Services for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD)
To ensure equal rights, education, and social integration within the university community, the University of Milan provides support services to students with specific learning disabilities.
Support services are granted for the entire duration of the student's academic career, including guidance, programme choice, admission tests and enrolment, up to graduation. We provide a range of customized services to be agreed upon request.
In the Laboratory Classroom of the Learning Disabilities Service, on via Festa del Perdono 3, computerized workstations are available upon reservation, with vocal synthesizers, printers, scanners, both for study and administration purposes.
[email protected]
Via Festa del Perdono 7
Office hours: Monday to Friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm, by appointment only
Laboratory Classroom hours: Monday to Friday 9.00 am - 5.00 pm (by reservation)
Telephone: 02 503 12366
Mandate for Disability
Arconzo Giuseppe
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 the programmes of interest.
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 learning disabilities services;
- information on admission procedures and the certificates to be submitted when applying for support and exemptions, as required by law;
To access the service, write to [email protected] specifying:
- first and last name;
- phone number (home and/or mobile);
- subject of the meeting.
In order to enrol and use learning disabilities services, you must submit a learning disabilities certificate, pursuant to Law 170/2010, issued by the National Health Service (SSN - Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), a private partner centre or a private specialist, along with a conformity statement by the local health authority (ASST - Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale).
You can upload the certificate when registering for the admission test, specifying the support measures required (e.g. additional time, use of calculator, 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
Admission Test a.y. 2020/2021 – Conditional admission for candidates with SLD having no revised certificates
Regarding the admission procedure for the academic year 2020/2021, candidates must present, within the deadlines set for every test, a suitable certification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) under law no. 170/2010
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 call for admission carefully in order to know the procedure concerning the delivery of certificates and the support measures can be required.
If you are admitted, you can complete enrolment procedures online, by uploading the certificate again. You will be automatically registered with the Learning Disabilities Service.
After starting enrolment procedures, you must make an appointment for an individual interview, to learn more about the service and how to apply.
The interviewer will assess your certificate and prepare a customized report specifying the support services to be provided.
You will be sent the report and may ask for any amendments. This will be the only document to be used for requesting support services and contacting teachers.
To access the service, write to [email protected] specifying:
- first and last name;
- phone number (home and/or mobile);
- subject of the meeting.
In order to arrange for special examination procedures, please send an email to your contact teacher specifying the support measures required, attaching the customized report agreed with your interviewer, and always copying in [email protected].
Available support services:
- Additional time
- Different examination procedure (WRITTEN – ORAL)
- Exams split in two or more sessions (please note EXAM TOPICS will remain UNCHANGED)
- Concept maps / formularies
- Non-scientific calculators
- PC (provided by the service)
- For written exams – READING TUTOR
Students with learning (SLD) or other disabilities may request exemption from in-person lessons and/or exams for significant health reasons. The request must be submitted via the InformaStudenti portal by selecting the “Your career” category.
You must include a medical certificate (from a general practitioner or specialist) with your request. The certificate must include:
- Statement that the student in question is unable to attend lessons/exams in person (prognosis of 30 days or more);
- Reason for inability to attend lessons/exams in person;
- Length of time of inability to attend lessons/exams in person.
Those requesting exemption from an in-person exam must submit the request at least 10 days prior to the date of the exam.
The requests will be evaluated by a special committee.
The Office will inform the student of the decision by the committee. If the request is accepted, the Office will also notify the professor/lecturer responsible for the course. The individual professor/lecturer will determine what alternative modes are feasible, such as recordings, streamed lessons, or any other option enabling remote participation.
Students with learning disabilities can ask for tutoring on highly complex contents.
Tutors are selected by the Learning Disabilities Service through a public call. They may be Master's degree or 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 to be taken.
There are different forms of tutoring:
- individual tutoring
- group tutoring (by academic field or subject)
- thesis tutoring (bibliographic search and final paper formatting)
Moreover, group seminars on study methods are held regularly - online and in-person - to illustrate key university study strategies.
The seminar offers practical strategies to organise study in an effective way and to create conceptual maps.
Service activation requires from 3 to 6 weeks. To book, write to [email protected]
To participate in the seminar on study method, register through the following link: SEMINARIO SUL METODO DI STUDIO 2022/23.
Telephone number is required in case of participation.
The Office offers a Compensatory Toolkit to students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) who want to develop a more effective study method using specific software. Students with SLDs are given a free temporary licence to a suite of applications and tools to facilitate condensing, summarizing, and memorizing content and thus optimize organization of individual study.
In addition to the software, the toolkit also includes admission to a distance-learning course designed to provide a full complement of knowledge and practical competencies that are essential for success at the university, leveraging advanced study strategies and new information technologies.
The licence is issued based on resource availability following an interview with the Office to get a better idea of difficulties and needs relating to individual study.
For further information, please contact the Office at [email protected].
The office provides psychological counselling services specifically addressed to students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs) 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.
You may request the service by writing an e-mail to [email protected], indicating:
- name and surname
- telephone number
You will receive a reply e-mail with a proposed date and time for the interview via Teams.
Students with learning disabilities are entitled to special library loan services, including the preparation of texts in PDF format.
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:
- Upload one or more files
- Choose the output format
- Send your request
- 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:
- Users must use the service in accordance with any terms and conditions set out by the University of the study of Milan
- SensusAccess service must only be used for educational, learning and non-commercial purposes
- Users are responsible for safekeeping of the material made available which must be used in accordance with copyright legislation
- Users should not upload any personal and/or sensitive information.
A link to the guidelines of the National University Conference of Delegates for Disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), is below.
- New regulations on specific learning disabilities in schools (Law 170/2010)
- Agreement between the Government, Regions and Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano on “Indications for diagnosis and certification of diagnostics of specific learning disorders (SLD)”.