students with disabilities

Now almost a year into a pandemic, educators are giving their best to the students that need it most

While many students of all ages are struggling to adjust, students with learning and language disabilities are struggling even more.

With varying measures set into place regarding the introduction of elementary students back into schools across the country, there are discrepancies. Every school board is left to set things up their own way. Though many school boards have made it a priority to allow students with special needs to return to the classroom, other boards across the country have not even mentioned this aspect of schooling.

In the Ottawa Carleton District School board (OCDSB) for example, educators are giving their best efforts for these students, offering parents either in-class learning for specialized program classes, or a virtual version of the classes through Ottawa Carleton Virtual (OCV). Nick Jiminez, a speech language pathologist, has been working with the OCDSB for nearly three years.

“I don’t think anything special is happening for the kids with learning disabilities who are at home.”

Conversely, there are a variety of different situations that show these students to need to work from home, but as Connie Allen, Ottawa-based speech language pathologist, puts it, “Think about the child that’s four [years old], would you have them watch a PowerPoint?”

To that extent, for the children who do learn from home, “Ideally there is a parent at home or a caregiver in a daycare facility who is able to monitor one or more children while they receive remote learning,” said Jiminez.

While the ideal situation for these students is to have an adult with them to facilitate at-home learning, the reality is that this is not always possible. What works for one family may not apply to another.

Families are being forced to try and make choices between safety and education, and these are not always easy choices to make.

I think it’s okay for families to do what they can to make it work. We will do our best to make it successful, balancing that engagement with family stress,” said Allen. “We don’t want to cause our families stress.”

For many of these kids, the developmental assistance they get from these specialized program classes and systems are invaluable. These programs can range from learning literacy, to independence, to getting dressed, and even more. In many cases, it can be difficult to learn and interact with a laptop for these adapted curriculums.

“They are dealing with fatigue from looking at a screen all day,” said Jiminez.

What has become the norm for learning at home, having students spread across different households, may work for the average student. However, children with attention disorders or sensory needs are more susceptible to distraction while at home.

“The demands for self-control are greater when there are lots of distractions close by,” said Jiminez

In the past year, the debate on school closures has been tossed around for all students, yet there are some students for whom it is not feasible to learn at home. For students on the autism spectrum, nonverbal kids and those with cognitive disabilities, they benefit most from in-person learning where they are able to receive the attention they require.

Allowing these kids to learn in person ensures they are given the best attention, but safety concerns surrounding in-person learning have remained imminent throughout the pandemic. For many of these children, wearing a mask is not always possible, for reasons such as sensory difficulties , varying levels of cognitive development and the inability to comprehend why they need to wear it.

With the situation imperfect as it may be, educators and staff have all been learning on the fly, and trying to adapt as best as possible.

“[School] staff [are] doing absolutely everything they can both at school and online to make it successful. It’s a team effort,” said Allen. With the end of the 2021 school year on the horizon, hope can be held that safe and calculated returns can be made for these students, and the general population as well.

Graphic by @the.beta.lab

“You don’t look disabled; I don’t see what’s wrong with you.” Rory James says that’s exactly what one professor told him.

James is registered with the Access Centre for Students with Disabilities (ACSD), a resource that supports over 2,000 Concordia students who have physical disabilities, learning disabilities or mental illnesses by providing them with academic accommodations and connecting them with relevant resources.

According to James, their support isn’t enough.

James is a marketing and finance student, a John Molson School of Business councillor in the Concordia Student Union, and the council chairperson of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations. Over the past year and a half, he has been informally surveying students and faculty about their experiences with the ACSD. Drawing on these conversations—he has spoken to about 30 students and 10 faculty members—as well as his own experience, he plans to approach the ACSD after final exams with suggestions on how to improve their services.

One of the ACSD’s main services is providing students with accommodations during their exams. However, James said there needs to be an ACSD exam “bill of rights,” an institutional framework that outlines the exam rights of every student registered with the centre. “Almost all the students I’ve talked to have mentioned invigilators changing things last minute, or not respecting accommodations,” he said.

