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Academic accommodations adjust academic tasks, activities, or the environment to faciliate equitable access for student with disabilities. Accommodations are not modifications. They do not change or reduce essential elements of the academic task or activity. Once accommodated, students with disabilities are required to meet the same academic requirements and standards as other students.
Some academic accommodations we may approve for students with disabilities are described below.
Alternate format is an alternate means of presenting print information.
If you use text-to-speech software, Braille and other tools to access information because you have a print disability and cannot read, see, or manipulate hard copy printed materials.
Alternate formats may include electronic and/or braille options.
You must initiate the request in Accessible Learning Online before the Transcription team commences work on obtaining or preparing your print course material into alternate formats.
Laurier's compliance with copyright legislation requiries that you submit receipts as proof that you have purchased the textbooks or other course materials. It also requires you to agree that you will use the alternate formats for your personal study use only.
The Transcription team may contact your instructor directly to obtain your course material so that we can arrange your alternate format material in a timely manner.
Laurier instructors deliver courses from our Waterloo, Brantford, Kitchener, and Milton campuses using various modalities:
Laurier also offers some courses using hybrid approaching including:
Enrolled students must complete all course requirements outlined in the course syllabus, including components requiring in-person attendance, on the campus offering the course.
Students must be aware that any of the above modalities may include in-person tests or exams requiring students to travel to the campus offering the course. The only exception is for students living more than 100 km from the campus delivering the course. Students concerned about travel requirements should carefully review their course syllabi and proctored exams before published drop dates.
Accessible Learning does not arrange accommodations, including exam accommodations, for students at a campus different from the one delivering the course.
Academic accommodations facilitate equitable access for students with disabilities to the learning environment in which each course is delivered. Accommodations are not intended or approved to alter course modalities. Students with disabilities taking courses that are fully in-person, or include in-person components, must fulfill these requirements in-person like all other students.
In rare and unusual situations, Accessible Learning may temporarily support a student's request for remote access to some in-person learning components, like lectures. Examples include:
Accessible Learning carefully assesses student requests for remote access by thoroughly considering the student's health situation, course and program requirements. We also consult with the student's healthcare providers (with written consent), instructors, academic advisors, and others as needed.
Remote access to lectures:
Students with disabilities who rely on a service animal to access or engage with any part of the Laurier campus and our placement partners must register with Accessible Learning.
The following summarizes why students with service animals must register with Accessible Learning:
Registering with Accessible Learning to bring a service animal to campus involves:
To ensure timely approval, students must check their Laurier email and promptly respond to messages from Accessible Learning.
Students approved to bring a service animal to Laurier will be issued a Service Animal OneCard free of charge. A fee will be assessed for replacing lost or stolen cards.
After Accessible Learning approves you to bring your service animal to campus, OneCard will email your Laurier email address instructions for submitting your animal's photo. Once received, they will let you know when your service animal's OneCard is ready for pick up.
Students must show their service animal's OneCard when requested by any Laurier or placement partner employee.
Unless noted for reasons of a temporary disability or accommodation, a service animal's OneCard will remain valid for the duration of the student's studies at Laurier.
If a student fails to abide by the University's applicable policies and requirements, including the training and service animal behavior declaration contained in the University's Service Animals on Campus documentation form, Accessible Learning can revoke permission for the student to bring their service animal to campus or placement partner. In this case, Accessible Learning will arrange alternative supports as appropriate.
In some courses, students are graded for their "participation". While not always defined in course syllabi, it may require students to:
While students must fulfill all course requirements, some students with disabilities require adjustments to how they meet the participation requirement in some courses.
Accessible Learning may approve this accommodation for students with:
Adjustments to participation are slight alterations to how the student meets the participation requirement in a course. This adjustment does not exempt students from having to participate and they must meet the same requirements as other students.
Adjustments to participation may include:
Where appropriate, students approved for this accommodation will be referred to a learning strategist for support with developing and enhancing their skills in participation activities. For example, developing strategies for jotting down their reactions or comments during live conversation.
Students must communicate with Accessible Learning as soon as they identify a participation requirement that they cannot complete because of their disability.
If Accessible Learning adds the "Adjustments to Participation" accommodation to their plan, students must immediately speak with their instructor about appropriate adjustments.
Both students and instructors can suggest adjustments or consult with Accessible Learning for ideas. Instructors must work with students to identify adjustments that will meet the student's access needs while maintaining academic requirements.
Some students have disabilities that prohibits them from delivering public presentations using traditional methods (ie., speaking to live audience in person or online with or without notes or slide decks).
To fully access the learning environment, these students may require adjustments to how they meet the presentation requirements in some courses.
Accessible Learning may approve this accommodation for students with:
Adjustments are slight alterations to how the student meets the presentation requirement.
Adjustments to the presentation requirement may include permitting the student to:
Where appropriate, students approved for this accommodation will be referred to a learning strategist for developing and enhancing their presentation skills. This may include delivering short presentations, strategies for creating effective pre-recorded videos and negotiating responsibilities in group presentation assignments.
