Navigating Post-Secondary Institutions in Ontario with a Learning Disability: The Pursuit of Accommodations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v4i1.186Keywords:
learning disabilities, post-secondary institutions, ruling relations, accommodationsAbstract
Students with learning disabilities (LDs) face numerous challenges as they navigate their way through post-secondary institutions in Ontario. Through an institutional ethnographic analysis, this paper contextualizes my lived experience of having an LD within the ruling relations in post-secondary institutions in the current neoliberal environment. Institutional ethnography is both a theory and a method of interpreting everyday social interactions through analysis of the texts (broadly defined) in modern society, such as policy documents, newspapers, and electronic media. As such, this method lends itself to understanding the medicalization of LDs because it demonstrates that expert knowledge is ideological. Using a social model of disability, I compared both the documentation on attaining accommodations and my lived experience at three universities that I attended and am attending. In evaluating how students negotiate the pathways within the power relations and social organization of these institutions, I am able to offer precise and constructive recommendations that would improve the experience and academic outcomes for students with LDs.
References
Barnes, C. (2007). Disability, higher education and the inclusive society. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 28 (1), 135-145.
Brodie, J. (1999). The politics of social policy in the twenty-first century. In D. Broad & W.
Antony (Eds.) Citizens or consumers? Social policy in a market society (pp. 37-45). Halifax: Fernwood.
Campbell, M. & Gregor, F. (2008). A primer in doing Institutional Ethnography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Carleton University (2012). Roles and Responsibilities. Retrieved December 2, 2013, from http://www1.carleton.ca/pmc/roles-and-responsibilities/
Carleton University. (n.d.-a). Assessments - Paul Menton Centre. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://carleton.ca/pmc/disability/learning/assessments/
Carleton University. (n.d.-b). Assessments - Paul Menton Centre: Criteria for Psychoeducational Assessment Reports. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://carleton.ca/pmc/disability/learning/assessments/
Carrier, G. (1986). Learning disability: Social class and the construction of inequity in American education. New York: Greenwood Press.
Chivers, S. (2009). Barrier by barrier: The Canadian disability movement and the fight for equal rights. In Smith, M. (ed). Group Politics and Social Movements in Canada (pp. 307-328). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Connell, R. (2010). Understanding neoliberalism. In Braedley, S. & Luxton, M. (ed). Neoliberalism and Everyday Life (pp. 22-36). McGill: McGill-Queens’s University Press.
Côté-Boucher, K. (2010). Risky Business? Border Preclearance and the Securing of Economic Life in North America. In Braedley, S. & Luxton, M. (ed). Neoliberalism and Everyday Life (pp. 22-36). McGill: McGill-Queens’s University Press.
Fook, J. (2000). The Lone Crusader: Constructing Enemies and Allies in the Workplace. In L. Napier and J. Fook (eds.) Breakthroughs in Practice: Theorizing Critical Moments in Social Work. (pp. 186-200). London: Whiting and Birch.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Centre (2010). Canada Ratifies UN Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities. United Nations. Retrieved December 17, 2013 from http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/99.aspx?view=d
Getzel, E. E. (2008). Addressing the persistence and retention of students with disabilities in higher education: Incorporating key strategies and supports on campus. Exceptionality, 16 (4), 207–219.
Getzel, E. E., & McManus, S. (2005). Expanding support services on campus. In E. E. Getzel & P. Wehman (Eds.), Going to college: Expanding opportunities for people with disabilities (pp. 139–154). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Goode, J. (2007). “Managing” disability: Early experiences of university students with disabilities. Disability & Society, 22 (1), 35–48.
Green, S. E. (2007). Components of perceived stigma and perceptions of well-being among university students with and without disability experience. Health Sociology Review, 16 (3-4), 328–340.
Harry, B., & Klinger, J. (2006). Why are so many minority students in special education? Understanding race and disability in schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
Harvey, J. C . & Katz, C. (1984). If I’m so successful, why do I feel like A fake? New York: Random House.
Hiranandani, V. (2005). Towards a critical theory of disability in social work. Critical Social Work, 6 (1).
Human Resource and Skills Development Canada. (2010). Federal Disability Report (pp. 1-104).
Inter-University Disability Issues Association. (2014). Mission Statement. Retrieved January 3,
, from http://www.idia.ca/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=4
Jung, K. (2003). Chronic Illness and Academic Accommodation: Meeting Disabled Students’ “unique needs” and Preserving the Institutional Order of the University. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 30 (1), 91-112.
Kantanis, T. (2000). The role of social transition in students’: adjustment to the first-year of university. Journal of Institutional Research, 9 (1), 100–110.
Linton, S. (1998). Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York: New York University Press.
