UDL: Beyond Accommodation

Academic Accommodation

The Ontario Human Rights Code (the Code) guarantees the right to equal treatment in education, without discrimination based on disability. Academic accommodations are a fundamental aspect of ensuring equal access to education for students with disabilities.”

Specifically, “Post-secondary institutions are responsible for ensuring that their facilities and services are accessible; that the environment is welcoming and non-discriminatory; that appropriate, effective and dignified accommodation processes are in place; and that students who require accommodations because of their disabilities are accommodated to the point of undue hardship (“Appendix 1”, n.d.).

What do learners need to do to receive accommodations in class?

According to CAL’s website, here are some steps for registration:

1. Complete the confidential Request for Support
2. Gather supporting documentation from regulated health care professionals that confirm a disability.
3. Submit the form to Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL).
4. Once registered with CAL, each learner will be assigned to a Disability Counsellor (DC), who reviews medical documentations and provides access to the various accommodations and services for the learner.

Learners then need to communicate with their professors with the Letter of Accommodation (LOA) from CAL to request accommodation for everyday learning, assignments, and exams, etc.

Accommodation is not Inclusion

1. Learners must first be aware of their disability/disabilities and receive documentation from a regulated health care professional before requesting for accommodation, which may not be accessible to many learners due to various barriers such as financial restrictions. International learners may encounter barriers that prevent them from being aware of this service, accessing regulated health care professionals due to the limited coverage of their health care plans, stigma related to disabilities, etc.
2. Requesting accommodation brings a great deal of mental stress and pressure to learners. Upon receiving the LOA, the responsibility to communicate their academic needs to their professors fall on the shoulders of the learners.
3. Accommodation is reactive. If the learner cannot register with CAL and receive their LOA prior to the semester stars, they may lose their access to being accommodated. Alternatively, even if learners can receive interim accommodation while their disability is being assessed, they may not be able to receive the appropriate ones specific to their needs. Moreover, last-minute revisions to the curriculum/assignments/exams may result in an overwhelming workload increase for the faculty member teaching the course.

How can UDL help?

Due to its proactive nature, UDL advocates for the curriculum to be designed to the edges, which means the needs of all learners should be taken into consideration from the beginning. This takes the burden of “reporting their disabilities” off from the learners. For example, upon reviewing the Course Learning Requirements (CLRs), the professor revised one of the quizzes to a reflection assignment, requiring learners to record their responses to open-ended questions. In this case, learners no longer need to submit their LOA to request extra time on the quiz, instead, they are provided with opportunities to achieve the same learning objective(s) by reflecting on their own learning in various ways (video, audio, text, or infographic, etc.).

See the table below for further information on how UDL compares to accessibility and accommodation.

(Adapted from Black & Fraser, as cited in Bracken & Novak, 2019, p.247)