scholarly journals Accommodating Disability at University

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Bruce ◽  
M. Lynn Aylward
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Academic Accommodations ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Marginal Status ◽  
Important Site

Disabled students in Canadian universities obtain academic accommodations through an individualized service approach. The implementation of these learning supports is dependent on students' ability to navigate institutional policies and procedures that require engagement with faculty who are variably willing to respond. This study documents the experiences of disabled students and their professors as they worked to make these individual arrangements on three Nova Scotia university campuses. Findings centre the relational elements of accommodation procedures and expose their potential to reinforce and naturalize the marginal status of disabled learners while also elucidating the possibility for meaningful systemic change. Findings also situate the student/faculty relationship as an important site of inquiry and analysis for Canadian post-secondary institutions working to become more accessible for a diversity of disabled students.

scholarly journals Self-Advocacy as Precariousness in University Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 414-440
Author(s):  
Cynthia Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
University Education ◽  
Academic Accommodations ◽  
Doctoral Study ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Transition From High School ◽  
Access Requirement

Self-advocacy has arguably become one of the most centrally positioned priorities in Canadian post-secondary disability service-provision frameworks. It is widely understood to be an indispensable skill for disabled students working to implement academic accommodations at university, and it has become the focus of numerous efforts to prepare them for transition from high school settings. This article draws on findings from a doctoral study that explored the self- advocacy experiences of disabled students and their professors in three small liberal arts universities in Nova Scotia, Canada in order to theorize self-advocacy as precariousness. Detailed research findings are reported elsewhere, but this account offers a theoretical analysis of participant experiences in order to broaden understandings of self-advocacy as a relational access requirement that generates persistent uncertainty for disabled learners.

Laws, Finance, and Policies of Higher Education Accessibility

2017 ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Raasch
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Disability Theory ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
The Individual

Historically, educational accessibility in higher education appeared to be a dynamic and fluid scale with individual rights and accessibility on one side while institutional policies and procedures balanced the other side. Additional weights were applied to both sides of the scale. United States (U.S.) federal laws applied weight to the individual rights and accessibility side. Meanwhile, financial considerations applied weight to the institutional policies side. U.S. universities may have found this balancing act difficult through ongoing legal cases and law revisions. Critical Disability Theory (CDT) provides an alternative viewpoint to review education accessibility. CDT also encourages participation by more campus stakeholders to resolve accessibility issues and promote full accessibility on university campuses. This chapter will explore and explain the complex interconnections of laws, finances and policies in supporting accessibility on campuses and discuss potential guidelines for future institutional policies and procedures related to students with disabilities.

Laws, Finance, and Policies of Higher Education Accessibility

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jennifer Raasch
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Disability Theory ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
The Individual

Historically, educational accessibility in higher education appeared to be a dynamic and fluid scale with individual rights and accessibility on one side while institutional policies and procedures balanced the other side. Additional weights were applied to both sides of the scale. United States (U.S.) federal laws applied weight to the individual rights and accessibility side. Meanwhile, financial considerations applied weight to the institutional policies side. U.S. universities may have found this balancing act difficult through ongoing legal cases and law revisions. Critical Disability Theory (CDT) provides an alternative viewpoint to review education accessibility. CDT also encourages participation by more campus stakeholders to resolve accessibility issues and promote full accessibility on university campuses. This chapter will explore and explain the complex interconnections of laws, finances and policies in supporting accessibility on campuses and discuss potential guidelines for future institutional policies and procedures related to students with disabilities.

scholarly journals STEM Faculty Instructional Data-Use Practices: Informing Teaching Practice and Students’ Reflection on Students’ Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 291
Author(s):  
Cindy Lenhart ◽  
Jana Bouwma-Gearhart
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Technology ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Stem Faculty ◽  
Standardized Curriculum ◽  
Learning Data

This paper explores the affordances and constraints of STEM faculty members’ instructional data-use practices and how they engage students (or not) in reflection around their own learning data. We found faculty used a wide variety of instructional data-use practices. We also found several constraints that influenced their instructional data-use practices, including perceived lack of time, standardized curriculum and assessments predetermined in scope and sequence, and a perceived lack of confidence and competence in their instructional data-use practices. Novel findings include faculty descriptions of instructional technology that afforded them access to immediate and nuanced instructional data. However, faculty described limited use of instructional data that engaged students in reflecting on their own learning data. We consider implications for faculty’s instructional data-use practices on departmental and institutional policies and procedures, professional development experts, and for faculty themselves.

scholarly journals Community Service-Learning: Why Can’t Canada Be More Like Mexico?

