Studying with a disability
Students and doctoral students with disabilities can receive support and adaptations during their studies, known as learning support. This page explains the types of support available and how to apply.
Shortcuts to page content:
- Coming to Sweden and Lund University with a disability
- Who can apply for learning support?
- Requirements for support
- How to apply for learning support
- Types of learning support
- Other types of study support
- Housing, personal assistance and transport
Coming to Sweden and Lund University with a disability
Sweden has a national disability policy to ensure equal opportunities for everybody. If you have any kind of disability and are coming to Sweden and Lund University to study, it is important for you to know how the country and the University can accommodate you. You will also want to find out exactly which types of support are available. Keep in mind that processes and services may differ from what you are used to from your home country.
Studying in Sweden when you have a disability – studyinsweden.se
Below, you can learn more about the various forms of learning support available at Lund University and how to apply for support.
Who can apply for learning support?
In order to receive learning support, the student must have a long-term disability. A disability is long-term if it lasts or has lasted for at least six months.
Examples of long-term disabilities include
- hearing or visual impairment
- literacy difficulties or dyslexia
- neuropsychiatric disabilities (NPD), such as ADHD or autism
- mental health problems, such as depression or anxiety
- mobility impairment
- chronic diseases.
You cannot receive targeted learning support for temporary injuries or illnesses. If you need temporary support, you should contact your department instead.
If you have a visual or hearing impairment
If you have a visual or hearing impairment, you need to contact Disability Support Services well in advance. Feel free to get in touch as soon as you apply to the University. This is necessary to enable any support to be in place by the start of the semester. Please contact the accessibility officer for your faculty. If you do not know which faculty you will be studying at, you can contact any of the accessibility officers.
Requirements for support
In order to receive support, you must have a certificate stating that your disability is long-term or permanent, and/or documentation from your home university. We ask that you get in touch with the relevant accessibility officer at Lund University when you apply for a programme/course (see link to contact details on this page). In that way, we can provide you with the best and most complete information possible and prepare the support you need.
If you intend to come to Lund University on an exchange programme, you and your coordinator at your home university need to contact us when you apply for exchange.
If you intend to come to Lund as a degree student or freemover, we do not need to have any contact with your previous university. You should contact us yourself to let us know that you are planning to study at Lund University. We ask you to apply for learning support when you apply to Lund University.
How to apply for learning support
Once you have been admitted, you can apply for learning support via the system Nais. To do this, log in to the Nais system via the link below and complete your application in the online form. With your application, you are to upload:
- a certificate confirming that you have a long-term disability and describing your study situation, or
- a document from your former university stating that you have received learning support.
The certificate must be issued by an external expert, for example, a doctor, psychologist, speech therapist or equivalent.
You are always welcome to book an appointment with an accessibility officer if you have questions about your application.
When Disability Support Services receives your application via Nais, the staff will contact you. You will then either be invited to a meeting with one of our accessibility officers, or you will receive your decision on support directly. It sets out the decision and recommendations. You will need to show this to be granted adaptations to teaching and assessment.
If you have applied for targeted learning support and received a decision from Lund University, you can find your decision in Nais.
Types of learning support
If you have a long-term disability, there are various forms of support available. Together with your accessibility officer at Disability Support Services, you will discuss which form of support best suits your study needs. Ultimately, it is your accessibility officer or examiner who decides what support you receive.
If you have a disability, you may obtain a recommendation for adjustments to the assessment, such as allowing more time for the exam. However, it is always your examiner who has the final say. Sometimes the assessment needs to be designed in a certain way for you to achieve the course learning outcomes, so adapted assessment may not always be possible.
If the examiner agrees to adapt the assessment, you must notify the study counsellor (or other contact person) at your department that you intend to complete the assessment. Do this no later than two to three weeks before each assessment. Your approval decision on support will specify what applies in your department.
Receiving note-taking support means that a fellow student shares their notes with you after each lecture. The notes are usually shared via the Student Portal and sent directly to your email. As the recipient of the notes, you remain anonymous.
You can recommend a fellow student who you think is good at taking notes to become a note taker, but there is no guarantee that this person will be the one who gets the job. You can also get help from Disability Support Services to find someone. Note-taking support is paid for by Disability Support Services.
A mentor is a student with experience of studying successfully at university. Your mentor can help you to plan and organise your studies.
You can ask a fellow student who you think would be a good mentor, but this person will not necessarily get the job. Disability Support Services can also help you to find someone. Mentor support is paid for by Disability Support Services.
An Echo SmartPen is available for you to borrow and record lectures with. It is a special pen that can be used to make notes while recording the lecture at the same time.
Tutoring in study technique means that the education officer at Disability Support Services helps you to identify and improve your study technique.
Other types of study support
You can also take advantage of other types of support available at the University, which are accessible to all students.
The Academic Support Centre
If you need advice and help with your academic writing, you can contact the Academic Support Centre. You can ask questions about any type of assignment.
For example, you can get help if
- you have trouble getting started with your writing
- your text is difficult to work with
- you failed an exam or you are taking a resit.
LU Libraries
Your subject library can provide help with information searches and finding the right literature.
Contact persons at the libraries can be found on the libraries’ website
Spellchecker software for your computer
You can also install StavaRex and SpellRight spellchecker software on your computer.
Talking books
Many required reading texts are available as talking book recordings. Your library provides you with a downloading account for Legimus, so that you can download the literature you need. You do not need to have a certificate to get a download account, although you are to consider yourself to have a reading difficulty.
About recorded talking books in the Legimus database on the Lund University Libraries website
Your subject library has one or more contact persons to help you. Literature that is not already available can be ordered from your contact person. Remember that it can take two to three months to produce a talking book.
Contact persons at the libraries can be found on the libraries’ website
TorTalk speech synthesis
You can use the TorTalk speech synthesiser to listen to any digital text, such as web pages, e-books and articles. You can install the program on your own computer. It is also available on many of the University's computers.
Housing, personal assistance and transport
Unfortunately, we are not able to help you find adapted accommodation. If you have special accommodation requirements, please contact AF Bostäder. They manage a small number of adapted residences for people with disabilities in Lund.
More about adapted accommodation on the AF Bostäder website
The University cannot offer help with arranging personal assistance either. This also applies to the time you will spend on campus. In order to receive personal assistance from the municipality, you must have a Swedish personal identity number. You can apply for this number with the Swedish Tax Agency ('Skatteverket') if your studies will last longer than 12 months.
For more information about personal assistance, please contact the City of Lund and ask about 'LSS' ('The Swedish Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments').
In order to gain access to transport services to and from campus, and in your free time, a Swedish personal identity number is also a requirement. For more information, please contact the City of Lund and ask about 'community transport' ('färdtjänst').
Requirements for a Swedish personal identity number and how to apply – skatteverket.se
City of Lund website (in Swedish, choose 'Languages' for English)
Contact information
Disability Support Services
Contact details to our accessibility officers
The easiest way to get in touch is by email.
Visiting address
Genetikhuset
Sölvegatan 29 B, Lund
Join study sessions with other students
Disability Support Services and the Academic Support Centre offers study sessions every Tuesday for those who find studying to be challenging.
At Genetikhuset in Lund you will get a workplace, a community and the opportunity to seek advice from our language and study consultants.