Providing evidence of your disability
DARE requires you to submit evidence of your disability as part of your application. The Evidence of Disability Form 2025 can be downloaded here. Your evidence of disability documentation is used by DARE to establish whether or not you meet DARE’s evidence of disability criteria and therefore overall DARE eligibility criteria. In addition, it is used by DARE colleges and universities to determine the kinds of supports you might need when you get to college. Your application will not be complete until you provide evidence of your disability by 15 March 2025. If you would like to find out more information on DARE’s eligibility click on the disability categories in the menu to the right of this page.
Getting your Evidence of Disability completed by the Appropriate Professional
When submitting your evidence of disability documentation, make sure:
- It has been completed and signed by the appropriate professional (a list of the appropriate professionals for each disability type is detailed in the relevant section of this site),
- the appropriate professional has filled in all parts of the form,
- the writing on the form is easy to read,
- there is a clear diagnosis of your disability. Documentation which only references initial or probable, or previous diagnosis is not sufficient,
- It contains the stamp of the appropriate professional OR is on headed paper OR is accompanied by a business card.
Types of Acceptable Evidence of Disability
There are a number of ways for you to provide evidence of your disability:
- some applicants may submit a report which they already have,
- other applicants may need to get the Evidence of Disability Form 2025 completed by the appropriate professional,
- in addition, some evidence may be required to have been completed within a particular timeframe.
GP Verification
If you have an existing diagnosis but have difficulty accessing the appropriate professional to get confirmation of the existing diagnosis or an updated report, you may ask your General Practitioner (GP) to complete the Section C Evidence of Disability form.
However, the following applies:
- Your GP must have a clear diagnosis of your disability from one of the DARE appropriate specialists/consultants listed. A copy of a document in which your diagnosis is confirmed must be included in your application when using this GP verification.
- This document must be signed and dated by the appropriate specialist/consultant. If a time limit applies, the diagnosis or reconfirmation of diagnosis from the appropriate professional must have been made within that time limit.
- Your GP does not need to give you a copy of your entire file – a single document which confirms your diagnosis and is within the time limit (if one applies) is sufficient. For the purposes of DARE, only diagnoses made by a specialist/consultant are acceptable. Diagnoses made by GPs alone will not be acceptable and will lead to you being deemed ineligible.
Important Information
If you submit an Existing Report make sure it:
- is completed and signed by the appropriate professional AND
- contains the same detail as requested on the Section C Evidence of Disability Form 2025 AND
- has been completed within the appropriate time limit AND
- contains the stamp of the appropriate professional OR is on headed paper OR is accompanied by a business card.
Posting your Documentation
- It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that all supporting documentation (including your Evidence of Disability and Educational Impact Statment) are posted to the CAO.
- Send your Educational Impact Statement and Evidence of Disability documentation to the CAO, Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway by 15 March 2025. Please number each page and write your CAO application number, name and the date on the front of each page.
- Keep the originals of all documents and proof of postage.
- You can get a certificate of postage from An Post.
- For confirmation that the documents you posted arrived safely in CAO, enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard with your documentation.
- DARE will not contact you about missing, incomplete or incorrect documentation, so please ensure that you have supplied all documents requested by 15 March 2025. Please contact a DARE advisor if you have any questions in advance of submitting your documentation.
Disability Screening Criteria
Click on the relevant disability below to read the screening criteria for that disability.
Additional Information
Click on one of the links below to find out more about DARE
What is DARE?
DARE is a third level alternative admissions scheme for school-leavers whose disabilities have had a negative impact on their second level education. More Information (Link to ‘What is DARE’)
Still have more questions?
Check out our FAQ section through the following link