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This Hub post was written with assistance and advice from Shermeen Khan, Manager of Accessible Learning and Andreas Ponvia, Manager of Testing and Assessment Services

Supporting Student Success Through Accessibility

Accessibility is a cornerstone of inclusive education. At Conestoga, we are committed to ensuring that all students have equitable access to learning opportunities, in alignment with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Faculty play a vital role in this commitment—not only by supporting students who already have approved accommodations, but also by recognizing when a student may benefit from additional support. This is especially important during test periods, as preparing for accommodated testing requires advance coordination with the Test Centre. Students with disabilities—whether physical, mental health-related, or otherwise—may require accommodations to succeed in their academic programs. This hub post is designed to help provide more information about the accommodation process and actions typically taken by students and faculty to ensure learners have the supports they need in place.

Defining Disability

In Ontario, a disability is defined as:

“A substantial physical or mental impairment that is continuous or recurrent and expected to last one year or more; The direct and cumulative effect of the impairment results in a substantial restriction in their ability to work, care for themselves, or take part in community life; The impairment, its likely duration, and restrictions have been verified by an approved health care professional. (Ontario.ca)

At Conestoga, students with physical disabilities; significant learning challenges; struggles with mental health; and neurodivergence (like ADHA or Autism) may apply for accommodations and have their requests reviewed by Accessible Learning.

The Accommodation Process

At Conestoga, the formal accommodation process is overseen by the Accessible Leaning Office. Students start the accommodation process by completing an intake form on the office’s website. Once registered, an Accessibility Advisor contacts the student to schedule a meeting. During this meeting, students will discuss their challenges and will be asked to provide documentation of their disability and discuss their accommodation needs. (The documentation students provide must be to a North American standard and the information provided must be within the health professional’s scope of practice).

Following this review, accommodations may be approved or denied. If approved, faculty will receive an email notification indicating that a student in their class has been granted accommodations. Faculty can then log into their employee portal to view the specific accommodation stipulations. All signed letters can also be found in your personal Accommodate account as well. Please note:  faculty will not be told what a students’ specific disability is, nor will any other medical information be shared with them; the accommodation letter will simply state which specific supports and accommodations the student is entitled to receive.

Once you sign off that you have read this letter and acknowledge the accommodations the student is eligible to receive, you can work with the student to make sure all appropriate accommodations are in place. Depending on their needs, students with accommodations may be offered things like extra time to complete assignments and tests; they may be given priority seating in a class (near the front or next to the door depending on what their needs are); some students may show up with a Classroom Assistant or Sign Language Interpreter; or be granted alternatives to an in-class presentation. A more robust list of common accommodations (and how they may be integrated into courses offered in various modalities) can be found in the Accessible Learning Student Success Sharepoint site.

Student Privacy

Some students may choose to share details of their disability with you. If they do so, please make sure you keep this information confidential unless they explicitly request that you and/or they also share this information with their peers and others at the college. Some students are very comfortable talking about their disabilities and advocating for themselves and want to share with others best practices for supporting them. This is absolutely within a student’s right to do.  For example, a student with Tourette’s Syndrome may know that they are likely to call out words or make other sounds during class time and request that faculty share some information about Tourette’s Syndrome with the class and note that this student is not at all trying to be disruptive. The student may see this as an opportunity to educate their peers about Tourette’s and feel support from the class at large. This can be empowering for students, so long as the choice is theirs and the request to share this information is initiated by the them (not you or anyone else). It’s advisable that you confirm what the student wants to share in an email exchange beforehand, both for the sake of clarity and to confirm the conversation, this will also help protect both you and the student as  Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) requires individuals to give/receive explicit consent before sharing any health-related information.

Booking Tests for Students with Accommodations

“Test accommodations” are may include, but are not limited to: extra time, use of assistive technology for reading and writing, and memory aids. If a student is approved for test-related accommodations, you, as their instructor, will be required to take certain steps to ensure they are implemented properly. This typically involves you adding test information on Accommodate. .

For detailed instructions and access to the booking system, you can visit the Testing Section of the Student Success Sharepoint site, but the general workflow of this process is:

1. At the start of the term, faculty provide general test details (e.g. date and time) for all applicable courses in Accommodate.
2. The student will log in to Accommodate a minimum of 7 days before the test date (14 for midterms and finals) to submit a test booking request at their campus Test Centre.
3. The Test Centre will send faculty email notifications when a student booking request is approved. Faculty then review booking details and notify the Test Centre and the student of any issues or changes.
4. Faculty update test details in Accommodate to include final test details and/or test files (e.g. Word or PDF) a minimum of 4 days in advance of the test date.

