Mount Allison University is proud to be an institution that welcomes and supports a diverse student body. To this end, Mount Allison is committed to providing a supportive and challenging environment for students with disabilities, and, where warranted and without compromising academic standards, will provide reasonable accommodations.

Subject to financial and other resource constraints, the University is committed to providing equal access and reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities and to do so in a manner which promotes as much as possible self-determination. However, it remains an individual’s decision whether to request an accommodation or whether to self-identify as a person with a disability.

The University respects the rights of privacy of the individual. To this end, information on students with disabilities will be treated as confidential. Only information necessary for programme development and implementation or for determining reasonable accommodations will be collected or shared. No information will be shared without the informed consent of the person with a disability who is involved.

Mount Allison is aware that the campus is not currently as physically accessible as desirable. The University is committed to improving access to academic programmes, to campus buildings and to support services for students with disabilities.

Student Life and the Meighen Centre (Learning Disabilities) offer a range of services to support the academic needs of students with disabilities. The Meighen Centre offers a range of services to students with learning disabilities to which office all inquiries related to learning disabilities should be addressed. Student Life coordinates services to students with disabilities other than learning disabilities. Inquiries should be addressed to the Advisor to Students with Disabilities.

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1. Equal opportunity.
Mount Allison is committed to the academic and non-academic development of students. The University seeks to remove
attitudinal and environmental barriers which may hamper or prevent academically qualified students with disabilities from participating fully in University life. The University understands that persons with disabilities may have different methods for achieving success and acknowledges that performance is not inferior merely because it is different.

2. Access.
The University recognizes that academically qualified students with disabilities will have access to its educational programmes, facilities and services.

3. Individualised Assistance.
The University recognizes that academically qualified students with disabilities may require individualised assistance. However, with individualised assistance, it is expected that students with disabilities will maintain the University’s academic standards.

4. Fairness.
It is recognized that students with documented disabilities may require certain accommodations not required by other students in order to have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their achievement of academic objectives.

5. Responsibilities of the University.
To ensure that academically qualified students with disabilities may pursue a post-secondary education of quality, the University will:

5.1 create and maintain a barrier-free environment by:
(a) the provision of support services; and
(b) promoting an attitude of respect for persons with disabilities; and
(c) promoting sensitivity to the needs of persons with disabilities;
5.2 inform the University community about the services available to students with disabilities and seek to ensure that such services are delivered in ways that promote equity;
5.3 where warranted and without compromising academic standards, provide reasonable accommodations.
5.4 in terms of informed consent, take reasonable steps to consult students with disabilities about decisions relating
to matters affecting them.
5.5 provide an appropriate level of administrative support.
5.6 ensure that the provision of services to students with disabilities is provided by advisors with academic
qualifications and professional expertise specific to the area of disabilities.

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6. Responsibilities of Students.
Students with disabilities requiring assistance from the University shall:

6.1 initiate contact with the appropriate office on campus as early as possible and make the nature of their disabilities and needs known, and
6.2 undertake a reasonable amount of self-advocacy to ensure that they are provided with an equal opportunity by the University.

It remains, however, the decision of the individual student whether to request an accommodation or to self-identify as a person with a disability. Students should be aware, in any case, that, before a requested accommodation can be considered, the request must be made a reasonable amount of time in advance.

7. Confidentiality.
Confidentiality means that only people who have a legitimate need for information should have access to it and that they should only have access to as much information as they need to have. Information will only be shared with others if the student has consented to that information being shared with those other individuals.

8. Provision of Documentation.
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that comprehensive, current documentation is provided to the University regarding his/her specific disability before services can be provided. Current documentation is deemed to be that which is no more than three years old. Comprehensive documentation means appropriate medical or psycho-educational verification by a recognised professional, including, but not limited to, the nature of the disability, a detailed explanation of the functional impact
of the disability on the pursuit of post-secondary education and, where possible, explicit recommendations for remedial and coping strategies. A diagnosis alone ( e.g. “visually impaired”, “hearing impaired” or “ learning disability” ) is not sufficient.

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9. Appeals Process.
Academic: Students who believe that they have not been treated fairly in accordance with this policy in an academic matter are expected first to discuss the matter with the instructor. Any matters unresolved by discussion between students and instructors may be appealed to the department Head, then to the academic Dean, and then to the Vice-President (Academic).

Non-academic: Students who believe that they have not been treated fairly in accordance with this policy in a non-academic matter are expected first to appeal to the Manager or Director of the non-academic department in question, then to the Dean of Students, then to the Vice-President (Academic).

10. Future directions.
The University is committed to improving access to academic programmes, to campus buildings and to support services for students with disabilities.

11. Implementation.
The responsibility to implement these policies throughout the University rests on all members of the University community including faculty, administration, staff and students. Regarding implementation, the following should be considered:

As the Meighen Centre and Student Life both provide services to students with disabilities, the provision of services and the decision making processes affecting students with disabilities at Mount Allison should occur along parallel paths:

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Services to Students with Disabilities

Learning Disabilities
Meighen Centre
Director
Coordinator of Meighen Centre

Other Disabilities

Student Life

Dean of Students

Advisor to Students with Disabilities

The Chair of the Committee should be recommended from among and by its members and be appointed by the President.

The mandate of the Committee would be to review annually this policy and the services available to students with disabilities and to make recommendations concerning policy, services, and removal of barriers.

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