3.3: OHRC and Accommodations
Ideally, developing a course utilizing UDL principles and following accessibility guidelines will proactively meet the needs of all students, including supports outlined in accommodation requests. This should help reduce time spent in retrofitting accommodations after the fact. However, as there is no “one size fits all” approach to learning, the need for individual accommodations within a learning environment will always be present. Designing a course with accessibility in mind and utilizing principles of UDL, the ability to accommodate individual requests and to pivot a portion of your course should require less labour.
Under the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC), people are protected from discrimination, either direct or indirect, in “services”, based on protected grounds. This protection includes education as a social area since education is a service within the meaning of the Code. This means that students with disabilities are covered by the Code. There are also protections under the Code for those who experience reprisal or are threatened with reprisal for trying to exercise their human rights (OHRC, 2003).
“Education, in its broadest sense, is a ‘service’ within the meaning of the Code. The scope of “educational services” will include the mastery of knowledge, academic standards, evaluation and accreditation.”
— Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2004
Principles of Accommodation under the Code
Accommodation of students with disabilities is governed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and by provincial human rights statutes, like the Ontario Human Rights Code enacted in 1962. The Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC) makes illegal any actions that discriminate against people based on protected grounds in a protected social area.
As you read through the following list, think about if any of these grounds or social areas surprise you as protected? If so, why? Are there grounds or areas that you expected to see that do not appear here? What are these grounds or areas?
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What is an Accommodation?
Accommodation is one way of preventing and removing barriers that hold back, obstruct, or impede students with disabilities from participating fully in the educational environment in a way that is accessible and appropriate to their own unique circumstances. The principle of accommodation involves three considerations: dignity, individualization, and inclusion (OHRC, n.d.).
Defining Appropriate Accommodation
There are a wide variety of accommodations provided to students with disabilities at the post-secondary level. These may include:
- Accommodations to improve the physical accessibility of facilities
- Provision of, or training on adaptive technologies
- Sign language interpretation services
- Real-time captioning
- Recording lectures
- In-class support such as, for example, notetakers
- Modifications to evaluation methodologies, such as extended test-taking time, or alternative examination formats
The accommodati