1. Accessible Online Course Design
  2. Course Outlines
  3. Essential Requirements
  4. Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (formerly known as Asperger’s Syndrome)
  5. Hearing Loss
  6. Memory Impairments
  7. Notetaking Services
  8. Emergency Guidelines
  9. Other Online Resources

Accommodations are individualized to each student, for each course. Refer to these guides and sources for information regarding specific disabilities.

Please do not hesitate to contact PMC directly if you have any questions or concerns that are not addressed here.

Accessible Online Course Design

Updates will be posted shortly.

Course Outlines

It is essential to include the following statement on your course outline and read it at the beginning of your first few classes to remind students of their obligations when requesting any form of academic accommodation. All course outlines should include the full accommodation statement.

Essential Requirements

Essential requirements refers to requirements in a course or a program that cannot be altered without compromising the fundamental nature of the course or program. Determining what is an essential requirement and what is not is critical in distinguishing requirements that cannot be accommodated from what can be altered.

Universal Instructional Design (UID) represents a set of emerging initiatives, principles, guidelines, and projects that promote and work toward inclusive and equitable access to learning.

Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (formerly known as Asperger’s Syndrome)

“Asperger’s Syndrome” is now subsumed under the broad category of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Those diagnosed in the past with Asperger’s would now be identified as having Level 1 ASD (requiring minimal supports).

Hearing Loss

Loss of hearing is often a hidden disability. Many factors can contribute to an individual’s ability to use his/her residual hearing. For example, a deaf or hard of hearing person may not function optimally in a room in which there is a great deal of ambient noise (e.g. hum produced by the air system or an overhead projector) or a room that has poor acoustics (e.g. a room that has a bank of windows that cause sound to reverberate).

Memory Impairments

Memory refers to a complex set of cognitive and neurological processes involved in the acquisition, storage, and recall of information. Some students registered with the PMC have disability-related functional impairments that directly affect memory. At university, students must learn and retrieve significantly more information at a higher level of complexity and detail than they have in the past.

Notetaking Services

A number of students registered with the Paul Menton Centre (PMC) are unable to take lecture notes or can take very limited notes due to disability-related reasons. For such students, one of the services approved based on their disability documentation is a request for a volunteer notetaker/access to volunteer notetaking services. In order to facilitate this service, the course instructors are asked to make in-class announcements as many times as necessary until a volunteer notetaker is found.

Emergency Guidelines

Emergency procedures are published for the information and action of all staff in the event of emergencies requiring the evacuation of disabled occupants from campus buildings.

Other Online Resources

A collection of links to useful websites and online reference materials.