You can be officially supported by the Special Needs Unit throughout your educational path (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, State Examination) if you are a:
- student with SpLD – Specific Learning Disorders;
- student with disabilities and invalidities;
- student with SEN – Special Educational Needs, which include Neurodevelopmental Disorders, or Borderline Intellectual Functioning, Communication Disorders, Autism Spectrum, ADHD, or diagnosed psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and mood disorders, psychotic and dissociative disorders, eating disorders, etc;
- student experiencing temporary difficulties due to proven and serious health problems.
The Special Needs Unit can support students who provide updated medical documentation, respectively:
- for students with SpDL: certificate issued by SSN (Italian National Healthcare Service) or by specialists and facilities accredited by SSN (pursuant to Law 170/2010). The certificare must have been issued no more than 3 years ago if released before turning 18 years old.
- for students with diabilities: certificate of disability or invalidity, with both diagnosis and percentage of disability clearly indicated;
- for students with SEN: medical certificate with a clear diagnosis with the functioning profile explaining in a clear way the negative impact on learning or social participation.
- for students experiencing temporary difficulties due to serious health problems: a recent medical/hospital certificate, containing both diagnosis and prognosis.
You need to get the approval of the Special Needs Unit before receiving specific support. This normally happens at the beginning of the educational path, but you may request the intervention of the Unit at any time of the year.
You can request to be supported by the Special Neeeds Unit in the following ways:
First-year students: after completing the enrolment process, please contact the Special Needs Unit via ticket for a preliminary interview. Please upload the certificate of disability/invalidity or "temporary difficulty" in .pdf format (if not already uploded to the Appy@polito platform).
Continuing students (Year 2 or beyond): upload the certificate in .pdf format and send it by ticket to request an interview.
Removing architectural barriers and ensuring that students with disabilities can enjoy their right to university education is how we guarantee inclusion at Politecnico. Politecnico has a specific plan approved by its governing bodies to remove architectural barriers.
After analyzing individual cases, Politecnico can offer IT tools and aids specifically created by specialists to ensure that students can reach a good individual autonomy. If necessary, these aids may be used for the entire period of study.
If you are a student with disabilities enrolled at Politecnico di Torino with a certified disability rate > 66%, you may be totally exempted from paying your tuition fees. For more information, consult Tuition Fees Regulations.
If you are officially supported by the Special Needs Unit, you are free to use the following spaces:
- Special Needs rest room: room furnished with two orthopaedic beds for people with disabilities, access by reservation.
- Special Needs study room: study room with 14 seats, access by reservation.
- Special Needs PC room: PC room with 4 seats for people with disabilities, access by reservation.
Special arrangements are assigned to students by the Special Needs Unit based on the certificate presented. In any case, you can ask to review the special arrangements assigned to you by fixing an appointment with the staff of the Special Needs Unit, in person or remotely.
After enrolment, if you have taken the admission test using special arrangements, you will receive an email into your Polito mailbox (smatricola@studenti.polito.it) inviting you to watch an information video. After confirming that you have watched the video, the Special Needs Unit operators will add the special arrangements deducible from your certificate to your acceptance form.
You will be invited by email to check the form on the teaching portal (Personal Area, Special Needs). The form contains the special arrangements assigned to you.
If your SpDL certificate does not contain exact information, you will be given other transversal measures, i.e. calculator, readability criteria, extra time, and a type of evaluation which considers the content rather than the form.
You have 15 days to confirm the special arrangements assigned to you, if you think that they are correct and exhaustive.
If instead you think that changes are necessary, please book an appointment via ticket for an interview with the Special Needs Unit.
Attention:
- if you do not contact the Special Needs Unit within 15 days of receiving the e-mail, you cannot benefit from any special arrangement for the entire academic year;
- After the special arrangements have been shared with the teaching staff, they cannot be modified for the entire academic year;
- At the beginning of each academic year, you must repeat the procedure for accepting and sharing the special arrangements. On this occasion, you may request a revision of the arrangements, providing supporting documents if necessary;
- Continuing students (enrolling in Year 2 or beyond) must complete the procedure for special arrangements no later than 15th December.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you are a student with Specific Learning Disorders (SpLD), in addition to using the Online Report Procedure, we suggest you talk directly with your professors, at least one week before the beginning of the examination session. Professors must be informed about the special arrangements agreed with the Special Needs Unit so they can find the most suitable solution for the specific type of examination.
If you are having temporary difficulties with attending your classes and taking your exams for a significant period of time due to serious and certified health reasons, you can report this situation to the Special Needs Unit by ticket.
“Significant period of time” refers to:
- inability to attend classes for at least one month;
- inability to take exams for at least 2 consecutive sessions, or need for support for written assessments due to objective impediments in independent writing.
The Special Needs Unit will examine your medical documentation and propose an meeting to evaluate temporary support measures.
Please note that all students are required to take their exams in person at the university. The only exceptions are people under oncological therapy, which must be duly certified.
C-PEN LingoPen / Exam Reader
- To be used in the Special Needs study room and/or borrowed
If you are a student with SpDL/disabilities, you can borrow new generation reading support devices, designed to facilitate individual learning and exams, respectively:
- N.5 C.Pen LingoPen
- N. 5 C-Pen Exam Reader
The pens can be used in the Special Needs study room; it is also possible to borrow them at home.
