Services for students with disabilities

Prospective students can request individual counselling when choosing a programme or before enrolment. 

Early contact is highly recommended in order to gain a better knowledge of programmes and access conditions.

The service is available throughout the year, excluding the period August-October. You can set an interview with the staff to get:

• all the information required for choosing a programme;
• an overview of disabilities services;
• information on admission procedures and the certificates to be submitted when applying for support and exemptions, as required by law;

To enrol and use disabilities services, you must submit a valid certificate in compliance with applicable regulations (disability and / or handicap certificate pursuant to Law 104/92).

You will upload the certificate when registering for the admission test, specifying the support measures required (e.g. additional time, personal assistance, etc.), as indicated in the call for applications for each degree programme.

Please read the call carefully.

You can ask for:

• Additional time
• Support by a reading tutor during the test
• Non-scientific calculator 
• Personal services

Admission Test a.y. 2020/2021 – Conditional admission for candidates with disabilities having no revised certifications

Regarding the admission procedure for the academic year 2020/2021, candidates must present, within the deadlines set for every test, a valid certification of status of handicap under law 104/92 or of civil invalidity.
Anyway, candidates unable to obtain a revised certificate because of the measures adopted to counter the spread of Covid-19, can be conditionally accepted. Required and updated documents should be delivered in a second moment.
Please, read the admission call carefully in order to know the procedure concerning the delivery of certifications and the support measures can be required.

Students with disabilities who are admitted to a degree programme have to upload their disability certificate again during the online enrolment procedure. After finalising their enrolment, they have to book an appointment for a one-to-one interview, to receive detailed information on how to request and access services.

During the interview, our staff examines the student’s certificate and drafts a customised report summarising the main information included in the certificate, as well as any recommended accommodations and aids that the student may use during exams.

This document is then sent to the student, who must always use it when requesting services and contacting professors. At any time, students may request a monitoring interview to have their report reviewed/amended.

To request accommodations and aids for an exam, you have to write an email to your professor, specifying the accommodations and aids you need and attaching your customised report. Remember to always cc Disability Services when sending this email ([email protected]). You must send your request to the professor at least 15 days before the exam. Please attach any concept maps or lists of formulas you wish to use, as your professor may ask you to amend them or reduce their contents. In any case, we suggest contacting your professor as early as possible, so that you can decide together, right from the start, the contents and structures of any supporting documents that you may use during the exam.

If an exam is divided into multiple tests, we strongly recommend that you apply for accommodations at the beginning of the course.

Your customised report serves as proof of the suitability of the requested accommodations. Therefore, no confirmation from Disability Services is needed.
Please note that if you do not follow the procedure described above, the professor will be entitled to reject your request.

According to each student’s specific situation, recommended accommodations may include the following:

For oral exams: 

• Exam split into multiple sessions (in this case, you should send your request well in advance, possibly at the beginning or during the course).
• Concept maps / lists of formulas. These can be used during the exam if the professor has approved them, so students have to send them via email to the professor at least 15 days before the exam.
• A tutor to assist the student during the exam (this request must first be placed with Disability Services).
• Turning the oral exam into a written test. This request can be accepted only if it is consistent with the certificate submitted by the student, and must first be placed with Disability Services.

For written exams: 

• Additional time (usually +50%)
• Exams split into multiple sessions (as specified above)
• Concept maps / lists of formulas. These can be used during the exam if the professor has approved them, so students have to send them via email to the professor at least 15 days before the exam.
• Non-scientific calculator
• Speech synthesizer / reading tutor
• Possibility to take paper-based exams on a computer (using OneNote, Word or Excel depending on the type of exam).
• Turning the written exam into an oral exam. This request can be accepted only if it is consistent with the certificate submitted by the student, and must first be placed with Disability Services.

Other requests will be assessed by Disability Services on a case-by-case basis. You can send us your request at [email protected].

If you want to book a monitoring interview (to change your customised report, request services etc.) please log into InformaStudenti, click on the box “Appointments“ and then select “Ufficio Servizi per Studenti con disabilità” and “Monitoraggio in itinere - studenti con disabilità” as topic.

Students with disabilities can ask for a tutor who will help them study and analyse highly complex contents.

Tutors are selected by Disability Services through a public call. They may be Master’s degree students, doctoral students, research fellows or experts in the subject. The tutoring service is subject to resource availability and to service staff assessment based on the exam the student has to sit.

