Overview

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Who We Are

AccessAbility Services is a student service, academic service and University of Toronto equity office on the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. Our principal function is to support undergraduate, graduate, and non-degree students with disabilities to navigate disability-related barriers and to promote accessible and inclusive policies, practices, procedures and programs at UTSC. Our goal is for students with disabilities to access equitable educational opportunities both in and outside the classroom.

 
All U of T campuses (St. George, Mississauga and Scarborough) have a service for students with disabilities.  While they work independently, all three offices work closely to ensure that the services work within the frameworks of common objectives.

What We Do

AccessAbility Services role is twofold:
 
Provision of Individualized accommodations: The office provides services and academic accommodations to mitigate the barriers resulting from a disability in the educational environment for students who have a documented learning, physical, sensory, mental health disability or medical/chronic health condition.  We provide supports that are tailored to the student’s individual needs.
 
Addressing Systemic Barriers: AccessAbility Services also seek to avoid or remove barriers in services, curricular and co-curricular programs.  This includes raising awareness of disability issues within an intersectional framework for faculty, staff, current students, potential students, student leaders, the University community and outside community. The service strives to ensure the student voice is included in the development of practices, procedures and policies.
 
The services and supports available include, but are not limited to:
  • Advising to develop strategies to succeed at university considering impacts of a disability
  • Accommodation provision including but not limited to tests and exam accommodations, note taking, transcription of print materials into multiple formats, communication services (e.g., sign language interpretation), access to assistive technology etc.
  • Learning strategy individualized and group programs
  • Training on the use of assistive technology
  • Referrals within the university and to community organizations, including assessment referrals for new or updated psycho-educational assessments
  • Outreach, education, awareness: consultation and workshops on inclusive and accessible practices within services and academic programs
  • Work and volunteer opportunities such as Peer Note Takers and Work-Study

AccessAbility Services strives to follow the standards outlined by the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD Domains, Standards and Performance Indicators).