Accessibility should be a central and visible aspect of both institutional and conduct policy, intertwined with the concept of equity. It is essential that accessibility is embedded in all processes to ensure that all students have equal access to educational opportunities, supportive measures, and accommodations for conduct processes (Bauer, 2022; Davis, 2022).
Some key practices to support accessibility in conduct processes includes providing accessible physical/digital spaces, building in breaks, and encouraging support persons (Bohler, 2018). Another critical practice is ensuring use of plain language in written communications. This approach benefits not only students with learning disabilities or cognitive impairments but also helps overcome other barriers, such as language differences and cultural misunderstandings. When policies, emails, websites, and face-to-face interactions are communicated clearly, they become more understandable for all students. This allows students to more meaningfully engage in these processes (World Wide Web Consortium [W3C] Working Group, 2021).
Collaboration with the campus accessibility department is key to making accommodations effective. Faculty and staff from both departments should collaborate to identify and remove barriers early, ensuring accommodations are provided in a timely, proactive manner. Accommodations should not be viewed as a one-off task but as an ongoing, flexible process, adapting to students’ evolving needs.
For more information on how best to support post-secondary students with disabilities, check out CICMH’s Accessibility & Accommodations Toolkit. When you are done, simply return here to continue with the toolkit.
For more information on integrating accessibility into student conduct and fostering an inclusive environment, please refer to the Accessibility as Equity in Student Conduct module. This free and short module was created by student conduct professionals from Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College, who also contributed as writers to this toolkit and co-chair the Canadian Association of College & University Student Services (CACUSS) Student Conduct Community of Practice.
