7 Academic Accommodations

Academic accommodations are designed to remove barriers to higher education while upholding essential requirements. Academic accommodations are provided by considering:

• the student’s first-person experience.
• medical documentation.
• academic programming.

Students registered with QSAS may receive permanent or interim accommodations.

Students’ responsibilities for their accommodations are outlined on the QSAS website and are reproduced here:

Students with disabilities have the responsibility to:

• Notify the university, through QSAS, of any changes to medical diagnosis or changes to program of study that may require a review of your accommodations.
• Provide this notification as early as possible, respecting any administrative deadlines (e.g., semester-specific deadlines to register for accommodated exams).
• If receiving interim accommodations, and you wish for the accommodations to continue, provide QSAS with documentation meeting the QSAS documentation criteria.
• Collaborate with QSAS staff, instructors or graduate supervisors, Faculty/School office staff, SGS or others, as necessary, to develop, implement and update your academic accommodation plan.
• Communicate your accommodation plan to your instructors, graduate research supervisors, faculty administration, the Exams Office and others as appropriate and where classroom learning/evaluation accommodations are needed, with as much advance notice as possible.
• QSAS cannot retroactively provide accommodations to any in course deliverable (i.e., test, exam, assignment) if this step is not completed.
• Review accommodation status in Ventus and optout if required.

Permanent Accommodations

Permanent accommodations expire on August 31st, five (5) years from the end of the academic year (Sept. 1-Aug. 31) they were implemented.

Students are not required to meet with a QSAS Advisor to discuss accommodations each semester. However, students are encouraged to book a meeting if there have been changes to medical information and/or program of study.

Interim Accommodations

Interim accommodations are provided to students who, at the time of registering with QSAS, do not have documentation that meets QSAS Documentation Criteria, but who do have documentation which demonstrates a need for removing barriers to education. Interim accommodations expire at the end of the following academic term.

Students requiring permanent accommodations need to provide documentation that meets the QSAS Documentation Criteria before interim accommodations have expired.

Retroactive Accommodations

There may be a time in a student’s university experience in which retroactive accommodations must be considered due to a disability-related experience. In accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (sec. 8.3.4 – Accommodation after a deadline, test or course has been completed), Queen’s University considers retroactive accommodations on a case-by-case basis.

Retroactive accommodations will be considered based on the following grounds:

1. Student discovers after the fact that their academic performance had been impacted by a condition that they were unaware of at the time. Example: A medical condition such as multiple sclerosis may take months or even years to diagnose and the symptoms of this neurological disease may be both visible (difficulties with muscular coordination) and invisible (fatigue, delays in cognitive processing).
2. Student was aware of their accommodation needs but they were unable to participate in the university accommodation process at the time due to their condition. Example: A student with a chronic disease may experience long periods of disease remission occasionally punctuated by acute symptoms that require hospitalization. Accommodations that were not necessary during periods of remission may be required when their medical condition changes.

3. Student did not have prior knowledge of an accommodation need. Unfortunate accidents, an unforeseen change in condition, or the sudden onset of a disease may necessitate accommodations that were not previously considered.