Educational and reflective resource. You can use this resource independently or discuss it with a practitioner. It does not provide an individual assessment or establish a therapy relationship.

For: A disabled trainee, their course, and their placement provider and supervisor, together
Time: One meeting of about an hour, then short reviews
Format: Guide, ten-part agreement and a one-page access passport
Prints: Yes, or download as Word
Evidence: This site’s own tool, drawing on university placement guidance, equality law and research with disabled psychotherapists

ACCESSIBLE PLACEMENT AGREEMENT

Access on placement, agreed in advance.

Easy read version →

A shared agreement for psychotherapy and counselling trainees who are disabled, or living with a disability, along with their course and their placement provider. It covers what the placement needs to achieve, what helps the trainee do it, who is responsible for what, and what happens to clients if the trainee is unexpectedly unwell, before the first day rather than after something goes wrong.

Read in 60 seconds

The key idea: access on placement is a shared institutional responsibility. The trainee shouldn’t have to solve access problems alone, explain themselves again at every new placement, or have an access failure recorded as a concern about their professionalism.

Why therapy placements are different: the trainee’s body and self are part of the work. Clients notice and react, absences affect clients’ care, and the person a trainee negotiates access with is often the person who assesses them. This agreement covers all three.

What you don’t need: a diagnosis on this sheet. It records what helps, not medical detail.

How it fits: it works alongside your course’s own disability procedures. It doesn’t replace them, and it isn’t a legal contract.

Download the agreement and passport (Word, 14 KB)Fill it in on this pageEditable, with real headings for screen readers.

Where are you right now?

I’m a trainee

You lead on what helps. Others lead on making it happen.

Before you accept a placement
Being assessed by the people you negotiate with
Your one-page access passport

I run or teach on a course

You usually coordinate, and you hold the policies.

I’m a placement provider or supervisor

You control the building, the rota, the supervision and the clients’ care.

Clients and continuity of care
If a need genuinely can’t be met
Two worked examples

Why it helps
Principles
Before you accept
When to use it
Who does what
Assessment
Clients
The agreement
Needs that can’t be met
Access passport
Examples
Ireland and the UK
Sources

Why an agreement helps

Placements are where many disabled trainees meet the biggest barriers. The building, the rota, the supervision arrangements and the clinic’s routines all belong to someone other than the trainee and their course. When access arrangements aren’t agreed in advance, a few things tend to happen:

A locked accessible entrance or a broken lift becomes “lateness” in the trainee’s first report.
A disability-related absence is counted as missed hours, with no agreed way to make them up.
Nobody has planned for clients when the trainee is unexpectedly unwell, so it’s handled in a rush.
The trainee has to explain their needs again to each new person, and decides it’s easier not to.
The trainee stays quiet about a problem because the person they’d raise it with is writing their assessment.

An agreement doesn’t remove every problem. It makes sure that when problems come up, everyone already knows whose job it is, and that the trainee isn’t judged for barriers they didn’t create. The illustrative accounts on the Trainers page show the same pattern going wrong, and going right.

Five principles

The learning outcome is fixed; the method can flex. Start with what the placement has to achieve, such as client hours, competencies and supervision. Then agree how the trainee can reach it.
Describe what helps, not what’s wrong. The agreement records access needs and adjustments. Diagnosis and medical detail stay with the trainee and, where needed, the disability service.
Access problems belong to institutions. Barriers in a building, a policy or a rota are for the placement or course to fix. They don’t go in the trainee’s assessment.
The trainee decides who knows what. That includes what, if anything, clients are told. Information is shared only with the trainee’s agreement.
The agreement travels and gets reviewed. A one-page access passport goes with the trainee to supervision and to their next placement, so they don’t start from scratch.

Before you accept a placement

Access is easier to get right when it’s part of choosing a placement, not something discovered on day one. Trainees can ask these questions at an interview or visit, or ask the course to ask on their behalf.

Practical questions

Is there step-free access to the entrance, therapy rooms and toilets? Is there a backup if the lift fails?
How flexible are days, start times and session lengths?
Can some sessions be online?
How are absences handled, and how are missed hours made up?
Who would supervise me, and how often?
Would you be willing to complete an access agreement with me and my course?

Signs of attitude

Do they talk to you directly, or to the person with you?
Do they ask what helps, or assume?
Do they treat adjustments as ordinary, or as a favour?
Have they had disabled trainees or staff before, and how did it go?
When you mention a need, do they move to solutions, or to doubts about whether you can do the work?

