Re-envisioning the Disability Service Model: The Advising and Access Services Centre at Dalhousie University Jill Malolepszy, Jen Davis

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Re-envisioning the Disability Service Model The
Advising and Access Services Centre at Dalhousie
UniversityJill Malolepszy, Jen Davis Quenta
AdamsAdvising and Access Services
CentreHalifax, Nova ScotiaCanada
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What We Plan To Discuss

• Past
• Background of our Unit and Service Provision
• Process to Change Our Delivery Model
• Present
• Partnerships and Collaborations
• Future
• Room for growth
• Transitions programming
• Opportunities Present in Your Institution For
  Adopting a Similar Model

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Who is responsible for accessibility on your
campus Philosophically?Practically?

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Human Rights Legislation

• Dalhousie University is committed to providing a
  learning environment in which students are able
  to participate without discrimination, on grounds
  prohibited by human rights legislation, and to
  facilitating students access to the Universitys
  academic programs, activities, facilities and
  services.

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Our History

• Practice and Philosophy
• Approving accommodations
• Focus more on the condition as opposed to the
  barrier
• Separate, and often disconnected supports
• Decisions were often extreme
• Hard line on what was reasonable, or
• Over-accommodate
• Accommodation policy had procedures built into
  the document
• Any changes (no matter how minor) would require
  Senate and Board approval

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Our History continued

• Practice and Philosophy
• Fixing not empowering
• Business process
• Mirrored an assembly line
• Advising was done elsewhere
• Silos remained intact internally and externally
• Outcomes
• Quantitative only, no qualitative
• Who are we helping, How are we helping
• No frame of reference Student Development
  Theories

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Our History continued

• Practice and Philosophy
• Too few staff during peak accommodation intake
  periods
• Staff burnout
• Increased sick time and/or overtime, turnover
• Lack of expertise
• Challenges navigating inter-connectedness of
  disability, race, gender, class and sexuality

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Our History continued

• Accommodation staffing
• Three full-time staff
• Bachelors degree only
• Limited experience with issues of accessibility
• Narrow focus of job duties
• Fragmented approach to working with students

• Academic Advisors
• Three full-time staff
• Masters degree
• Professional advisors with range of skills
• Broader focus of job duties
• Fragmented approach to working with students

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Our Process For Change

• Policy and Service Review in Fall 2011 External
  Reviewer
• Interviews (students, staff, faculty)
• Focus groups (students, faculty)
• Questionnaires (students, faculty)
• External Scan (other university practices)
• Internal Scan (existing strengths)
• Revised policy and service model recommended

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How can you be the leader or champion of
campus-wide accessibility? Where are the
natural collaborations on your campus?
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Our Present Practice

• Creation of a holistic, integrated model in
  winter 2012 combining Academic Advising with
  Accommodation Services.
• Represents a shift from a focus on accommodations
  to a focus on access.
• Away from a medical model focused on illness or
  impairment
• Moved towards a holistic model focused on
  overcoming barriers to enable full participation
  in student life

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Our Present Practice continued

• Students always ask
• I have enter disability here. What can you
  offer in terms of accommodations?
• We always answer
• Tell me what are the barriers you face by having
  enter disability here?

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How does the new system work?
Student in a wheelchair

• Old system
• Automatically approved for writing exams in
  separate room
• Approved for extra time
• Working on assumption that student is less
  capable.

• New system
• Student writes most exams with classmates,
  without accommodations
• Writes in a separate room only when has
  difficulty accessing large stadium to write exam

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How does the new system work?
Student with LD

• Old system
• Provided with ability to write in own room
  automatically.
• Approve note taking in almost every circumstance.
• Working on assumption that student is less
  capable.

• New system
• We ask student to show how having an LD is a
  barrier to writing in an exam room with other
  students.
• We discuss the students note taking strategies,
  refer for skill development and possible note
  taking.

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Our Present Practice

• Focusing on barriers to participation allows us
  to provide accommodations for requests based on
  all protected characteristics under human rights
  legislation in Canada, not just disability.
• We are guided by human rights legislation which
  states we have a duty to accommodate.
• We provide reasonable accommodations up to the
  point of undue hardship (which might differ from
  students ideal or perfect accommodations).

