Office for People with Disabilities (PwD) 

What are we?

The Office: People with Disabilities (O:PwD) of PsyCaD plays a very important role in the lives of all students with disabilities. It helps students adjust to the demands of academic life in various ways. It also offers many specialised services for such students. The Office operates within the Academic Services Unit of PsyCaD.

This Office is concerned with the academic, technological, psycho-social and psychological support of students with disabilities. It is the aim of the Office to provide equal opportunities for students with disabilities.

The Office facilitates support for students with disabilities through advice, support and academic accommodations in partnership with such students’ university departments and faculties. The purpose is to assist people with disabilities to have barrier-free access to teaching and learning.

In addition, the Office has ongoing programmes for raising awareness among staff and the student population about the needs and supportive assistance of people with disabilities.

The Office is represented in the PsyCaD offices on all four campuses of UJ. 

What do we do? 

Services to students with disabilities include:

• the registration of students with disabilities in order to liaise with their faculties for various concessions;
• the provision and maintenance of assistive technologies for students with disabilities;
• keeping abreast with changes in assistive technologies and to acquire these for the Office: People with Disabilities for use by students;
• the psycho-educational assessments of students applying for test and examination concessions;
• the provision of psycho-therapeutic and counselling support.

Support for visually impaired students

This includes: 

• The provision of campus orientation and mobility training
• Provision of enlargements of study material/tests and exams
• The sourcing of electronic books from publishers
• Editing and formatting text to facilitate the brailing process
• The provision of  braille services when required

Support for students who are physically impaired

This includes:

• Collaborating with faculties to arrange scribes to write tests/exams for students
• Advising students and other stakeholders on accessibility and infrastructure

Support for students who are hearing impaired

• UJ provides the necessary assistive technology designed to amplify audio sound