You don’t have to disclose anything at this stage. You can ask practical questions without explaining why. See Deciding about disclosure.

When to use it

Before placementIdeally the term before. A planning meeting with the trainee, course and placement. Fill in the agreement.
First weekCheck arrangements are actually in place, including the client cover plan. Confirm who to contact if something isn’t working.
MidwayA short review, kept separate from the midway assessment. What’s working, what isn’t, what needs to change?
EndReview, and update the access passport for the next placement.

If a placement has already started without one, it isn’t too late. Use it at the next review point.

Who does what

This site’s Mine, Yours, Ours, System framework is a useful way to share responsibility fairly, so that it doesn’t all land on the trainee. Here it is adapted for placements:

The traineeSays what helps, and raises problems when they notice them. The trainee isn’t responsible for designing or funding the fix.

The placementPhysical access, rooms, the rota, induction, clinic procedures, cover for clients, and the supervisor’s part in it all.

Between themHow they communicate: check-ins, how problems are raised, and how quickly they’re answered.

The systemThe course and wider structures: attendance and hours rules, funding for equipment or support, backup placements, and assessment policies.

University placement guidance in both Ireland and the UK typically describes responsibility as shared between the student, the course or disability service, and the placement provider. See Ireland and the UK below.

Being assessed by the people you negotiate with

On most placements, the supervisor or manager a trainee asks for adjustments is also the person who writes their assessment. That creates a real power imbalance. Trainees often stay quiet about access problems so they won’t seem difficult, demanding or unsuited to the work. Saying this out loud is the first protection.

Protections to agree

Keep the conversations separate. Access reviews and competence assessments happen in different meetings, and access reviews aren’t written into the assessment.
Have the course in the room. Someone from the course, ideally not the trainee’s assessor, attends access meetings.
Name a neutral person. The trainee names someone outside the assessment line, such as a course tutor or disability adviser, they can go to about access.
Assess competence, not coping. Assessments judge whether the trainee meets the competencies with adjustments in place. Needing an adjustment isn’t a weakness to be noted.
Know the route if it goes wrong. If the trainee believes access issues affected their assessment, they know how to raise it through the course’s appeals or complaints process.

An access need is not a fitness-to-practise question

Fitness to practise is about whether someone can practise safely and ethically. Needing an adjustment, being disabled, or having a health condition is not, in itself, a fitness-to-practise concern. A health question only becomes one if it affects safe practice even with reasonable adjustments in place, and then it should go through the course’s formal process, with the disability service or occupational health involved. It shouldn’t surface informally in a placement report. Professional bodies’ requirements vary, so courses should check their own.

Clients and continuity of care

Every therapist can become unexpectedly unwell. For disabled trainees, especially those whose conditions fluctuate, planning for it matters more, and it’s rarely done in advance. A cover plan protects clients, protects the trainee’s privacy, and means an absence is handled as a clinical event, not a crisis. Research with visibly disabled psychotherapists has recommended ethical guidance on contingency planning for disabled therapists. This section is a practical start.

Agree in advance

Who contacts clients if the trainee can’t attend, and how quickly
What clients are told. Something like “your counsellor is unavailable today” is enough. No health details.
Who supports a client in crisis while the trainee is away, such as the service’s duty worker
How cancelled sessions are rearranged
What happens to the work if an absence becomes long, including a planned ending or handover

In supervision

How clients might experience an unexpected break
Whether and how to talk about it when the trainee returns
Clients’ reactions to the trainee’s disability, and the trainee’s own reactions
Holding the trainee’s privacy and the client’s needs together

A good cover plan is good practice for any therapist, disabled or not. Asking disabled trainees to make one isn’t singling them out. It’s modelling what the profession should do for everyone.

The agreement · Ten parts

Accessible placement agreement

Fill this in together. Parts marked trainee are written by, or in the words of, the trainee. You can type into the boxes and print the page, or use the Word version.

Download as Word (editable, 14 KB)

1Who’s involved

Trainee Course contact (name and role) Placement contact and supervisor Trainee’s neutral contact for access, outside the assessment line Placement dates, and where it is

2What the placement needs to achieve

Course and placement

Required outcomes: hours, competencies, supervision What’s flexible about how these are reached

3What helps me learn and work well

Trainee. Tick what applies and add detail. No diagnosis needed.

