Projects

Faculty Awareness and Training in the Post-Secondary Community: An Annotated Bibliography

Centennial College

Scarborough, Ontario

Student Profiles

Faculty Guides

Centennial College has created an innovative and effective way to address faculty awareness. The Centre for Students with Disabilities produces a student profile for every student registered with the centre. The students' personal strengths, weaknesses and suggested academic accommodations are included in the profiles which give professors greater insight into particular needs and challenges. It is a very specific approach that respects the student's individuality and demonstrates how diverse and personal each disability is to the person.

The Centre for Students with Disabilities also attaches a faculty guide on each disability type to the student profiles. This gives faculty members more information on the specific disabilities and appropriate accommodations.

Disabilities that are addressed in the faculty guides are:

  • Blind and Low Vision
  • Physical Disabilities
  • Deaf and Hard of Hearing
  • Learning Disabilities
  • Gifted Students
  • Schizophrenia
  • Mood Disorders
  • Anxiety Disorder

The format of the Faculty Guides is concise. Each guide is on one double-sided sheet. The guides are on different coloured paper and set up in a way that is easy to read and interpret. The use of point form and groupings of important information clarifies the document. Each guide discusses popular myths of a specific disability, along with a general definition of the disability. It then goes into specific classifications and levels of the disability. Adaptive equipment relevant to that particular disability, along with possible classroom accommodations and interventions are outlined. The guide also lists the rooms where adaptive technology labs are located on campus.

Future plans

Irene Volinets Coordinator, Centre for Students with Disabilities submitted the following description of future plans at Centennial College, in a letter dated December 14th, 2000.

The provincial College Committee on Disability Issues, chaired by Irene Volinets, is working on a "Handbook for Success." This is a province wide user-friendly faculty handbook. The intent of this handbook is to provide an overview, a definition, educational implications, instructional strategies and accommodations as well as other resources related to a variety of disabilities. The College Committee on Disability Issues is planning to include the following categories of disabilities: learning disabilities, deaf and hard of hearing, mobility impairments, blind, low vision, medical disabilities, attention deficit disorders, acquired brain injuries, and a category identified as other. They have hopes of completing this project by April 2001.

Contact:
Irene Volinets
Coordinator, Centre for Students with Disabilities
Centennial College
P.O. Box 631
Station A
Scarborough, Ontario
M1K 5E9
Phone: 416-289-5000 ext 3386
Fax: 416-289-5347
Email: ivolinets@lmail.cencol.on.ca
Web site: http://www.cencol.on.ca/csd/




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