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Accommodating diversity: Designing a proactive approach

Accommodating diversity: Designing a proactive approach. Crystal Cooke MA (Ed.), MA (Counselling Psychology) Student Success, Georgian College. Complexity of Learners. Students entering all programs are extremely diverse. This includes upgrading programs at community colleges.

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Accommodating diversity: Designing a proactive approach

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  1. Accommodating diversity: Designing a proactive approach Crystal Cooke MA (Ed.), MA (Counselling Psychology) Student Success, Georgian College

  2. Complexity of Learners • Students entering all programs are extremely diverse. • This includes upgrading programs at community colleges. • Many individuals that struggled to complete high school in the traditional manner did so because of disability issues that may or may not have been diagnosed and managed. • Knowing this, the intake process for accepting new students needs to be open and welcoming for self-disclosure of accessibility needs. • Making disclosure part of the discussion allows students to engage with reasonable academic accommodations for their entrance assessments and throughout their studies.

  3. How the College Population Adds Up… College Committee on Disability Issues (CCDI)- Data Collection April 1st 2014 – March 31st 2015

  4. Who Are We Accommodating at the college level…? College Committee on Disability Issues (CCDI)- Data Collection April 1st 2014 – March 31st2015 and Office of the Registrar at Georgian College, 2014-2015 enrollment data.

  5. Understanding the Difference Learning Disability Mild Intellectual Disability Below average IQ (borderline IQ 70-80) Difficulty processing information in all or most areas of academics and life skills. Accommodation can be helpful but in many cases these students need modification which can’t be done at the college level. • Average or above IQ • Difficulty processing in one specific area (reading) or a cluster area (reading, writing & math). • Accommodations easily level the playing field for these students. Example: text to speech software for reading L.D. (learning disability)

  6. How the Georgian College Upgrading (AACE) Adds Up… Total Population of: 750 Clockwork Data Management System (2016)

  7. Who Are Being Accommodated in Upgrading (AACE)…? Current Enrollment Numbers Taken from Clockwork Data Management System and Office of the Registrar at Georgian College, current AACE enrollment data.

  8. Knowing Your Population is the First Step in Effective Service and Accommodation In order to make the most of the accommodation process service providers need to have a working understanding of the disability issues students struggle with and how to effectively accommodate these disabilities. We have the duty to accommodate under the law. Unless it will bankrupt the college or is a health and safety risk all reasonable requests for accommodations must be fulfilled.

  9. The Process How do we invite more students to engage in the supports they need?

  10. LBS Participant Registration In the registration form there is only one place to indicate disability. What if the registrant does not understand the definition of disability?

  11. LBS Participant Registration By adding some additional questions to the intake/screening process we can more readily determine which students may need accommodations.

  12. We know the upgrading population is at risk so… Upgrading Level College Level At Georgian we have seen increased numbers of students being screened and using accommodations. We still have much work to do.

  13. Additionally the intake specialist should… • Ask about individual education plans (IEP’s) from public, intermediate and/or secondary school. • Inquire about previous assessments associated with learning, mental health, vision, hearing and/or occupational therapy. • If these types of assessments or education plans do exist the registrant should be informed about accommodations and how to access them for any entrance testing for the program. • This needs to be a formalized process so that every potential participant is given the same information and has access to the same accommodation services.

  14. Mental Health • There is a great deal of stigma surrounding mental health diagnoses (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2016). This makes it difficult for individuals to disclose these disability issues and many individuals do not realize there are accommodations for mental health problems. • Many individuals do not recognize mental health problems (long term or episodic) as disabling. • 13 % of Canadians will experience depression in their life and it is the leading cause of disability in the world for persons between the ages of 15 and 44 according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2016) • 16% of women and 9% of men will experience problems with anxiety that will limit their day-to-day activities. Long term anxiety leads to comorbidity with depression (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2016).

  15. Diagnoses with Mental Health Components: • High rates of comorbidity for individuals with one mental health diagnosis. • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) • Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) • Hyperactive • Inattentive • Combined Type (hyper and inattentive)

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