For loan requests, you must:
- send a ticket indicating which pen they need (Lingo Pen or Exam reader)
- wait for confirmation of the availability of pen before collecting it from the Special Needs room (opening hours 09:00-12:00; 14:00-16:00 Monday to Friday)
The loan is personal and users are held fully responsible for any damage caused to the pen and for its correct conservation. Users are also liable in the event of theft or loss.
Upon delivery of the pen, you are required to check its integrity and state of conservation and report any problems to the staff.
Loans last 14 days and are renewable (renewal request via ticket within the day before the expiration date).
If you do not return the pen by the deadline, you will not be allowed to borrow/use the pen for a period equal to the delay.
In the event of accidental loss, theft, or destruction, you will have to refund the cost of the pen.
Noise cancelling headphones loan
4 noise-cancelling headphones are available to users studying in the study room and requiring special acoustic insulation. To borrow the headphones, you must send a ticket to the Special Needs Unit, specifying the day and time of use. You must deposit your ID document, which will be kept by the staff until you return the device.
If you are supported by the Special Needs Unit, you can enjoy the following services:
Peer tutoring → for students with disabilities, specific learning disorders (SLD), or special educational needs (SEN)
It aims to support the autonomy of students by helping them with individual study and encouraging their inclusion in university life.- Support with getting around campus → for students with disabilities
This service provides assistance with getting around campus and between Politecnico campuses (including off-campus teaching sites), to support students’ full participation in university activities.
If you wish to request these services (Peer Tutoring and Support with getting around campus), please send a ticket to the Special Needs Unit by the following deadlines:
a) For first-year students:
• 29 September 2025 – 31 October 2025 → for services starting in the first semester
• 2 March 2026 – 13 March 2026 → for services starting in the second semester
b) For continuing students (enrolled in year 2 or beyond):
• 29 September 2025 – 10 October 2025 → for services starting in the first semester
• 2 March 2026 – 13 March 2026 → for services starting in the second semester
More information is available in the Guidelines.
The service targets students supported by the Special Needs Unit who require long-term support, clearly indicated in the report of the specialist who made the functional diagnosis.
A specialized tutor or a professional educator can support you continuously for a fixed number of hours in order to:
- facilitate your communication with the teaching staff and your peers;
- help you manage time and orgnize your study;
- offer the LIS interpreting service to deaf students.
This type of service is mainly offered to students with complex disabilities or people with communication and relational disorders.
Normally you can activate this service as soon as you enrol at Politecnico.
To request the service, you must send a ticket to the Special Needs Unit, enclosing a medical certificate which states the specific need for specialized tutoring support.
Over the years, we - the Special Needs Unit - have supported several students, and with each one of them we have tenaciously shared projects, efforts, satisfactions, critical moments and positive results.
Each student has built his/her own path, unique and particular, and has contributed to the growth of our service in experience and planning.
We have decided to make this page available to everyone. It is a space for sharing experiences and skills, where the protagonists can tell their stories, which we hope can stimulate other students and enrich new paths.
Methodological warning:
To ask for the publication of a contribution, you must send a ticket. The Special Needs Unit will evaluate it to verify if it is in line with the purposes indicated above, without going into the merits of the contents.
We want to stress the fact that the author assumes full responsibility for what is written; any references to programs or products shall not have promotional purposes, but rather only reflect an individual experience.
Guides
The guides in this section have been created from the direct experiences of some students supported by the Special Needs Unit, with the idea of sharing useful tools to overcome possible critical issues during the university path.
Any references to programs or products do not have promotional purposes, but rather reflect the individual point of view of the author.
Enjoy reading!
Specifically:
1) Eneas's study guide suggests strategies for students with upper limb motor difficulties
2) Roberto and Annalisa's guide mainly targets students with visual difficulties
This section is dedicated to advertising events, scholarships, opportunities offered by local institutions and/or bodies
On the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Consulta per le persone in difficoltà is organising a series of initiatives from 29 November to 8 December as part of the “dis-festival”: the calendar of events is available on the Consulta's website.
Fondazione Ufficio Pio: Ragioniere Faustino and Dottoressa Giuseppina Moretti scholarships, supporting university students with neurodevelopmental disorders. (The deadline for completing the application form has been extended to 30 October!)
The University of Brescia has issued the the 20th edition of the Call for Papers for the awarding of No. 4 Master's Degree Prizes to students with disabilities under 30 years of age from all Italian universities a.y. 23/24.
Deadline for applications: 31 October 2025
- 3 April 2025: Turin hosts Diversity Day, the most important inclusive career day dedicated to the employment and integration of people with disabilities and protected categories. All the information on the website.
- Time 2 Foundation has opened its new headquarters in Corso Stati Uniti 62/b - Open, “spazio aperto di diversità”, a place where the idea and practice of a society made of diversity is nurtured every day.
The spaces can be used in many ways, there is a cafeteria, a study room, the possibility of participating in events and courses... I recommend browsing the site, it is a beautiful place right next to us!
- Tutorial-Me Managing Disability: a platform created by the UMANA MENTE Allianz Foundation in collaboration with the Coordination of Lombard Universities for Disability (CALD), a tool and a place accessible to all , totally free of charge, with a single mission: to promote the culture of disability.
- Disabled Tennis project
- AISM (Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla): brief presentation of the association; how to become an ambassador.