Waterloo will develop a centralized and standardized process for managing accommodation requests for persons with disabilities (active or prospective employees, students, and cross-over populations). The priorities for this centralized body are to uphold the privacy and confidentiality of individuals in need of accommodation (to prevent real or perceived bias against an individual based on their disability) as well as to ensure that funding is provided for accommodation solutions regardless of an individual’s faculty/department affiliation.
E1. Centralize accommodation process
Status: somewhat complete
Progress: on track
Attempts to establish a central accommodation process began in 2016. In Waterloo’s endeavor to meet the requirements of the employment standard within the AODA, an opportunity to expand this need to all marginalized groups within the university was identified. As such, Waterloo will look to first establish an accommodation policy for employees (as per section A1), setting the rules and parameters around accommodations, before looking at how to operationally centralize such accommodation requests. As such, this activity has been placed on hold.
Currently, the University’s Occupational Health department assesses, reviews and monitors employment accommodation requests on the basis of disability for staff and CUPE members, while Faculty members go through Faculty Association for University of Waterloo due to their unique nature of employment. Updated accommodations guidelines will be drafted in reflection of the upcoming Employment Accommodation Policy. Upon finalization, the guidelines will serve to articulate and inform all employees on one centralized accommodations process. Planning for this work will coincide with the iterative process of the Accommodation Policy development.
E2. Employment accommodation funding
Status: not started
Progress: on track
In February 2019, the University received a grant through the Government of Canada’s Enabling Accessibility Fund to create an Assistive Technology (AT) Loan Library for employees. Leveraging the existing loan library program in AccessAbility Services for students with disabilities in their academic accommodations, the University was able to expand this library to offer various software, hardware, equipment and aids for employees on a temporary basis. This library includes provision of screen reader software for visual impairments, personal amplification devices for hearing impairments, Smartpens for cognitive impairments, and speech-to-text software for physical impairments, among other devices. Departments are also able to loan this equipment when hosting events to assist in offering accessible customer service.
Waterloo recognizes the importance of establishing a consistent funding strategy for accommodation solutions to alleviate perceived burdens on individual faculties and departments. However, it is important that the upcoming Policy 57 – Employment Accommodations be established first (per section A1), to provide direction on how funding for accommodations solutions will be achieved. As such, planning for accommodation funding has been placed on hold. In the meantime, departments continue to manage the financial requirements for implementing disability accommodation solutions beyond what is offered in the AT loan library.
