Accessibility Matters
Accessibility is often misunderstood as merely a matter of ramps, elevators, or captioned videos but for students with diverse abilities, it is the foundation of equity, dignity, and belonging. Whether navigating the classroom or the workplace, students with physical disabilities, chronic illnesses, or invisible disabilities such as ADHD, autism, or mental health face barriers that many others never have to consider.
These barriers are not always visible, but they are deeply felt. In this chapter, students shared with us how a lack of flexibility in teaching methods, inaccessible technology, sensory-overwhelming environments, or rigid expectations around communication can exclude neurodivergent and disabled students in ways that are isolating and demoralizing. The impact is far-reaching and affects academic engagement, confidence, mental health, and the ability to fully participate in campus or workplace life.
Accessibility is not a favour or an afterthought, it is a right. And when we design with diverse bodies and minds in mind from the start, we create environments that benefit everyone. This chapter explores how meaningful accessibility can transform the educational and professional experience for students with disabilities, empowering them not just to be present but to thrive.
Relevant Definitions
Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one "right" way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits. Neurodivergent individuals include those with conditions like Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, PTSD, and more (2024, Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion).
University Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching approach that works to accommodate the needs and abilities of all learners and eliminates unnecessary hurdles in the learning process. This means developing a flexible learning environment in which information is presented in multiple ways, students engage in learning in a variety of ways, and students are provided options when demonstrating their learning.
| UDL Principle | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Teaching to all | curriculum is designed for all students |
| Flexibility | allow students to achieve learning outcomes in different ways |
| Expectations | clear, concrete and actionable |
| Varied Assessment | frequent, varied, low-stakes assessments for providing regular feedback |
Disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and mind and features of the society in which they live. Because of its complexity, there is no single, harmonized “operational” definition of disability. A disability can occur at any time in a person’s life; some people are born with a disability, while others develop a disability later in life. It can be permanent, temporary or episodic. Disability can be a sense of identity, community, and pride.
Disabled people / Persons with disabilities are persons who experience barriers and/or functional restrictors or limitations to their full and self-determined participation in activities due to a difference in mobility, sensory, learning, or other physical or mental health experience.
Ableism is a systemic and structural form of oppression that stems from the attitude and belief that disabled people are inferior. It underpins individual discrimination and systemic barriers and inequities against people with disabilities. Ableist beliefs include the fear of becoming disabled, as well as the fear of disabled people. It engenders the erasure and invisibility of disabled people, which leads to inaccessible places, processes, and groups.
Accessibility enables disabled people to participate fully in all aspects of life, on an equal basis with others, and to access services, employment, information and communications, physical environments, and transportation.
Sources:
- What is neurodiversity? - Harvard Health
- Universal Design for Learning | Center for Teaching Innovation
- UBC Equity and Glossary of Terms
- Article 9 (Accessibility) of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
