Student Resources

Students can reach out at any time to AccessAbility Services to apply for accommodations: https://uwaterloo.ca/accessability-services/students/applying-academic-accommodations.

The term disability covers a broad range and degree of conditions including, the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of a trauma (e.g., sexual violence, and/or racial trauma). If a student discloses that they are being impacted by racial trauma, refer them to the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Office's Accommodations for Racial Trauma. Moreover, for students affected by other forms of trauma, you can guide them to AAS to explore whether academic accommodations will be required.

AccessAbility Services has placed guidance for instructors in one location and has created a video for instructors to understand how to navigate AAS requests: https://uwaterloo.ca/accessability-services/faculty-and-staff. As noted in the guidelines, the University (according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission) has a duty to inquire into the possible relationship between a student’s behaviour and a disability to assist and accommodate students. If you believe a student may require accommodations, you are to attempt to assist them by refer them to support services, such as AAS (you can use the ‘referral scripts’ in the Appendix C of the Student Academic Accommodation Guidelines).

Instructors can use the AAS’s online system (AIM) to manage theircourse accommodations, through the Faculty Module. This module enables instructors to:    

Notes about AAS Accommodations:

If AAS stipulates test accommodation requests for students, who have registered with AAS, instructors should never unilaterally alter the recommended accommodation (e.g., reducing the extra time to write an exam from 30 minutes to 15 minutes for each hour of the exam).  Instructors, who are concerned about the requested accommodation (e.g., they believe it creates an undue burden to accommodate), should contact AccessAbility Services. 

Online Tests: the testing time allotment must be adjusted to reflect approved time extensions for online tests or quizzes.  Instructors administering these tests through LEARN should review the LEARN Help site section 'Special Access in a Quiz' for step-by-step instructions. Questions should be directed to LEARN Help at: learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca. 

Note-takers: Instructors are encouraged to recruit and secure note-takers for student(s) in their class (instructors can announce in class or on LEARN).  Requests can be submitted at any time in the term, although most occur in the first three weeks of the term. It is essential that the identity of students needing this support is not revealed to their classmates. An example announcement follows: "To accommodate classmates who are registered with AccessAbility Services, the AccessAbility staff and I are looking for volunteer note-takers for (course name). We appreciate your contribution to the university on behalf of fellow students who are unable to take notes due to a disability. A volunteer note-taker will be asked to submit their notes once a week to notetaking@uwaterloo.ca or to bring in their notes directly to AccessAbility Services, once a week. AccessAbility Services will make a copy of the notes and send them to the student(s) requiring the notes. If you are interested in being a volunteer note-taker, please fill out a ‘Volunteer Note-taker Application’ form, under the Opportunities Tab on the AccessAbility Services webpage." 

Student Accommodations and Science Lab Safety: Lab course instructors are encouraged to include the following statement in their course outline: "In order to support the health and safety of students, those who have a permanent, temporary, or suspected disability/medical condition or pregnancy that may affect their ability to safely participate in/complete labs, are expected to contact AccessAbility Services and/or their course instructor to ensure that appropriate accommodations and preparations have been considered."

Faculty Support:

AAS can offer 1:1 support to instructors to a) explore how their course design will meet the specific accommodation needs of a student, b) to develop a safety-based accommodation plan for a student in the lab or other ‘high risk’ area, c) to assist instructors with accommodation disputes, d) to ‘vet’ the need for exemptions to program/course requirements, and e) to work with instructors to identify essential requirements of their course or program to explore whether an accommodation will cause undue hardship. Just reach out to access@uwaterloo.ca.