There are different forms of tutoring:

• individual tutoring
• group tutoring (by academic field or subject)
• thesis tutoring (bibliographic search and final paper formatting).

Our disabilities services provide mobility solutions to help disabled students reach the university and take part in academic life.

Mobility services include:

• Transport service
• Accompanying service
• Personal autonomy training for the blind and visually impaired

The transport service is provided by the University through minibuses with a driver. It is available upon request for students with severe motor and/or visual disabilities, after assessing the situation of each applicant. The service is provided 3 days a week.

To apply, send an email to [email protected] at least 10 days in advance.

The e-mail must include a draft six-month attendance schedule with the associated transfers.

The accompanying service is for students with severe motor and/or visual disabilities or reduced autonomy in travel and orientation.

It can be requested either to move within university premises, or for short journeys to or from the nearby bus and subway stops.

This service can be scheduled following the welcome interview, after assessing the situation of each student and in line with available resources.  To apply, send an email to [email protected] at least 10 days in advance. 

The office provides psychological counselling services specifically addressed to students with disabilities who are coping with moments of crisis that risk compromising their performance and adaptation to university life.

The service comprises a brief cycle of sessions with a specialized psychological counsellor who can help the student reflect on their issues, acquire greater awareness of the underlying reasons, and develop their personal resources. Here are a few examples of issues typically addressed with the psychological counsellor:

• issues related to certified difficulties (motivation, awareness)
• difficulty adjusting to the university environment
• uncertainty and dissatisfaction with one’s choices
• problems relating to peers and teaching staff
• low self-confidence and self-esteem
• difficulty making decisions and coping with problematic or stressful situations
• problems handling emotions
• exam anxiety, loss of motivation. 

SensusAccess is a self-service solution that allows the conversion of documents and web page into a range of alternative formats. Users can choose different kind of output according to their needs:

• Digital Braille
• Audio file: MP3, audio-books (DAISY format)
• E-books (EPUB, EPUB3 formats)

The service can also be used to remediate otherwise inaccessible documents such as image-only PDF files or scanned images into more accessible formats.
SensusAccess is intended for University of study of Milan students, lecturers and staff. Each user can connect through their academic e-mail.
The interface is user friendly. To have your document converted into an alternative, accessible format, follow the four easy steps below:

1. Upload one or more files
2. Choose the output format
3. Send your request
4. Check your e-mail inbox for the result. In case the resulting documents are too big to be returned as email attachments, they are returned as encoded download links known only to the requesting users.

Documents converted are deleted immediately once each conversion is completed. Resulting files stored temporarily on SensusAccess web server are kept for seven days, after which they are automatically deleted.

Access the service by clicking here: SensusAccess

Then, upload the documents you need to convert and choose the output format according to your necessities.

Terms of use

Use of the SensusAccess service is subject to the following terms and conditions:

1. Users must use the service in accordance with any terms and conditions set out by the University of the study of Milan
2. SensusAccess service must only be used for educational, learning and non-commercial purposes
3. Users are responsible for safekeeping of the material made available which must be used in accordance with copyright legislation
4. Users should not upload any personal and/or sensitive information.

Students with a certified disability equal to or greater than 66% and / or a handicap under Law 104/92 are exempted from university fees, and will only pay € 16 annually.

As such, they will be fully exempted from the second instalment of university fees with no need to submit the ISSE certificate (which is required for other benefits or services subject to family income and wealth).

Students with a disability lower than 66% will pay the first instalment of university fees, while the second instalment will be calculated based on the ISEE certificate. They can apply for a partial exemption from university fees, consisting of a reduction of the second instalment.

Students with a disability higher than 66% are entitled to supplements and subject to different requirements for access to some services for deserving students, such as:

• canteen
• accommodation in university residences and student apartments
• need-based and merit scholarships, as well as regional DSU grants.

Access to the services is regulated by calls for applications, specifying requirements, deadlines and procedures.

• University Guidelines on the right to education of students with disabilities and SLDs – 12 December 2023
• Disability and SLD Guidelines issued by the National Conference of University Delegates for Disability (CNUDD) – 10 July 2014

• Rights, social integration and assistance for the disabled (Law 104/1992 and later modifications) 
• Support measures in favor of people with severe handicaps (Law 162/1998 - modifications to Law 104/1992)
• The right to work for the disabled (Law 68/1999)
• Access for the disabled to IT tools (Law 4/2004 - Legge Stanca).