16 Ease the accommodation process

Students and faculty identify the need to dismantle systemic barriers in academic accommodations processes, particularly, the reliance on medical documentation in the academic accommodation process. Access leaders emphasized that alternative documentation should be accepted in lieu of medical documentation in applications for academic accommodations and that the cost of documentation requirements cannot fall on individual students.

“The big dream [is that] students don’t have to be requesting and proving need for accommodations. Yeah. And also, the seeking of costly and very difficult to get diagnostic, quote unquote diagnostic paperwork.” Cynthia Bruce (Faculty)

Moreover, student activists repeatedly told us that the process of getting accommodations must be accessible. There is an urgent need to lessen the labour of academic accommodation processes. This includes the administrative work associated with taking and retaking medical assessments, booking appointments, coordinating with multiple offices, and completing significant loads of paperwork.

Our findings suggest that accommodation processes can reduce the labor placed on students if they shift from scrutinizing students to supporting them. Students want to be met with care, understanding, and a commitment to co-creating practical accommodations for their access needs. Institutions need to orient away from charging students with medicalized and labor-intensive documentation in exchange for accommodations. Instead, students need to be trusted as experts on their lived experiences and access needs.