A sighted guide helps you move safely and confidently around campus and off-site teaching locations, using recognised guiding technique and following your lead at all times.
Guiding takes you between teaching spaces, into and around libraries, laboratories, studios and placement settings, and through the practical parts of campus life that assume sight: finding a seat, locating a printer, navigating building works, reading a room number or a temporary sign.
The role is practical assistance, not tuition and not personal care. Where you need to learn a route independently rather than be guided along it, mobility training is the correct recommendation and we deliver that too.
You set the pace, the level of description and the physical guiding technique you prefer. Our guides are trained to offer information rather than take decisions for you, and to step back as your familiarity with a route grows.
Consistency matters, so we work hard to keep the same guide with you across a term rather than rotating unfamiliar staff through your timetable.
Guiding is scheduled around your timetable and confirmed session by session, with cover arranged in advance for known absences. Every session is logged and confirmed so your DSA hours are transparent and auditable.
Sighted guide is a DfE Band 1 role. Our current rate is published on our rates page.
Yes, once recommended in your Needs Assessment report. It is a Band 1 Non-Medical Help role and is invoiced directly to Student Finance.
Guiding you to and from the exam venue is normally fine. Support inside the exam room is set by your university's exam access arrangements, so we coordinate with your disability service.
Wherever possible, yes. Continuity is one of the things students tell us matters most.