By Krishika Jethani
Students with disabilities and experts in the field are calling on Ryerson to make applying for academic accommodations easier, as the university revises its policy.
Policy 159: Academic Accommodation of Students with Disabilities, indicates the principles of academic accommodation for students with disabilities to obtain an equally beneficial education. The policy was last revised in 2016.
The policy review committee asked community members for their thoughts and feedback on proposed updates through a series of virtual town halls that took place between Jan. 18 and 20.
In a joint emailed response to The Eyeopener, Ryerson’s vice provost, students Jen McMillen and vice provost, academic Kelly MacKay stated that the policy updates “focus on enabling meaningful access to education for students with disabilities rather than focusing mostly on the academic accommodation process.”
They said the policy will enable greater access to education for students with disabilities by considering how social, physical and virtual factors intersect with each other to impact a person’s access to education.
The university said it plans on introducing a new dispute resolution which outlines the steps to follow when a student, Academic Accommodation Support (AAS) and an instructor disagree on the accommodation provided.
This proposal comes from direct feedback received from community members, according to McMillen and MacKay.
“It feels like the accommodations office tells you these things are available but it is up to you to get them”
Michelle Menezes, a second-year creative industries student, said the current requirement of medical documentation of disabilities for AAS is time-consuming and inconvenient.
Menezes, who is also an international student, said the existing process of getting accommodation does not consider personal life details that can make it harder to study and submit their documentation.
“Students who do not have the resources to go through all these steps cannot exactly get paper documentation to support themselves and their claims,” Menezes said.
Amanda Lang VanderVeen, a second-year architectural science student, said the current process is “such a pain trying to get through” that she worries about students dropping it because of the bureaucracy involved.
VanderVeen said she believes the university should be doing more to help students who need it obtain accommodations. “It feels like the accommodations office tells you these things are available but it is up to you to get them.”
Deborah Fels is a professor at the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, who has researched access to media and technology for people with disabilities and has worked with students with disabilities. She said she believes that expecting students to self-advocate as soon as they start university is an unreasonable expectation.
“Students [in high school] had their teachers and parents involved so they did not have to worry about doing it themselves,” said Fels.
“Now the university is expecting them to do that from day one. How are students who just got away from their support system expected to do this?” Fels questioned.
“There was only one really positive experience I had that had such a strong impact on my life”
In its statement, the university said an important change to Policy 159 “is the emphasis on ensuring the academic accommodation process fosters collaboration in order to create an effective academic accommodation plan.”
Frank Smith, coordinator at the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), said schools should have tailored academic accommodation plans to serve the unique needs of each student and that institutions must include “the engagement of the student, professors and teaching staff.”
Smith said, regardless of the department, students should be able to receive immediate help with accommodations.
“If you are a student at a university, you should be able to go to any office, any centre or any service on campus that is offered by the university and receive the same level of equal access to those services and facilities.”
Menezes agreed that academic accommodations should be personalized to account for individual factors that affect a student’s quality of education, something she experienced once while taking a course with Ryerson lecturer Laura Morlock.
“There was only one really positive experience I had that had such a strong impact on my life. I had a fashion class with a professor; she was so accommodating and so understanding. The entire process was so smooth with her,” said Menezes.
VanderVeen said she hopes the university works on making sure accommodations are more accessible and is more active in engaging students with disabilities through the revised policy, adding that “it feels like there is not a lot of consistency in the accommodation centre. It feels like there are a lot of holes in the process right now.”
Ryerson began the process of revising Policy 159 in the winter 2020 term. The university is aiming to reveal the completed policy by this summer and implement it in the fall 2022 semester.
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