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59
Author(s):  
Victoria Calvert ◽  
Halia Valladares Montemayor
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
National Level ◽  
Community Service Learning ◽  
Community Partners ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Volunteer Programs ◽  
The Government

  In Mexico, the community service strategy and requirements for undergraduate students are both longstanding and mandated by the Mexican Constitution. Students undertake a minimum of 480 hours of service during their undergraduate degrees, which are coordinated through their universities’ Social Service (SS) departments. Many Canadian universities and colleges offer community service through courses and volunteer programs; however, the practice and adoption levels vary widely. Student involvement with community partners, as represented through community service-learning (CSL) and volunteerism in Canada, are sponsored by many post-secondary institutions but are not driven by a national agenda. While, in Mexico, community service is documented at a departmental and institutional level for reporting to stakeholders and the government, in Canada, documentation of community service varies with the institutional mandate and is often sporadic or non-existent; the imperative for systematic student engagement and citizenship development has not been recognized at the national level. This research paper provides an overview of the community engagement practices in both countries, with the national patterns represented through a summative review of selected Canadian and Mexican universities. Suggestions for processes and practices for Canada are proposed based upon the Mexican model.

scholarly journals Pear Square: Design And Development Of Inclusive Digital Media Technology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Legros
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Academic Accommodations ◽  
Current Development ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Development Processes

This project investigates the development process of accessible digital media technologies using Pear Square, a web platform aimed at assisting post-secondary students with their academic accommodations, as the research basis. Current development processes are contextualized by identifying relating concepts and resources that demonstrate approaches in creating accessible systems. The research process consists of technical analysis of several accessibility tools and their influence on the development processes of websites, such as colour and contrast or screen reader functionality for people with low or no vision. The development of the Pear Square platform consists of identifying key user-case scenarios and ensuring the developed features accommodate current accessibility standards. Through the analysis of the development process of Pear Square, the objective of this research is to assess current development technologies and propose future solutions that enable efficient accessible development processes.

scholarly journals English for Academic Purposes Programs: Key Trends Across Canadian Universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Roy Douglas ◽  
Michael Landry
Keyword(s):  
Graphical Representation ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
University Education ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Toefl Ibt ◽  
Program Data

Because of the large number of post-secondary English for academic purposes (EAP) programs and the varying ways they are structured, it can be difficult to identify how a particular program fits within the overall landscape of university education.  To identify general trends across Canada, the webpages for 74 EAP programs at 50 public English-medium universities were examined for key information related to each program.  Data analysis included descriptive statistics as well as graphical representation.  The results pointed to typical EAP programs that are independent units that offer non-credit courses with some credit options, have international tuition fees around $9,000 per semester, provide approximately 22 hours of instruction per week, and generally require IELTS scores over 5.0 or TOEFL iBT scores over 59 for entry.  These results provide an avenue of comparison and indicate the need for future research to better understand how EAP programming is conceptualized in the Canadian context.

scholarly journals A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Mathematics Education Practices at Canadian Universities

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chester Weatherby ◽  
Donna Kotsopoulos ◽  
Douglas Woolford ◽  
Laaraib Khattak
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Secondary Mathematics ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Mathematics Scores ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Mathematics Majors ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
University Mathematics

In response to international standardized testing, many countries are examining mathematics education at virtually every level of instruction. Canada is no exception. Declines in mathematics scores in some international standardized tests have raised concerns amongst some stakeholders that a “crisis” may be unfolding and the readiness of students to study mathematics in university. These results raise questions about the ways in which students are streamed into university mathematics and the supports provided once they begin their studies. Our focus in this research was university-level mathematics education. To mimic how students, parents, counselors and son on are most likely to seek for mathematics support, we engaged in a web-based examination of departments of mathematics at 62 Canadian universities (including “university colleges”). Our objectives were to examine the types of degrees offered, admission protocols (including types of streaming or placement tests), methods for remedial support, accessibility of online information, mathematics help centers, courses for non-mathematics majors, and access initiatives as a preliminary step in analyzing the broader Canadian landscape in post-secondary mathematics education. Our findings reveal remarkably consistent practices across all institutions. A rethinking of practices may be necessary in order to support those students that appear to be underprepared for post-secondary mathematics.

Does Place Really Matter to Students with Learning Disabilities? A Study of Three University Campuses

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-81
Author(s):  
Susan Whitmer
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Space Design ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Students With Ld

Key drivers that influence space design in today's higher education environment are technology, changing demographics, increased focus on student engagement, and carbon footprint. Just as important, but not typically on the list, is the growing population of students with Learning Disabilities (LD) for which the physical environment plays an increasingly important role in successful learning outcomes. The research goal was to examine the role of “place” as a component of academic success for those students with LD. Methodology included both literature review and the development of a case study analysis of three post-secondary institutions in the United States. The universities were chosen based on the size of the university, the campus setting, and the mission of the Disabilities Services team. The conclusion of the research surfaced three specific components of the physical environment that hold an increased value for a student with LD. These components are wayfinding, formal learning spaces, and disability services spaces. The key to integrating a sense of place with the needs of students with LD is moving beyond meeting the minimum standards of the legal mandates and bridging the principles of universal design to the built environment.

Understanding Institutional Policies and Procedures

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
Robert S. Fleming ◽  
Michelle Kowalsky
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Policies And Procedures
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