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Our Present Practice

• A disability determination, however, should not
  be based on abstract lists as categories of
  impairments . In fact, the regulations note
  that a finding of disability is not necessarily
  based on the name or diagnosis of the impairment
  the person has, but rather, on the effect of that
  impairment on the life of the individual. Some
  impairments may be disabling for particular
  individuals but not for others . 29 C.F.R.
  App. Sec. 1630.2(j).
• AHEAD (2008) Retrieved from http//www.ahead.org/a
  ffiliates/connecticut/documentation

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Examples of protected characteristics common to
human rights legislation

• Mental disability
• Family status
• Marital status
• Source of income
• Irrational fear of contracting an illness or
  disease
• Association with protected groups or individuals
• Political belief, affiliation or activity
• Gender Identity/Gender Expression

• Age
• Race
• Colour
• Religion
• Creed
• Ethnic, national or aboriginal origin
• Sex (including pregnancy)
• Sexual orientation
• Physical disability

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Our Staff Allies

• Staff with significant experience and specialised
  expertise
• 6 full-time staff, all with relevant Masters
  degree Education, Special Education, Social
  Work, Ethics, Occupational Therapy several
  years of experience
• On-going professional development
• Partnerships with
• Faculty Assistant Deans
• Office of Human Rights, Equity Harassment
  Prevention
• Health Services Counselling Services

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Our Present Practice

• Accommodation policy adopted for September 1st
  2014
• Anticipate increase in numbers of students
  seeking accommodations for reasons other than
  disability
• More complex requests, including accommodations
  for clinical placements/rotations in health
  professions
• Able_at_Dal
• An orientation for incoming students with
  disabilities to assist with the transition, and
  to develop self-advocacy skills
• Joint project with School of Occupational
  Therapy, now resides with us, with goal to expand
  to other areas of transition

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Future initiatives What can you add into your
existing practice?
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Characteristics Other Than Disability

• Request increase
• Focus on identifying the barriers to full
  participation
• Centre of Expertise
• Referrals and partnership
• Black Student Advising
• International Centre
• Native Education Counselling Unit
• Indigenous Blacks Mi'kmaq Initiative
• Dal Allies (LGBTQ)

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Protected Characteristics Other Than Disability

• Attend lecture with infant
• Bring infant into exam room
• Stop-time breaks during exam

• Family Status
• Schedule conflict between infant feedings and
  class lecture and scheduled exam

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Protected Characteristics Other Than Disability

• National Origin/Age
• Student completed schooling without the use of
  computers.

• Hand write exams in a program that requires all
  exams to be typed.

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Protected Characteristics Other Than Disability

• Religion
• Schedule conflict between exam dates and
  religious observance

• Defer exams
• Pray during exams by using stop time breaks

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Advising As Coaching
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VP Student ServicesIntegrated Career Coaching
Philosophy

• WHO
• Faculty Assistant Deans
• Academic advisors
• Career counsellors staff
• Faculty career co-op offices
• Alumni
• Employers

• WHAT
• Career awareness
• Career planning
• Employability skills
• Applied experience
• Job search skills

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Career Development for Advisors

• Training Winter 2014 Semester
• Foundations of career development and the process
  of career counselling
• Issues confronting students and career
  counsellors
• Intervention strategies
• Career development strategies and techniques to
  enhance career conversations

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Community Engagement

• 100 Days of Listening Initiatives
• Fostering relationships with community
• OT Student Social Work Student Placements
• Workforce Re-Entry Placements
• Local community members living with disabilities

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First Year Advising

• Student Success Coaches and Advisors
• Course selection, registration and transition to
  university life
• Outreach provides initial contact with EVERY
  incoming first year student
• Academic accommodation conversation included in
  outreach

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Fostering Collaboration on Campus

• Breaking down silos
• Strengthening programming for students
• Centre for Learning and Teaching
• Certificate program for faculty
• Facilities Management
• Physical space and accessibility concerns
• Case Management Team
• Us, Counselling, Assistant Deans, Student Dispute
  Resolution, Residence Life

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Tracking Our Progress

• Number of requests beginning September 2014
• Able_at_Dal and Able After Dal
• 4 year transition support
• First Year Advising
• College Student Inventory
• Interventions with specific populations

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Where are the natural collaborators on your
campus?What can you add to your existing
practice?

• Group Discussion

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Who We Are

• Jill Malolepszy
• Academic Advisor Coordinator Funding and Note
  Taking jill.malolepszy_at_dal.ca
• Jen Davis
• Academic Advisor Accommodations/Professional
  Faculties jen.davis_at_dal.ca
• Quenta Adams
• Director, Advising and Access Services Centre
  quenta.adams_at_dal.ca