.ie/dashboard)

Category of Disability supports

  • Autistic Spectrum Disorder

  • Attention Deficit Disorder

  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

  • Blind/vision impaired

  • Deaf/hard of hearing

  • Developmental co-ordination disorder (dyspraxia/dysgraphia)

  • Mental health conditions (for example bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, clinical depression, severe anxiety, severe phobias, OCD, severe eating disorders and psychosis)

  • Neurological condition

  • Significant ongoing illness

  • Physical/mobility

  • Specific learning difficulties (dyslexia or dyscalculia)

  • Speech and Language Communication Disorder

Types of extra accommodations available for exams and tests

  • Extra time in exams

  • Extra time for in-class tests

  • Separate room for exams and in-class tests

  • Spelling and Grammar waiver

  • Use of scribe

  • Use of a reader

  • Use of a PC

  • Extended library loans


How to access these supports

Students with disabilities register with the Disability Service, usually upon enrolment, but this can also be done at any point during their education. Every student with a disability has different needs. During your first meeting with the Disability Officer a Needs Assessment is carried out.

These Needs Assessments determine the level of support that students require.


The following areas are addressed:

  1. Nature of disability or condition, to include: impact on education, severity, hospital admissions etc.

  2. Treatment: any medication they are taking, outpatients’ appointments, such as physiotherapy. 

  3. Previous support: what arrangements were made at secondary school, if any.

  4. Current difficulties: what difficulties does the student anticipate they may have with their course.

  5. Access to equipment and IT facilities.

All student information is treated as private and confidential

Students with disabilities must provide appropriate supporting documentation from an accepted Medical Consultant or Specialist

Assistive technology support for all students

AHEAD has compiled all assistive technologies in the AT HIVE link below. There are some brilliant resources on note-taking, reading & writing as well as demonstrations on the supports in Microsoft, Apple and Google.