Take your pick of laws and acts, people with disabilities are protected by numerous pieces of legislation to assure their right to equitable access to online education because of their disability. There is a burden on Instructors to ensure students with disabilities can easily access online course content, and provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities in accordance with the Human Rights Code (BC) and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
What is an Accommodation?
- Involves the removal of barriers (physical or instructional).
- Does not usually involve modification of curriculum or evaluation; a student must still meet the learning objectives and essential requirements of the course.
- May involve an adaptation or alteration to the physical and/or instructional environment.
- May include alternate formats and methods of communication, the use of adaptive technology and/or adaptations to the examination environment.
Accommodations are designed to level the playing field so a student can meet the essential requirements and succeed on their own merits. Accommodations do not guarantee success, and does not mean that academic standards are being lowered.
References
UVic Accessibility : UVic has an equal access policy, guaranteeing equal access to all services for everyone. The university strives to ensure that all UVic websites are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
UVic Resource Centre for Students with a Disability (RCSD): Provide services and coordinates academic accommodations to students. Also acts as a resource to faculty and works with the University community to help create a more accessible learning environment.
BC Human Rights Code: Particulary Section 8.
Canadian Human Rights Act: Information regarding accessibility and requirements. In short, a disability can be either permanent (e.g., a visual or mobility impairment), or temporary (e.g., a treatable illness or temporary impairment which is the result of an accident). Amendments in 1998 to the Canadian Human Rights Act require employers and service providers to accommodate special needs short of undue hardship, including those of people with disabilities.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:Section 15(1) of the Charter protects persons with mental disabilities, and that has been interpreted to include persons with learning disabilities.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): The W3C is an international organization. One of its primary goals is to develop standards, protocols and guidelines to ensure that the benefits of web-based information are accessible to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability.