Students must communicate with Accessible Learning as soon as they identify a presentation requirement that they are unable to complete because of their disability.
If Accessible Learning adds the "Adjustments to Presentations" accommodation to their plan, students must immediately speak with the instructor about appropriate adjustments.
Both students and instructors can suggest adjustments or consult with Accessible Learning for ideas. Instructors must work with students to identify adjustments that will meet the student's access needs while maintaining academic requirements.
This accommodation gives enhanced flexibility on assignment deadlines to students whose disability prevents them from occasionally completing an academic assignment on time.
Students may receive this accommodation because of:
Some students who rely on assistive technology for reading and/or writing activities may also require this accommodation.
Where appropriate, students with this accommodation will be referred to a learning strategist to develop and/or enhance their time management, assignment chunking, and planning skills. This helps students learn how to account for the impact of their disability when planning their assignments for on time completion.
Instructors with questions or concerns about a student's extension request, or in the case of repeated/multiple requests, should contact Accessible Learning for advice before responding to the student.
The notetaking accommodation helps you capture real-time oral information in online or in person lectures, or during instructional segments of labs, tutorials, seminars, and other educational activities.
Accessible Learning approves the notetaking accommodation for use in learning enviornments where you must capture real-time, oral information needed to support your learning or performance on assessments.
The notetaking accommodation is approved for students who have difficulties:
The notetaking accommodation gives you information to use after class for filling in gaps in your own notes. It is not intended to replace: (a) your own notetaking efforts, or (b) your class attendance and engagement.
Accessible Learning supports the notetaking accommodation in two ways:
This accommodation appears on your Letter of Accommodation as Permission to Audio Record Lectures.
You can choose to use this accommodation with:
Before using the audio recording accommodation, you must agree to the Accessible Learning Audio Recording Agreement. This agreement states that instructors retain sole ownership of the copyright material in audio recordings. It also states that you:
The agreement makes clear that Accessible Learning can remove this accommodation from if you are found not in compliance with the agreement.
Accessible Learning does not intend for students to use audio recording in some learning situations like:
In largely lecture-based courses that occasionally include learning situations like above, you and your instructors can agree on a strategy for pausing and resuming recording. You must abide by these directives when requested.
You and instructor are expected to explore appropriate alternatives for supporting notetaking access needs in courses delivered largely in learning environments as described above. Some learning experiences may not require any notetaking in which case alternatives are not required. You or your instructor can contact your Accessible Learning accommodation consultant for ideas or additional support.
The University’s Privacy Office has stated that given Laurier’s legal obligations towards people with disabilities, it is not a misuse of instructor or student personal information including name, voice, comments, and lecture information when shared in the context of facilitating accommodation like audio recording for students with disabilities.
Glean is a web-based notetaking application with built-in audio recording, transcription, and study tools where you can organize all your course notes, slide decks, and other materials.
Using Glean requires the Permission to Audio Record Lectures accommodation, which is stated on your Letter of Accommodation.
Note: You can use your audio accommodation in various ways. Therefore, Glean does not appear on your Letter of Accommodation.
Follow these steps to access Glean:
Volunteer Notetaking
Accessible Learning will approve Volunteer Notetaking for students whose access cannot be met through audio recording or Glean. You may be asked to work with the Accommodation Supports Coordinator for help with these accommodations before we start volunteer recruitment.
Accessible Learning asks instructors to help recruit a volunteer notetaker from among students in the course. After signing their contract, the volunteer notetaker takes and uploads their notes to Accessible Learning Online for students to download.
Volunteer notetakers are expected to:
Please note the following limitations with Volunteer Notetaking:
Accessible Learning works with instructors to find alternatives when volunteer recruitment is unsuccessful.
Have questions about notetaking? Email us at alnotes@wlu.ca.
This accommodation adds a set amount of additional time for a student beyond the time an instructor sets for an exam, test, or quiz.
Extended time on exams improves access by compensating students for the time they use coping with disability-related functional limitations or symptoms during their exams.
A student with a learning disability in reading takes longer than students without a disability to read exam content. Extended time for exams returns to the student the additional time they needed for reading so they end up with the same amount of time as other students in which to complete the exam.
Extended time on exams will not guarantee that students will finish every exam on time, nor is it intended to give them more time to think through their answers, or review and polish their work.
Accessible Learning approves a specific number of minutes per 1 hour of exam, typically in one of the following amounts: 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, and 60. On a 2-hour exam, a student with 15 minutes of extended time receives 30 minutes extra time for a total of 2 ½ hours.
Note: The specific amount of extended time a student receives on each exam is calculated using the original time an instructor sets for the exam.
The amount of extended time is individualized and considers the following for each student:
Accessible Learning also considers best practices and current research in postsecondary academic accommodation planning. For instance, Lovett & Lewandowski (2014) reviewed exam performance for thousands of students with varying types of disabilities, including learning, mental health, attention, and physical disabilities. Even when controlling for disability types and functional limitations, they found that the access needs during exams for most students can be met with just quarter time or an additional 15 minutes per 1-hour exam.
