Projects

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

University of Calgary

Calgary, Alberta

Students with Disabilities at the University of Calgary

Guidebook

This February, 2001 draft of a soon-to-be-released faculty awareness guidebook was produced by the university's Disability Resource Centre. The book includes information relevant to both students with disabilities and faculty.

The book's introduction begins with information from the 1991 Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS), which shows that approximately 7.4 per cent of Canadian post-secondary students have some type of disability. This figure reveals the growing need for academic accommodation.

An early section emphasizes putting the student before the disability, and that each student with a disability should be treated as an individual with unique abilities and accommodation requirements. Instructors are advised to "consider your students with disabilities as teachers in increasing your awareness of disabilities and non-traditional learning methods."

The disability-specific sections of the guide look at mobility, visual and hearing impairments, learning disabilities and some other disabilities. Each section examines the scope of impairments, some causes, and specific problems faced by students with such disabilities. Disability-specific accommodation suggestions are offered for both classroom and exam situations. Some of the most important considerations looked at are removing physical barriers, and adapting lessons and assignments where possible and helpful to the student. Some common technological accommodations are also briefly examined.

The section on other disabilities looks briefly at the problems faced by students with psychiatric conditions, allergies and environmental sensitivities, and epilepsy. Some accommodation suggestions are also explored here.

This guidebook is brief, at only 10 pages, but is clearly written in simple language. It provides a relatively good overview of information for faculty.

Contact:
Patricia Pardo
Director
Disability Resource Centre
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive N.W.
Calgary, Alberta
T2N 1N4
Phone: 403-220-8237
Fax: 403-210-1063
E-mail: echarchu@acs.ucalgary.ca
Web site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/Others/DRC/