User:Lindachamberlain1/Services for post secondary students with disabilities

Services for post-secondary students with disabilities Universities and colleges within Canada and specifically in Ontario are obligated to provide accommodation to ensure students with permanent or temporary disabilities access to education pursuant to the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC) to the point of undue hardship. In response to this need, both community colleges and universities established an office to oversee and implement academic accommodation support services for students with disabilities. A student entering post-secondary education must register with Offices for Persons with Disabilities to obtain academic accommodations. Post-secondary institutions provide academic support to the following disability groups:


 * Brain Injury/Head Injury
 * Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
 * Autism Spectrum Disorder
 * Hearing Disability (e.g., deaf, central auditory processing disorder)
 * Learning Disabilities
 * Medical (e.g., Crohn's disease, epilepsy, heart conditions)
 * Mental Health (e.g., depression, general anxiety disorder, schizophrenia)
 * Physical/Functional Disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy, paraplegia, fine motor coordination, quadriplegia, etc.)
 * Vision-related Disabilities (low vision, blindness)

Registration requirements

All students are required to register with a post-secondary instructions' disability office to obtain accommodation. Academic institutions will have a paper-based or electronic registration process. Students are encouraged to register as early as possible and required to provide documentation outlining the functional limitations that directly influence their academic participation. Acceptable current documentation will differ depending upon the nature of the disability and may include medical documentation, psycho-educational assessment, or neuro-psychoeducational assessment. Some institutions have created specific documentation forms to explore the nature and functional impairments and their severity.

Nature of academic accommodations

Academic accommodations are determined in joint consultation with a disability consultant or advisor, the student, in addition to the supporting psychoeducational, neuro-psychoeducational assessment or medical or medical documentation provided. Students are invited to meet with a disability or accommodations consultant or advisor to discuss their particular needs related to the courses and programs they are enrolled in. Students are required to be active participants in the academic accommodation process. Accommodations are intended to provide access to education by "leveling the academic playfield" and are not a guarantee of academic success. The nature of the accommodation, if required, relates to how the functional limitations impact the student in each particular course or program. If functional limitations affect a student's ability to access or participate, accommodations are put in place to help. If the nature of the disability does not impact the students' participation (access), then no accommodations are required. For example, a student with a math-based learning disability (e.g., dyscalculia) enrolled in courses with no math-based activities does not need academic accommodation.

Academic accommodations may include classroom and examination related supports.