Details, in my words What I bring to this placement, and what’s gone well before

4Who will do what, and by when

Everyone. The first rows are common examples; change them to fit.

Actions, who is responsible, and by when
Action	Who	By when
Check access to the building, rooms and toilets before day one, with a backup if a lift fails	Placement
Arrange any equipment, software or funding	Course, with placement
Include access arrangements in the induction	Placement
Agree the client cover plan (part 7)	Placement, with trainee
Tell other staff only what the trainee has agreed to share	Placement	Ongoing
Say early when something isn’t working	Trainee	Any time
Apply hours and attendance rules flexibly for disability-related absence	Course

5Who knows what

Trainee decides. Tick who may be told about these arrangements.

Placement supervisor
Placement manager
Reception or admin staff, for practical arrangements only
Other colleagues

What, if anything, clients are told about my disability, and by whom (I decide)

6Fluctuation, appointments and absence

If my needs change from day to day, or I have a flare-up, this is what happens How missed hours are made up

We agree that disability-related absence, and problems caused by access barriers, will not be recorded as concerns about professionalism or engagement.

7Clients and continuity of care

Placement and trainee

If I can’t attend, who contacts my clients, and by when What clients are told (no health details) Who supports a client in crisis while I’m away If an absence becomes long: how the work is handed over or ended well How the person covering can reach what they need, such as client contact details, while confidentiality is kept

8Supervision and assessment

Supervision format, length and anything that helps it work

Supervision is a place where disability-related experiences can be discussed, including clients’ reactions and my own.
Access reviews are held separately from assessment meetings, and aren’t written into my assessment.
I know how to raise it if I think access issues have affected my assessment.

9When something isn’t working

First, contact If that doesn’t resolve it, contact We aim to respond within

10Review

First-week check, midway review and end review dates What carries over to the next placement (add it to the access passport) Agreed by (names and date)

This agreement isn’t a legal contract and doesn’t replace your course’s disability procedures, fitness-to-practise processes or legal duties. If there is a real question of client safety, follow the placement’s procedures. Keep the completed agreement secure and share it only with the people named in part 5.

To keep a copy, fill it in on screen and print, use your browser’s print option and choose “Save as PDF”, or download the Word version above.

If a need genuinely can’t be met

Sometimes a placement can’t meet a need: an old building with no lift, a service that can’t offer online sessions. That can happen. What matters is how it’s handled.

Say so early and specifically. Name the actual barrier, not a general sense that it “might not work”.
Look for alternatives first. A different room, different days, some sessions online, a split placement, or a shared arrangement with another service.
Involve the course. Finding a workable placement is the course’s responsibility, not the trainee’s.
Don’t quietly decline, or let it drift. A trainee left waiting for an answer loses time and confidence.
Record it accurately. If a placement isn’t accessible, that’s a fact about the placement, not about the trainee’s suitability. Their progress shouldn’t be delayed by it where it can be avoided.

One page · Goes with the trainee

My placement access passport

A short summary the trainee keeps and shares with each new placement or supervisor, so they don’t have to start from scratch. The trainee owns it and decides who sees it. It’s also the last page of the Word download.

My name, course and stage of training How I work best: the three to five things that help most What I’d like you to know about working with me What I bring to the work If I’m unexpectedly unwell, the client cover plan that has worked before How I prefer problems to be raised with me, and how I’ll raise them with you Last updated

No diagnosis needed. Update it at the end of each placement.

Two worked examples

Fictional teaching example · Visible disability

Tomás is in the second year of a counselling training and uses a wheelchair. His placement is at a community counselling service where the therapy rooms are on the first floor, reached by a lift.

Before placement: Tomás, his course placement coordinator and the service manager meet. The manager checks the lift, the toilet and the fire evacuation route, and they agree a personal emergency evacuation plan.
In the agreement: the lift is the placement’s responsibility. If it fails, sessions move to the ground-floor group room. Tomás chooses to tell his supervisor and the manager, but not reception, beyond practical arrangements.
Week three: the lift breaks down for four days. Because the plan is already agreed, Tomás’s clients are seen in the ground-floor room. Nobody records a problem with his attendance.
Midway: two clients have asked Tomás about his wheelchair. He and his supervisor use supervision to think about what those questions might mean for each client.

