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Academic accommodations are adjustments or adaptations made to academic tasks and activities so that students with disabilities can access them without barriers. Unlike modifications, accommodations do not change or reduce essential elements of the academic task or activity. Once accommodations are in place, students with disabilities are required to meet the same academic requirements and standards as other students.
See below for information about some of the academic accommodations we frequently approve for students.
Alternate format is an alternate means of presenting print information so you can access resources.
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 can be electronic and/or braille options.
Accessible Learning has a transcription technologist who handles all of the requests for converting print course material into alternate formats. You must initiate the request.
Strict copyright laws are followed during this procedure. You must show proof of purchase for the course material and agree to use it solely for your own learning. The ALC’s transcription technologist may contact your instructor for course material information in order to provide alternate format to you in a timely manner.
Your instructor can contact the ALC regarding your needs to ensure the course material is accessible.
Audio recording of in-person lectures may be warranted to address functional limitations such as:
You must complete an agreement to ensure you are using your recordings responsibly in a way that respects the intellectual property of the instructor. This includes agreeing to only using the recordings for your own use and deleting the recordings after you complete the course.
To help facilitate a quality recording, you may request to put a recorder or phone close to your instructor or sit close to the front of the classroom.
This accommodation provides consideration for students who may require additional time to complete assignments that extend beyond the assigned deadline date by the instructor.
You may receive this accommodation because of:
This accommodation provides you with consideration for an alternative means to demonstrate your participation in a course, which differs from the stated means of participation set by the instructor.
Consideration for a participation alternative may be warranted if you experience an invisible disability that requires an alternative to verbal participation in the classroom.
This consideration may assist with such functional limitations as:
In-person learning components:
This accommodation provides you with an alternative to presentations or an alternative option to how a presentation is executed, without altering the learning outcomes of the course.
You have documentation that demonstrates consideration around an alternative to presentations due to such functional limitations caused by:
This accommodation provides students with access to lecture notes shared from volunteer note takers enrolled in their classes.
You may receive this accommodation due to:
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
Exam Inquiries:
P: 1-548-889-3516
Intake Inquiries:
E: intakeALC@wlu.ca
P: 1-548-889-3515