School, college and university

For lots of people, their epilepsy won’t cause any problems at school, college or university. However, there might be certain situations when your epilepsy needs to be considered.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

In the UK, the DDA means that schools, colleges or universities can’t prevent you from taking part in certain activities just because you have epilepsy. If staff do feel that you shouldn’t take part in a trip or sporting activity for example, they need to give you a very good reason why. The DDA also means that staff need to try and make ‘reasonable adjustments’ where possible, to try and include you in the activity.

• More information about sport and leisure

Help and support with study

Having epilepsy doesn’t automatically entitle you to extra time in exams. Whether or not your epilepsy means you need extra help and support needs to be looked at on an individual basis. You might be entitled to extra time if you’ve got concentration or memory problems because of your anti-epileptic drugs, for example. If you do need extra time, your school, college or university needs to apply to the exam board before the exam. Your epilepsy specialist may be able give some advice on whether or not you need extra time, and support you in this if you do.

If you’re still having seizures, you’ll probably be entitled to sit your exams in a room with fewer people, in case you have a seizure during the exam.

Stress can make some people with epilepsy more likely to have a seizure. If stress is a possible seizure trigger for you, you may want to ask your teacher if they can give you any extra help and support to make studying and exams less stressful.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), your school, college or university has to try and make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate your epilepsy, for example providing extra help and support if you need it.

Teasing and bullying

Teasing and bullying can happen to anyone, but no one should have to put up with it. If you’re being teased or bullied at school, college or university, you may want to talk to your teacher or tutor about this.

The charities Childline and the Samaritans have freephone helplines that can give you advice if you’re being bullied or feeling down.

Although there’s never an excuse for bullying, some people might do it to make fun of something they don’t understand. It’s up to you who you tell about your epilepsy, but you might find that having an epilepsy awareness lesson would help people to understand more about epilepsy.

There’s lots of information about epilepsy on our website which you could show to your teacher. In some areas of the UK, Epilepsy Action has Accredited Volunteers who can give epilepsy awareness presentations. Contact the Epilepsy Helpline for more information, Email helpline, freephone 0808 800 5050.