McKenzie, C. (2014). Love, lust and loss in the early age of AIDS: The discourse in “The Body Politic” from 1981 to 1987. Unpublished manuscript, York University, Toronto, ON.
McMaster University. (2013). Student Accessibility Services Registration Guide 2013-2014 (pp. 1–13). McMaster University. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://sas.mcmaster.ca/images/docs/SASRegistrationGuide2013-14.pdf
McMaster University (2011). Guide to Registering with SAS 2011-2012. Retrieved from McMaster University website January 9, 2014 from http://sas.mcmaster.ca/images/docs/registering_with_sas.pdf
McMaster University. (nd). Registering with SAS - Student Accessibility Services. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://sas.mcmaster.ca/registering-with-sas.html
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2012). Learning Disability. Retrieved December 5 2013 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/learning%20disability
National Educational Association of Disabled Students. (NEADS) (2012). Enhancing Accessibility in Post-Secondary Education Institution: A guide for Disability Service Providers. Retrieved from NEADS website 15 June 2013 from http://www.neads.ca/en/norc/eag/eag_en.pdf
Olney, M. & Brockelman, K. (2003). Out of the Disability Closet: Strategic use of perception management by select university students with disabilities. Disability & Society, 18 (1), 35-50.
Pare, A. (2004). Texts and power: Toward a critical theory of language. In L. Davies and P. Leonard (eds.). Social Work in a Corporate Era: Practices of Power and Resistance. (pp. 76-90). Aldershot: Ashgate.
Pinto, P. (2010). Beyond the State: The Making of Disability and Gender under Neoliberalism in Portugal. In Braedley, S. & Luxton, M. (ed). Neoliberalism and Everyday Life (pp. 22-36). McGill: McGill-Queens’s University Press.
Reid, D. K., & Knight, M. G. (2006). Disability justifies exclusion of minority students: A critical history grounded in disability studies. Educational Researcher, 35(6), 18–23.
Roer-Strier, D. (2002). University students with learning disabilities advocating for change. Disability & Rehabilitation, 24(17), 914–924.
Service Ontario (2012). Human Rights Code. Retrieved December 18 2013. http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90h19_e.htm
Service Ontario (2011). Ontario Regulation 191/11 made under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act, 2005. Retrieved December 18 2013. http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2011/elaws_src_regs_r11191_e.htm
Silvers, A. (1998). Formal Justice. In Disability, Difference, and Discrimination, coauthored by Anita Silvers, David Wasserman, and Mary Mahowald, pp. 13–145. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Smith, D. (1989). Feminist Reflections on Political Economy. Studies in Political Economy (30) 37 -59.
Smith, D. E. (1987). The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. UPNE.
Smith, D. (1974a). Women’s perspective as a radical critique of sociology. Sociological Inquiry. 44(1): 1-13.
Smith, D. (1974b) The social construction of documentary reality. Sociological Inquiry. 44(4): 257-268.
Tervo, R. C., Azuma, S., Palmer, G., & Redinius, P. (2002). Medical students’ attitudes toward persons with disability: A comparative study. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 83(11), 1537–1542.
Tsagris, D., Muirhead, B. (2012). Evaluating Postsecondary Supports for Ontario Students with Learning Disabilities. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
University Affairs (2005). Then & now: revisiting diversity on campus. Retrieved December 2013 from http://www.universityaffairs.ca/then-and-now-revisiting-diversity-on-campus.aspx.
University Technology Services. (2008). Student Services. Retrieved December 2013 from http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/student_services.html
Vaughn, S., & Fuchs, L. S. (2003). Redefining learning disabilities as inadequate response to instruction: The promise and potential problems. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 18(3), 137–146.
York University. (n.d.). Additional Documents Required for Applicants with a Diagnosed Learning Disability: York University Future Students. Retrieved January 9, 2014, from http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/requirements/disabilities_docs_learning
Zola, I. (1972). “Medicine as an institution of social control”, Sociological Review 20(4): 487-504.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
There are no article processing or submission charges for CJDS authors.
Author(s) are not required to assign their copyright in and to their article to the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. Instead, The CJDS asks for one-time rights to print this original work.
All articles in the journal are assigned a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
Authors are asked to contact the journal Editor if they wish to post the article on any website; translate or authorize a translation of the article; copy or otherwise reproduce the article, in any format, beyond what is permitted under Canadian copyright law, or authorize others to do so; copy or otherwise reproduce portions of the article, including tables and figures, beyond what is permitted under Canadian copyright law, or authorize others to do so.
Contacting the Editor will simply allow us to track the use and distribution of your article. We encourage use for non-commercial, educational purposes.
Authors must provide proof of permission clearance prior to the publication of their work if they are including images or other materials that are not their own. Keep in mind that such clearance can at times be costly, and often takes time. The journal editor can often work with you to seek permissions if you need information, advice or assistance.