Different Modalities

For computer-based tests that are required to be written on-campus, students with academic accommodations will need to write at the Test Centre. Tests that can be written at home can simply have their time adjusted to do the test on their own device like all other students in your class. You can set this up using the following steps:

1. Go to Course Tools -> Quizzes.
2. Click the drop-down arrow beside the title of the Quiz and choose Edit.
3. Open the Restrictions tab at the top of the screen.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen to the “Special Access” heading. Ensure that the first option (“Allow selected users special access to this quiz”) is selected, then click “Add Users to Special Access”.

5. Special Access is configured in two main steps. First, choose what will be different for the selected student(s).
   • Date: If the student(s) will write on a different day or time, check the “Start Date” and “End Date” boxes and specify their custom date range. Note that extending the Start Date and End Date will not give individual students more time to write their attempt; instead, it only expands the range of time in which they are able to start the quiz.
   • Writing Time: If the user will have more writing time, select the option under “Timing” labeled “Enforced Time Limit”, then type the number of minutes the selected student(s) will have to write the quiz.
   • Attempts: If the student(s) will have additional Attempts, check the box labeled “Override attempts allowed” and then set the number of Attempts that they will have.
6. Next, choose which student(s) these overrides will apply to by checking the box beside each name. You can choose one name or multiples at the same time, depending on whether multiple students need the same accommodations.
7. When you are finished, click “Add Special Access” at the bottom.
8. You will then be returned to the Restrictions tab of your Quiz’ settings, where you can see a summary of which students have Special Access and what is different for each one:

Please note: If a student has specific accommodations that may require additional attention (i.e. deactivation of lockdown browser due to requirement of assistive technology) it is recommended to contact the student’s Accessibility Advisor to determine best course of action. For more details and information about using Respondus Lockdown Browser and possible interference with accessibility software, please refer to the lms special access faculty support page.

Assistive Technology:

Conestoga students have free access to various assistive technologies. Assistive Technology (AT) is any equipment used to increase efficiency, maintain function, or improve the capability of individuals with disabilities. Students who do not have any documented disabilities or accommodations in place may also benefit from the use of AT.  Students use AT to research, write, and study more effectively. For example,  Read&Write is a powerful literacy support tool designed to assist with reading, writing, studying, and research. This software may be especially helpful for students with learning disabilities, ADHD, or those who benefit from text-to-speech, word prediction, and comprehension aids, but it is available (and likely to be of some assistance) to all students. Read&Write can be used across platforms and integrates with common tools like Microsoft Word and web browsers. Students can download it through Conestoga’s IT Downloads page using their college email credentials.

You can learn more about it in this hub post that demonstrates Read&Write’s  various features.

Texidium is another tool that helps make learning more accessible that is available to all Conestoga students. It offers text-to-speech features, and students can increase the font size, and even dictate notes. Most digital (etexts) textbooks at Conestoga can be read using the Texidium app.

 There are several other text-to-speech software that are available to students as well that can be found on the Library and Learning Services Assistive Technologies page.

As faculty, you may also want to familiarize yourself with other AT tools so you can demonstrate them to your class—highlighting how all students may benefit from their use.

Examples and Inspiration

If it’s your first time receiving an accommodation email for a student, it’s understandable that you might worry about how things will unfold (how can you keep their accommodation confidential if they are using an assistive device in class? What sorts of materials and classroom adjustments will you need to make for an ASL interpreter? Etc.)

This hub post that features faculty stories about supporting students with disabilities is a great resource and can help demonstrate that supporting students with accommodations can be a straightforward and even creative experience that invites you to think differently about your teaching and assessments and, sometimes, encourages you to make adaptations that end up benefitting all learners.

Extra things to note:

Test accommodations cannot be arranged at the last minute—if a student thinks they may need an accommodation down the line (or you get the sense they may benefit from one), don’t wait! The typical cut-off date to register with Accessible Learning will be about four weeks before the end of each semester. There can be exceptions, although these are often reserved for sudden or emergent conditions (car accidents, sudden falls, etc.) and are not reserved for “I’ve been overwhelmed all semester and it’s really catching up to me”.

A common misconception faculty have is that if a student (who does not have an accommodation) has fallen significantly behind in your course, they should send them to Accessible Learning. In fact, you are better off connecting them with the library for assistance with study strategies etc. as Accessible Learning is only for students with disabilities who are seeking accommodations.

Sometimes students who had IEPs in high school may think and feel that they won’t need an official accommodations in college, but it may still be worth it for them to complete the intake form and meet with an advisor to see what they suggest, as it’s better to have an accommodation in place and then not need it after all, than it is to  scramble at the last minute to try to secure one.

There may be times when your practiced classroom management strategies may inadvertently cause harm or unintentionally violate the privacy of your students with accommodations. This hub post highlights some common, but potentially problematic classroom management practices, and offers suggestions about what could be done instead.

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