Action Areas for the Call to Action “Provide social, material, and informational support for disabled students during WIL”

Connect students with disabilities to one another 

Being a disabled student can lead to feelings of isolation or exclusion when surrounded by peers perceived as able-bodied and -minded. Implementing peer support groups for disabled students in WIL would give them a chance to meet others with similar lived experiences. This would facilitate students’ ability to support one another and offer them a platform where they can discuss their challenges and learn how others dealt with them. 

Additionally, disabled students may not know of anyone working in their field with a similar disability. Implementing mentorship programs where disabled students are matched with disabled professionals would give them an example of someone who succeeded in similar circumstances. It would also allow the mentor to offer support and advice around navigating their challenges. 

Example tactics: 

• Research: Look into models of peer support in your institution or elsewhere to come up with a plan for implementing these groups. 
• Relationship-building with students: Develop relationships with students to gather their ideas and suggestions for co-designing a support program. 
• Relationship-building with professionals: Do outreach to find disabled healthcare professionals who would be willing to mentor placement students. 

Ensure support at all stages of placements – before, during, and after 

Students in AcTinSite’s research identified a lack of support at all stages of placements. They often began placements without an understanding of the barriers they might encounter in this new setting, so allowing for site visits beforehand would help them know the accommodations they might need beforehand and allow them to make arrangements to receive them. It could also help them identify if a placement simply won’t work for them. Additionally, conducting an accessibility audit of each placement prior to matching students can help to identify potential barriers and solutions. To begin this process, look into Abilities to Work, a not for profit that conducts these audits to “to address your accessibility needs, implement strategies and create best practices so that your organization can achieve exceptional accessible workplace design, thus re-enforcing safety, accessibility and inclusion.” 

Additionally, professionals often only check in on students at the beginning of placements when they are first trying to establish the appropriate accommodations. However, students may not know all the barriers they will encounter until later in the placement. Also, many disabilities fluctuate or are episodic in nature, so access needs may change throughout the placement. By offering more checkpoints throughout placements, students would have the chance to re-assess as the placement goes on and bring up any new challenges they encounter. By creating this ongoing dialogue, students would be better supported throughout the placement as a whole. Additionally, offering a checkpoint at the end of placement could allow students to provide feedback to sites regarding challenges they faced and ways to improve the placement experience of future students. However, there is a need for better processes around integrating student feedback. This would involve offering resources for students who share their experiences and suggestions for the WIL process, therefore building student capacity to participate in the conversation. Since they are sharing their time and expertise, HEIs should ensure that they are able to give back to these students. This could take the form of providing them with monetary compensation or course credit. For student groups, it could also involve organizational support such as space or technological resources. 

These ideas can be coupled with the previous Action Area of offering continuing education and training for supporting professionals. Oftentimes, a placement can be made more accessible by simply offering greater support to disabled students, which can require placement supervisors to become better educated about accessibility issues and how to mitigate them. 

Example tactics: 

• Conduct accessibility audits of placements: Accessibility audits help to identify possible barriers for disabled students, so by conducting them before placements, there is an opportunity to address these issues prior to placements starting. Try reaching out to Abilities to Work to see if they will help you conduct them. 
• Find or develop education or training sessions, webinars or teach ins. 
• Create a web-based platform for students to give feedback to sites post-placement: This gives students an opportunity to review their placements in terms of accessibility, which can help placements improve before their next round of placement students. 

Improve education and training for professionals supporting students in WIL

There are often shortcomings with the accessibility services of post-secondary institutions, so by educating WIL professionals on access challenges and solutions, students can co-ordinate directly with their supervisors to ensure that their needs are met. 

Example tactics: 

• Offer educational or training sessions, webinars, or teach-ins. 
• Communicate information surrounding these opportunities to increase awareness among WIL professionals and educators e.g. by connecting with Experiential and Work Integrated Learning Ontario (EWO). 
• Policy brief: Advocate for mandatory training where appropriate. 

Some resources for education and training opportunities include: 

• Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health: Offers resources for knowledge sharing, training, toolkits, resources, events and forums. 
• Accessible Campus: Information on Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, barriers to accessibility, accessible event and conference planning, how to interact with persons with disabilities, resources to help educators and administrators create accessible learning environments and meet the requirements of the AODA. 
• Accessibility Institute: “We offer courses and formal training in various knowledge and skill areas related to accessibility and disabilities,” which includes the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification™ (RHFAC) Training.