Disability Provisions

Disability provisions in the HSC are practical arrangements designed to help students who couldn't otherwise make a fair attempt to show what they know in an exam room.

The provisions granted are solely determined by how the student’s exam performance is affected.

It is not embarrassing to apply for provisions, and more than 7000 HSC students apply for provisions each year. Provisions help students to show the markers what they know and can do.

Schools are responsible for determining and approving disability provisions for all school-based assessment tasks. NESA determines disability provisions for the Higher School Certificate examinations.

To apply for provisions, schools must submit an online application to NESA. This application tells us which provision/s a student is requesting and includes recent evidence. Evidence may include medical reports, reading results, spelling results, writing samples and teacher comments.

Any HSC student with a disability recognised in the Commonwealth Disability Standards for Education 2005 can apply for disability provisions.

The definition of ‘disability’ in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 includes:

• physical

• intellectual

• psychiatric

• sensory

• neurological, and

• learning disabilities, as well as

• physical disfigurement, and

• the presence in the body of disease-causing organisms.

Disability provisions apply only where the disability needs a practical arrangement to reduce disadvantage in an exam situation.

Read more on the NESA site