Fictional teaching example · Fluctuating and not visible

Leah is a final-year psychotherapy trainee who lives with a long-term condition that causes fatigue and pain. Her energy varies from week to week, and she’s sensitive to noise and bright light. Nothing about her is visible to clients or colleagues.

Before accepting: at the placement interview, Leah asks how absences are handled and whether hours can be spread out. The manager’s answer is practical rather than doubtful, which helps her decide.
In the agreement: her client hours are spread over a longer period, with no more than three clients a day and a break between each. She has a quieter room at the end of the corridor. She ticks that clients are told nothing about her condition.
The cover plan: if Leah wakes up unable to work, she texts the service administrator by 8am. The administrator calls her clients and says she’s unavailable that day, and the duty worker is named for anyone in crisis.
Month two: Leah misses a week during a flare-up. The cover plan works. Because the agreement says disability-related absence isn’t a professionalism concern, the missed hours are simply added to the end of her placement. Her midway assessment, held in a separate meeting from her access review, looks only at her competencies.
End: Leah updates her access passport for her next placement.

Ireland and the UK at a glance

Ireland

University and college disability services usually lead on placement supports. Trinity College Dublin’s placement guide, for example, describes a needs assessment, a placement planning meeting before placement, and reviews during and after it, with responsibility shared between the student, the disability service, the school and the placement.
Its guidance cites the Equal Status Acts and the Disability Act 2005, among others. Information is passed to a placement only with the student’s informed consent.
AHEAD, the Irish organisation for access to education for students with disabilities, has published guidance on disclosure and on placements in professional training.
Many psychotherapy and counselling trainings are run by private institutes without a disability service. If so, ask who will coordinate this agreement.

United Kingdom

Under the Equality Act 2010, duties can overlap. University placement policies, such as the University of Huddersfield’s, describe the placement provider making reasonable adjustments during the placement, and the university ensuring students aren’t disadvantaged in finding and accessing placements.
Courts have expected education providers to offer adjustments in an anticipatory way, rather than waiting for the student to work out and request them.
Funding routes such as Disabled Students’ Allowance or Access to Work may help with some costs, depending on eligibility.

Checked November 2026. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Check your course’s own policies and the current law where you train.

Resources for disabled therapists
Training Institutions and Disability: the case for structural change
Review your programme: questions for course leaders
The Disabled Therapist: Teaching Sheet: a session for staff and supervisors
Deciding about disclosure and What to bring to supervision

Evidence & sources

IrelandTrinity College Dublin Disability Service. Guide for students with disabilities on placement (2013). Describes shared responsibility, placement planning meetings, consent to share information, and review.
IrelandAHEAD (2013). A Guide to Disclosure; AHEAD (2012). National Guidelines for Working with Nursing and Midwifery Students with a Disability or Specific Learning Difficulty in Clinical Practice.
LawEqual Status Acts 2000–2018 (Republic of Ireland); Disability Act 2005 (Republic of Ireland); Equality Act 2010 (Great Britain).
UKUniversity of Huddersfield. Accessible Placements and Disabled Students Policy. Describes overlapping responsibilities between the university and the placement provider.
UKPinsent Masons, Out-Law guide on how higher education providers should approach learning support for disabled students, on anticipatory adjustments.
ResearchDonaghey, C. & O’Connor, N. (2025). Exploring the collective unconscious in visibly disabled psychotherapists’ lives. Unpublished MSc research, IICP College. Recommends supervision that addresses visibility, disclosure and embodiment; ethical guidance on contingency planning and boundaries for disabled therapists; and inclusion policies that change structures.
ResearchCoop, N. (2018). Exploring the experiences of trainee clinical psychologists who identify as living with a disability. Doctoral thesis, University of East London.
Our frameworkThe agreement, the access passport, the five principles, the assessment protections and the adapted Mine, Yours, Ours, System sharing of responsibility are this site’s own. They haven’t been formally tested.
Fictional examplesTomás and Leah are invented for teaching. They are not real people.

Summaries are this site’s own wording. For every source cited across the site, see Sources and Bibliography.

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Last reviewed: November 2026.

How to cite this page: Donaghey, C. (2026). Accessible Placement Agreement. Disability in Psychotherapy. Available at: https://disabilityinpsychotherapy.online/the-disabled-therapist/accessible-placement-agreement/ (Accessed: [date]).

Shared under CC BY-NC 4.0, with extra permissions for teaching, supervision and therapy. Credit the site. See Reusing This Material.