Accessible Learning approves this accommodation to remove access barriers that can emerge when students have disabilities that:
Accessible Learning approves extended time for exams when barriers are clearly present that prevent the student from equitably accessing the learning environment.
Accessible Learning may not approve this accommodation in the following situations:
Lovett, B.J., & Lewandowski, L.J. (2014). Testing Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Research-Based Practice. American Psychological Association. New York, NY.
Some Laurier instructors build extra time into their quizzes, tests, or exams to make them more accessible and inclusive. They do this by (a) determining the amount of content to be covered, (b) determining how much time most students need to complete the assessment, and (c) adding a certain amount of extra time for all students.
An instructor uses weekly quizzes in their course worth a total of 10 marks, and students can drop their lowest two quizzes. The quiz covers readings and lecture material from the previous week and includes 10 multiple-choice questions. Last year, students had 10 minutes to complete the quiz. While the quiz still includes 10 questions, this year students are given 15 minutes (or time and a half).
In the above scenario, students whose accommodation plan with Accessible Learning includes up to time and a half for exams do not need individualized accommodation for quizzes in this course. That is because by building in extra time, the instructor removed barriers related to time and in effect, granting all students time and a half.
A memory aid is a tool or resource that students design with instructor approval to help them retrieve learned information during exams. The tool typically makes sense only to the student but may include information to which other students writing the same exam do not have access.
A memory aid is one of the following:
Cue Sheet/Word List– a document with words, pictures, and/or graphics designed to trigger learned information.
Formulae Sheet – a document using symbols, figures and/or numbers that help cue learned rules or principles.
To use this approved accommodation, students must follow these steps and specifications:
Memory aids must not contain:
Accessible Learning will approve this accommodation only for students with a psycho-educational or neuropsychological assessment completed within the last 5 years using adult norms that include the following:
Assessment results using tests like the ones above must demonstrate that the student has a long-term memory disorder in which learning successfully occurs, but retrieval is compromised and cannot be achieved without cues (Harrison, Holmes, & Pollock, 2021).
Accessible Learning will not approve the memory aid accommodation for students presenting with assessments that do not include tests like the ones listed above and/or solely with low scores on auditory working memory tests. This includes the Digit Span, mental Arithmetic, Letter-Number Sequencing, or the Working Memory Index of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
Low scores on these tests are not sufficient evidence of a long-term memory disorder. Rather, they typically indicate challenges with learning approaches, attention, or other functions of learning and are best addressed by more effective learning strategies to aid initial encoding of information into memory.
Working Memory is short-term memory used to hold information in mind while performing another task. For example, listening to and remembering menu options on a voice recording before making a selection. Since the information used in short-term memory tests is not encoded into long-term memory, a low score on working memory tests is not sufficient evidence of a long-term memory disorder.
Accessible Learning may not approve the memory aid accommodation for students taking courses in which information recall is an academic requirement (e.g., recalling terms in an anatomy course).
Harrison, A.G., Holmes, A, & Pollock, B. (2021). Memory aids as a disability related accommodation? Let’s remember to recommend them appropriately. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 36(3), 255-272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573520979581
The reader accommodation involves a person reading aloud exam content to the student during an exam.
This accommodation is used primarily when assistive technology, like text-to-speech software, is not feasible.
Accessible Learning approves this accommodation for students whose disability-related functional limitations restrict their ability to read text on paper or screen during exams including students with:
Students approved for this accommodation are automatically assigned to a private room during exams.
During the exam, the student and reader will agree:
Accessible Learning and other administrative staff, proctors, instructors, teaching assistants, and graduate students may serve as qualified readers.
When a student is approved for both a reader and a scribe, the same qualified individual can perform both roles during exams.
The scribe accommodation involves a person handwriting or typing a student’s answers to exam content verbatim and exactly as the student speaks them aloud.
This accommodation is used primarily when assistive technology, like speech-to-text, is not feasible.
Accessible Learning approves the scribe accommodation for students whose disability-related functional limitations restrict their ability to hand write or type their answers during an exam. This includes students with:
Students approved for this accommodation are automatically assigned to a private room for exams.
The student is responsible for:
The student may:
The scribe is responsible for:
Accessible Learning and other administrative staff, proctors, instructors, teaching assistants, and graduate students may serve as qualified scribes.
When a student is approved for both a reader and a scribe, the same qualified individual can perform both roles during exams.
Qualified scribes must be able to:
Contact Us:
Office Hours:
Monday to Friday
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Office Locations:
Waterloo: Peters, P220
Brantford: One Market, 207-20
Milton: Virtual Services, On-Site Exams
Exam Inquiries:
P: 1-548-889-3516
Intake Inquiries:
E: intakeALC@wlu.ca
P: 1-548-889-3515