Make the Cut – Fall 2021
Paul Menton Centre, Carleton University
TRANSCRIPT: "Plan Your Transition" Presentation - Sonia Tanguay


[PADDY] So, let's get started with our very first session. Here to help you plan your transition is Sonia Tanguay. She is a Senior Disabilities Coordinator at PMC. Sonia, over to you! 

[SONIA] Good afternoon, everyone! I’m … thank you for attending my session on “Plan Your Transition”… um there's a few topics that I’ll cover today and there will be a Q&A uh following my presentation. But what I’ll mainly talk about this afternoon is um the accommodation process, documentation requirements at post-secondary, what types of accommodations are available at university, and the types of different support services, planning ahead - not just thinking about accommodations, but what you can do in the Fall and in the Summer, and we'll briefly cover uh differences between high school and university. 
So, just um just to get started as well I want to hear a little bit from you. We just did a Poll Everywhere and I know it's posted in the Q&A. But please log in once again and the question that I’ll be asking is “What words come to mind when you think about planning your transition to post-secondary?” 
“lost” … okay

 I can relate to that.

“Overwhelming”

“Excited” … okay 

“Confused” … “Unsure” … what do I do, right? There's lots to think about, lots to plan.

Great!

So, I’m hearing a little bit of being unsure. So, perhaps we can move on to the next slide. Thank you for sharing and, now hopefully this afternoon, I’ll be able to clarify things. So, just briefly, I want I want to introduce the idea of planning your transition from a like a big picture and I know you'll be choosing your degree and your the program that you'll be applying for prior to February. And things you want to think about is, you know, your your strengths, your aptitudes, your interests, your weaknesses, labor market trends. Lots of trends have occurred in the last two years since the pandemic, you know. There's lots of work in demand … trades, the stem, coding, programming, technology, health care, business. So, kind of think of that, and it may be as you're you're thinking of the program you're going to be chose- choosing. Also, the university or the college you will be choosing. Those are very important factors as your first step. So, let's talk a little bit about what are the differences between high school and post-secondary from a legal framework perspective. In high school. you receive access to education for students with disabilities is regulated by the Education Act. When you come to university, it's a little bit different. It's based on the Ontario human rights code and AODA.

To show that a student has a disability in high school, you can have an IEP with a formal diagnosis or an informal identification with no exceptionality. However, in university, you need to provide recent documentation completed or filled out by a regulated health professional that confirms both functional limitations and a diagnosis. So, we are looking for a clear statement that says that there's a disability and not just a “no identification” or just struggling in school. So, that's very different from high school. In terms of the accommodation process, the decision to disclose your disability to your teachers and professors is made in high school by your parents or a guardian until you're 18. When it comes to university where you have to decide how you want to disclose that information.

In terms of to decide which accommodation students need, in high school, teachers can recommend various accommodations to students. Often when I look at IEPs, because often students will provide their IEP and their most recent documentation at the same time, I see that many students receive the same kind of accommodation. As for university, what we do is we look at your disability documentation and we specifically select accommodations based on your learning profile, your functional limitations, what kind of difficulties you’re experiencing in the university setting or learning setting, and consider both the program requirements, such as their learning outcomes of the program. So, that's very much a little bit different than high school. 

So, who informs teachers of your accommodation needs while in high school? I know your teachers will share the information with all your classroom teachers. However, in university, how it works is you need to request accommodations every term. You don't need to provide documentation every term, but you need to follow up with your coordinator or advisor, and you also, need to make sure that you connect with your professors to make sure that arrangements will be made for timed examinations and for classroom accommodations. 

So, let's talk a little bit about Documentation Requirements. So, the question is “I have an IEP. Can I use my IEP documentation? The answer, the short answer, is no. So, to receive ongoing accommodations in post-secondary, an IEP is not sufficient. Most universities require an assessment of functional limitations to determine how your disability impacts you in a learning environment. And we are looking within that documentation that is completed by a regulated health professional, and we're talking about doctors, audiologists, speech pathologists, psychologists, specialists. Every DSO typically will have a link to various documentation forms that will be relevant to the specific disability. So, this is something that you probably want to maybe consider looking at or speaking to your your Spec-Ed teacher about. So, for instance, what we're looking for in terms of recent documentation, we're looking at things that would have, especially for learning disabilities, for instance, we're looking at adult norms, or adult tests, or standardized tests and measures. We're also looking at things that would be more recent, so, within the last three to five years. Andso, I’ll give you a specific example … at the PMC, we have different forms for mental health, ADHD, medical, hearing, visual. An example of AD-- for ADHD … you don't need to obtain an updated psycho-educational assessment for ADHD; We have specific forms for ADHD that can be filled out by your GP. So, if you've been formally diagnosed with an Attention Deficit Disorder and your assessment is a little bit older, you can use that form instead of obtaining a a full psycho-educational assessment. 

