Accessible Education - Frequently Asked Questions

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How many Accessible Education projects are there?

There is one Accessible Education project; it includes three teams, each focusing on a different aspect of accessible education: Instructional Programs and Practices, Learning Tools and Materials, Policy and Guidelines. Since the goals and projects overlap, the leadership of each team meet regularly to provide leadership to the overall project. Learn more about the teams and their membership at the Teaching Innovation Incubator’s project page.

Is the University looking at improving other aspects of Accessibility?

Yes, the University of Waterloo has spearheaded a comprehensive project aimed at improving accessibility on campus that is led by the Disability Inclusion Steering Committee (DISCo). The project aims to make accessibility the “standard operating procedure” at Waterloo rather than something that needs to be specifically arranged, one person at a time.    

What is the Teaching Innovation Incubator?

The Teaching Innovation Incubator, currently in its Beta phase of development, will support ongoing work towards transformative pedagogical innovation by serving as a hub, catalyst, and launch pad for ideas that will shape the next generation of teaching and learning at Waterloo. Read more about the Teaching Innovation Incubator.

During consultations leading up to the creation of the Incubator, we received multiple requests to improve the accessibility of education at Waterloo. Similarly, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) recommendations in support of a new higher education standard are the product of grass-roots feedback and advocacy from students who encountered barriers as they pursued university education or who were prevented from pursuing it in the first place due to systemic barriers related to accessibility.

The value of the Incubator lies in its capacity to bring together cross-functional teams of faculty, students, staff from various units with varying experience and expertise and help them work together towards a common goal. It is a mechanism capitalizing on the creative capacity and talent on campus. We anticipate that the Teaching Innovation Incubator will be integral to allowing us to accomplish our goals as efficiently and collaboratively as possible.

How does the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) factor into these projects?

The impetus for DISCo was the announcement that it would be mandating a higher educational standard as part of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to achieve the goal of having an accessible Ontario by 2025. But the aim of DISCo is not merely compliance with such standards. Waterloo is aiming to improve the accessibility of all the opportunities that Waterloo provides. Good teaching is accessible teaching. Accessible education implies accessible spaces, accessible teaching materials, and much more. We will use AODA’s guidelines and recommendations as guidance for measures to take as we pursue accessibility.

How does the Accessible Education project map to other initiatives on campus?

The Accessible Education project overlaps with a number of other institutional projects that have already begun addressing disability inclusion from various angles, or that involve goals that overlap with accessibility considerations.

  • The Disability Inclusion Steering Committee is overseeing multiple accessibility projects across campus, including the Accessible Education project. DISCo works to ensure alignment of efforts, efficient investment of effort and resources, and avoiding duplication of efforts across the projects.
  • The Disability Inclusion Office is leading a number of initiatives related to accessibility, including the Inclusive Physical Space Framework and an Accessibility Advisory Panel open to students, faculty, and staff with lived experience of disability.
  • The President’s Anti-Racism Task Force recommendations implementation project. PART issued a report with many recommendations, some of which are equity-focused. DISCo is working to ensure that the efforts of DISC0 projects align with those undertaken to implement PART recommendations.
  • The Digital Learning Strategy, presented by the Provost to Senate in June 2023, includes many recommendations related to digital educational materials, learning tools, and pedagogy. Implementing many of these will reinforce the work of all three Accessible Education project teams.
  • The Digital Accessibility Guide was developed to provide guidance for improving the accessibility of Waterloo'swebsites while also making them more user-friendly in general and improving their visibility in search engine results.
  • The Credentials Framework project team has been  considering the types of credentials available at Waterloo and thinking through various aspects of the credentials process with an eye to flexible learning pathways and curricula--both of which will benefit disabled learners and others.

How will this project impact my work?

It is clear that some things need to change in order to make Waterloo’s teaching and learning activities accessible. The teams that are part of the Accessible Ed project do not pretend to have a detailed understanding of how they must change. This multi-year project will involve providing opportunities for Waterloo’s students and instructors to be part of the process of identifying things that must change and of designing enhanced, more accessible ways of doing those things. There will, inevitably, be new policies, guidelines, practices and tools, but new supports and resources will also be developed. Curricula will change. Some courses will be re-designed. But the University's intention is to provide stakeholders opportunities to help shape the change.

Thinking about creating an accessible and inclusive learning environment makes me feel overwhelmed.

We know that making these changes may feel overwhelming at first; there is certainly a long list of things that the University needs to consider in updating its disability inclusion measures, particularly with respect to teaching and learning.

The good news is that we are not starting from nothing; Waterloo already has many measures in place to support accessible learning environments for students with disabilities, including the recent Course Outline Repository project.

It is also important to recognize that the change need not happen all at once--and will probably be more effective if it happens in stages. The three Accessible Education Teams and the Teaching Fellows are learning, consulting, and synthesizing information and experiences with the goal of rolling out advice about some readily implementable steps instructors can take that will significantly improve accessibility from an educational standpoint.

In fact, there are already a few resources instructors can access when developing education materials for their courses:

Will the Accessible Education project include the voices of disabled persons?

Sometimes people ask “will this project be led by disabled persons?” The answer to that is that it will be led by those in relevant leadership positions at University, whether or not they identify as disabled. It is not the job of disabled people to make the University suitable for themselves, but for us as a community to do this work for their and everyone's benefit.

On the other hand, the work will involve robust consultation and relationship-building with disabled stakeholders. The voices of disabled stakeholders will be prioritized throughout the project’s life cycle in a way that does not require them to disclose their disability should they choose not to, and also does not disadvantage disabled students by loading them with extra service work on top of their efforts to complete their coursework or do their jobs. As an early step in the process, DISCo is investing resources in  the establishment of a “disability trust” comprising individuals who have self-declared their disability and would like to be part of conversations about accessibility at Waterloo. Contact Joyce Barlow, Associate Director of Disability Inclusion for more information.

What is the timeline for these projects?

Although initial planning for Accessible Education is three years, the project has a sense of urgency in that improving access to higher education for disabled students has been a long time coming. Early deliverables are expected to be shared throughout 2024.