Accessibility Services (AS)

• Promote awareness of disability and self-advocacy
• Assess academic strengths and challenges
• Teach skills for studying, note-taking, communication, reading, time management, and organization
• Develop academic accommodations detailed in an Accommodation Letter. 
• Provide disability-specific consolation to enhance self-advocacy and independence
• Collaborate and contact with partnering Post-Secondaries Accessible Learning Services. (Mohawk College, Niagara College)
• Assess the need for additional resources and make referrals as necessary. Examples include: Counselling, Student Success Officer, Achievement Center, Contact North, Brant Skills, and Financial Assistance
• Offer Professional Development (PD) to professors and instructors on UDL, application of individual accommodations and accessible learning

• We work under multiple layers of legislation including the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC), Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU). These mandates drive our philosophy and practice framework. Six Nations Polytechnic's Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Policy has been developed with Ga'nigohi:yo:/Kanikoriio (Respect and the Good Mind) and is based upon all the legislation mentioned above.
• Accessibility Services practices ease of access to our services. We are also advocates for accessibility issues within the organization. Our goal is for students with accommodation needs and/or disabilities to have an accessible post-secondary experience.

We operate with the idea, that individuals with disabilities are experts of their disabilities. We explore what impacts a student's disability may have within the post-secondary setting. Disclosure of a disability diagnosis is at the discretion of the student AS operates with a strengths-based framework. The information most helpful to us is a functional assessment of strengths and challenges that give an indication of accommodation needs.

Many stakeholders play a role in student success (e.g., SA staff, students, Student Success Officers, faculty, internal Six Nations Polytechnic departments, and community supports). Working with AS represents a partnership between AS, the program area, and the student. Students are invited to bring any other stakeholders into this partnership. The shared goal is academic success.

All our policies and procedures are designed through the student experience lens. We focus on ease of access to our services, and we aim to support needs in a timely manner. Our supports are student-driven, and we respect student autonomy. This means choices regarding identifying as a student with a disability or accommodation needs and choosing how and when to use accommodations are all respected.

AS is a confidential service. There is student autonomy in terms of sharing the Accommodation Letter with faculty and others. All student documentation of disability and other records is controlled, stored, and accessed according to privacy legislation in Ontario (FIPPA). Students may choose to provide AS staff with external consent so that others (family, community support) are included in the circle of care.

As students move through their post-secondary program, their view of themselves as a student and their view of their disability will evolve. We aim to collaboratively help students frame their understanding of their disability or accessibility needs and promote self-advocacy as a tool for future success.

We advocate on behalf of students, accessibility, and disability-related issues in a systematic sense, influencing policy which has polytechnic-wide benefits for students with disabilities or accommodation needs. We also work with students registered with AS to promote and teach self-advocacy.

We work with our students helping them to identify their strengths and facilitate the use of these strengths within the academic environment. We see difficulty and challenge in the post-secondary setting as an opportunity for growth.