James cited a personal experience in which an invigilator chastised him for using Microsoft Excel during an exam, even though his professor’s approval of his use of the software was indicated on his exam sheet.

Alexandre St-Onge-Perron, the president of the Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia (TRAC) union, said his organization, which represents invigilators, has never heard of the allegations described by James before.

“If students have felt that their specific needs were not answered properly, they should refer to the ACSD so that the centre can make sure their needs and rights as student are respected,” St-Onge-Perron told The Concordian. “I have heard that some invigilators would like to have even more extensive training, as they want to make sure they give the best possible service,” he added.

James would also like to see the ACSD do a better job of communicating students’ needs to professors. When a student is registered with the centre, each of their professors receives a letter notifying them that a student in their class requires accommodations. However, the letters do not include the student’s name or the nature of their disability, meaning students must explain their need for accommodations to their teachers themselves. James said this sometimes makes professors reluctant to grant accommodations to students like him, who do not have visible disabilities.

James said he has spoken to teachers who take issue with this policy as well, since it makes providing proper accommodations more difficult. He cited one second-hand account of a professor who was unaware one of his students was epileptic, and as a result, didn’t know how to intervene when the student had an epileptic seizure during class.

Anne-Marie Sénécal is registered with the ACSD for chronic tendonitis in her left arm. However, she said she regularly receives emails from the centre advertising conferences for ADHD and other disabilities she does not have. In addition, Sénécal is allowed a computer during exams, but she said the keyboards provided by the centre have enlarged letters for students with visual impairments, which she finds more difficult to use.

“The people who are on the autism spectrum, the people who are in a wheelchair, the people who have ADHD—we’re all put in the same boat,” she said. Nonetheless, Sénécal praised the openness and generosity of the centre: “They’re really willing to go far [for students].”

Registrations with the ACSD have more than doubled in the last 10 years. In October 2007, The Concordian reported that between 700 and 800 students were registered with the centre, compared to the more than 2,000 today. However, the ACSD’s website lists just nine staff members, five of whom are advisors. These advisors meet with students to recommend appropriate accommodations, connect students with relevant resources and provide adaptive technologies for classes and exams. James said he spoke to students whose requests for appointments went unacknowledged for weeks. “Sometimes they’re registered three or four weeks into the semester,” he said.

Even the language used by the centre can be a barrier to students seeking accommodations, James said. Since the ACSD bills itself as a resource for students with disabilities, some students may not seek help because they do not see their own condition as a disability, he explained.

Other improvements James would like to see include stronger self-promotion on the centre’s behalf, the inclusion of parents and pregnant students in the accessibility policy, and more comfortable exam facilities, which he said are often uncomfortably hot.

According to James, about half of the students he surveyed reported positive experiences, although some of them still had concerns about the centre. Other students have had overwhelmingly positive experiences with the centre. Justin Occhionero, a second-year English literature student, is registered with the ACSD for physical impairments caused by a stroke he suffered eight months ago. “They have been very responsive to my needs,” he said, adding that he has never had trouble receiving accommodations from any of his teachers.

Once he has collected enough feedback, James said he would like to meet with the ACSD’s manager to discuss possible areas of improvement. “As a student senator and as a CSU councillor, this is part of my job: representing students and their concerns,” he said. At the end of the fall 2017 semester, James raised many of his concerns with the centre’s administration, but did not feel his concerns were acknowledged.

James said he is not worried about pushback from the centre. “I’m assertive about voicing my rights,” he said. “So if anyone discriminates [against me] or treats me differently because I spoke out against the centre, I am okay.”

The ACSD did not respond to The Concordian’s request for comment in time for publication.

Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Now almost a year into a pandemic, educators are giving their best to the students that need it most

Rory James wants students to share their concerns about the Access Centre for Students with Disabilities (ACSD)