So, Academic Accommodations and Support Services. So, let's talk a little bit about accommodations. So, accommodations provide equal opportunity to meet essential course requirements. Success is not guaranteed. So, it's really more to leven-- level the playing field. So, getting those accommodations doesn't mean that you'll succeed in the course; You still have to work as hard as everybody else. However, it's leveling that field. So, you can still demonstrate your knowledge and use your skills. It's individualized according to disability related needs. You, as a student, you need to be engaged in the process; you can't assume that everything will be done for you. I know in high school, there's accommodations that are automatically arranged for you, but in university, there's an active part on on yourself. Accommodations are usually formalized in a document issued by the disabilities office to your professor and we call it at Carleton a “Letter of Accommodation” … at other institutions, it may call--  be called similar, but it is formalized in that letter. Specific examples, it could be extra time for timed evaluations, quiet location, writing in in a test center, similar to the resource room, computer for essay-based questions, using assistive software (reading, voice recognition, screen reading software). Classroom supports, could be recording lectures (an audio recording), ASL interpreters, captioning, and computerized note-taking for for some. Student Support services, so, yes, the accommodations are important, but the student services is as important … and why? Because often what happens with student support services, they allow you to build that skill set, specifically to help you become more efficient when it comes to university or post-secondary studies. So, we do have note-taking support from our volunteer program, individualized learning strategies (my colleague Amanda will be speaking about that specifically about learning strategies). What you you're doing now in high school may work, but as you transition to university, you will want to tweak how you approach learning. We have mentoring program and transition programs, disability counseling for well-being and wellness, assistive learning technology labs, as well as training, tutoring. And we really encourage students to connect with our employment programs that we have in partnership with Career Services; to not wait until your third and fourth year to develop meaningful skills in terms of employment and competencies, but we're looking at helping you throughout your degree to develop those transferable skills. 

So, let's talk about before during and after. So, I know my my the Acting Director, Bruce was speaking a little bit about the summer, but as soon as you receive your offer of admission, this is an excellent time for you to connect with us. In the meantime, this may be a good time now to start talking to your Spec-Ed teacher, or your parents, about gathering your documentation. Start building a folder. Scheduling those information meetings can be extremely helpful, as well as an “intake”. But what's the difference between an “information meeting” and an “intake”? Well, the information meeting can-- we can help you assess “do you have the right documentation requirements?” “What kind of general questions do you have about accommodations?” So, it's really more for you to kind of gather general information. The intake is to officially register with the Centre, to provide your documentation, so we can create a file and then once the semester starts, we can actually set up those formal accommodations. 

Things to think about during the Summer and the Spring, well, attend open house events, go to transition programs - we have “Chem Matters (Chemistry Matters), “Math Matters”. The PMC also has transition supports. Consider housing arrangements, financial support, budgeting costs and expenses. During the Fall, what happens? That's when you request Fall Accommodations. That's as soon as your course outlines are released, then we can set up those accommodations. Understand with the accommodation process, what are your responsibilities? Discuss your accommodation needs with your professors and stay in contact with your advisor. So, we're here as-- like my role as an advisor is really here to to guide you, refer you to appropriate resources, and help you problem solve. So, we can be a really good go-to person when you need to navigate the resources and the supports on campus. Sometimes, we feel a little bit lost - I heard the term lost earlier. So, those-- though were real-- really here as a go-to person. Then after, during the Fall and the Winter, assess and monitor your academic progress and well-being. We don't want to just wait until midterms or the end of the semester to to assess where you're at, and realize “huh, I need help!” … we want to be able to help you early on. Participate in skill building opportunities to improve coping and academic skills, and stay engaged with your peers, your professors, with the PMC, or the Disabilities Office. Self-Advocacy. So, when we're talking about self-advocacy, what does that mean” And I know last year when I presented at Make The Cut, somebody asked that question - I don't think I had an opportunity to get to this slide. But what does it mean” It is to understand your disability, to understand your learning profile, your strengths, and and weaknesses. How do you articulate that? How do you express your needs? That's what self-advocacy is - expressing your needs in a way that promotes open communication, right” Where we can have a dialogue about what you need, what may be helpful, what has been helpful in the past. Understand your responsibility, right? Explain how an accommodation will address a specific related needs. So, you'll see that in in university, what you're receiving as accommodations in high school may not does not mean that you're actually going to receive the same accommodations in university. Things are a little bit different - how much uh extra time we allocate to timed examinations. Flexible deadlines - that's not something that we have in university. It could be on a case-by-case basis, if you need it for disability related reasons, you may receive support for that, but it's not an automatic given in terms of you're receiving extra time for every assignment. Self-advocacy is being able to ask for help and in using academic resources. And I find that something that a lot of people struggle with in terms of admitting that sometimes we need help, but I always say to students, if something is going to make your life a little bit, easier why not ask for help. 

And now moving on for tips to consider, tips for being a good self-advocate. Sometimes write things down in terms of processing, write your points down beforehand and practice before you need to approach someone to exp-- to share some of your ideas and needs. Focus on your goal. Be specific. If you're not sure, so let's say you need to advocate with your professor, and you're not sure, “how am I going to say this to my professor?” Well, your coordinator can help you. We can coach you on how to formulate your ideas and how to share some of your concerns. You're always gonna do it - I certainly don't do it for my students, but if I coach you, then you will feel more equipped. And finally in terms of “Propose solutions”, when a problem comes up, so when there's an issue, don't always expect that people will come up with the solution for you. Try to come up with what could be helpful in this situation. And “Ask Questions”. Every question is good. 

A couple things to think about as you're, you're, we're trying, you're thinking about your transition. There's a lot of things that will be different when it comes to high school and university. The time and the schedule - your your schedule, if you're you're taking five or four courses, you're going to realize that you're not in class for most of the day. University is a lot about self-directed studies. and what I mean by that is using that intrinsic motivation that you have and make sure that you have set that routine and that you allocate time for for studying. It doesn't necessarily um uh will be done for you. So, so, you, kind of, organization and time management are the key skills to have. 

Teacher and student relationship will be different and when we're talking about that, we're talking yes, you may feel like a number in university, but that's not really how-- professors are extremely approachable. In professors, especially if you're passionate about your topic, you can approach them, and they will be more than happy to offer support. So, don't hesitate to reach out. 
Resources … or you will notice that there are an immense amount of resources in Academic Advising. So, if you're looking for support, the support is out there. If you're not sure what you're looking for speak to your coordinator or your advisor.