Our shared commitment to improving support outcomes
UDISAS is the company behind the assessment platform that shares its name. Built on the combined experience and expertise of its founders and management team, the company is united by a clear purpose: to help people understand the barriers they experience in study and work, and connect them with support that helps them perform at their best..
Modernising assessment to enable better decisions
A traditional needs assessment brings together detailed information about a person's activities, circumstances, and barriers, then uses that understanding to arrive at appropriate support decisions. The capability of the assessor is central to the efficacy of the outcomes.
UDISAS was created to explore how structured digital technology could make information gathering more consistent, accessible, and transparent, while preserving human expertise where it adds the greatest value.
Development timeline
UDISAS has been developed over a six-year period of design, engineering, testing, and refinement.
What began during the Covid-19 pandemic with an idea and a notebook is now a finished platform that is ready to redefine how study difficulties are identified and supported.
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2020 The initial concept
The first UDISAS design documents set out a new approach to gathering information through tiered questions and selectable answers, then translating those responses into clear written reports. The UDISAS name was established at the outset.
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2021–2022 Building the proof of concept
After the first questions, answers, and scripted report passages were mapped, an initial wireframe platform was built in early 2022. Testing within one area of study prompted significant expansion and refinement of the original model.
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2023 UDISAS becomes a company
UDISAS Ltd was incorporated in January 2023, with Robin Hodges and William Mayor working as co-founders. Engineering and interface development transformed the early wireframe, while the questions, branching pathways, and report content continued to grow.
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2024 Development accelerates
Robin moved into full-time platform development in March 2024. Research and engineering advanced the assessment content, difficulty-tag framework, Recommendation Engine, and report logic. UDISAS also established its visual identity and first public presence as the wider team began to take shape.
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2025 The complete platform emerges
By August, the comprehensive information-gathering framework had been scripted and the relevant support options incorporated. Working education and workplace demonstrations supported early external conversations. On Xmas Eve, the platform generated its first full report.
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2026 The first Product Edition
During the first half of 2026, the core platform was adapted beyond the DSA funding context to create a standalone educational product. Completed in June, UDISAS Higher Education became the first Product Edition available for direct purchase and wider educational use.
The current system is the result of an evolving process rather than a single moment of invention. It continues to develop as the technology, evidence base, and contexts for its use progress.
Built through practice, research, and consultation
The platform combines a clear founding direction with a wider body of professional experience, research, and practitioner input.
Professional practice
Robin Hodges conceived UDISAS and has led its design and development, drawing on 16 years of professional needs assessment experience and more than 4,500 completed assessments.
Detailed research
The framework has been informed by extensive research into disability, study contexts, assistive technology, and the functions and benefits of relevant support.
Practitioner consultation
Multiple needs assessors were consulted about the relationships between user responses, identified needs, and support outcomes. Their input helped test important parts of the framework using multiple perspectives.
Purpose made practical through a working platform
UDISAS now provides a structured foundation for gathering information, identifying relevant support for consideration, recording user choices, and communicating the outcome clearly.
The UDISAS platform
The wider platform brings together the assessment framework, Recommendation Engine, support selection, report generation, and a platform management interface within one configurable system.
UDISAS Higher Education
UDISAS Higher Education is the first commercially available Product Edition, created for students and the organisations that support them.
Understand the purpose, people, and direction behind UDISAS
Meet the team
Meet the people contributing experience across assessment, technology, commercial development, and governance.
Start a conversation
Contact UDISAS to discuss an assessment, organisational use, partnership, or another enquiry.