Investigate and advocate for alternative processes
Currently, the accommodations process requires students to repeatedly disclose their disabilities. For this to happen, they need to go through the arduous assessment process to receive official diagnoses. However, there is an opportunity to establish alternative processes that don’t rely so heavily on disclosure. You could look into these non-disclosure routes and work to design systems that accomplish accessibility in alternative ways. As previously mentioned, there are a lot of barriers associated with getting the correct diagnoses. Accessibility Services could switch to a model where formal diagnoses are no longer necessary, and students receive accommodations based on their described difficulties rather than their diagnoses. There is currently some work being done around this by the Collaborative Inclusion Pathways to Access (CIPA) project, which will be publishing a report soon.
Example tactics:
- Research: Research non-disclosure routes and alternative models of accessibility.
- Coalition building: Joining forces with other like-minded groups can be more impactful than working on this issue alone.
- Establish relationships with key decision-makers: Having a relationship with people in power will help you to influence their decisions.
- Policy brief: Once you have researched non-disclosure routes and alternative models of accessibility, write a policy brief targeted at HEIs to outline your proposal and its benefits.
Relevant Organizations:
- Accessible Campus
- Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health
- Citizens with Disabilities – Ontario
- Experiential and Work Integrated Learning Ontario
- Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
- Inter-University Disability Issues Association
- National Educational Association of Disabled Students
- Students for Barrier-Free Access
- WILAA Community of Practice