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Student finance has succeeded in reducing me to tears. The disabled students allowance form wasn& #39;t accessible, so someone changed the format for me. They are now refusing to process my application.
It& #39;s still a word document, the questions are the same, all that& #39;s been changed are some formatting things so I can fill it in with my screenreader. I can& #39;t get any support as a disabled student without this.
This is a service delivered by the Student Loans Company and ultimately controlled by the government. They are failing us at every possible opportunity and I don& #39;t know how to keep fighting.
I have offered them solution after solution, taking my own time to try and find a way to make this accessible. But they won& #39;t work with me at all unless I can physically write by hand or work with an inaccessible document.
With every day that passes I am a day closer to starting university. I still have to go to a needs assessment, have the assessor make equipment recommendations, get those approved and then ordered. The longer this drags on the more likely I am to start without support.
I& #39;ve done my best to work with a process that refuses to acknowledge my access needs. I& #39;ve advocated, made requests and been resourceful, but it isn& #39;t enough. I& #39;ve done all the things we& #39;re told will help.
And this happened after I submitted an official complaint and also attended a meeting with SLC and a big blindness org in which they made lots of noise about really caring about being accessible. People wonder why when they say this I don& #39;t believe them until I see proof.
