Inclusive campus-developing a "personalized accessibility plan (MyAP)" to foster the participation of students with disabilities in health and human service professional programs

Tal Jarus, Professor, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine
Ruth Warick, Senior Diversity Advisor, Disability, Access and Diversity
Michael Lee, Senior Instructor, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine
Marlee Groening, Lecturer, School of Nursing
Lesley Bainbridge, Associate Principal, College of Health Disciplines / Director, Interprofessional Education, Faculty of Medicine
Heather Frost, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Health Education Scholarship, Faculty of Medicine
Earllene Roberts, PhD Candidate, Social Work, Okanagan Campus
Bathseba Opini, Lecturer, Educational Studies, Faculty of Education
Julia Rozanova, Assistant Professor, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine
Tom Patch, Associate Vice-President, Equity
Iris Tang, Student, HKin (Student Collaborator)
Laura Bulk, Student, MOT (Student Collaborator)
Camille Musseau, Student, Social Work (Student Collaborator)
Johanna Johnson, President, BC Coalition of People with Disabilities / Teacher, Vancouver School Board (Community Collaborator)
Laura Tighe, MOT, Vancouver Island Health Authority (Community Collaborator)

This month, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a unanimous ruling stated that education for students with disabilities “is not a dispensable luxury.” While the 15 year long case rested on school aged children, the implications of the ruling also apply to higher-education students with disabilities. Barriers for students with disabilities are even greater in health and human service programs due to complex contexts encountered in their academic and clinical settings. To that end, this two-phase project is designed to create a university-wide process to address systematic barriers/exclusion of individuals with disabilities, by developing and testing a Personalized Accessibility (PA) Plan for students with disabilities in the health and human service disciplines. The first phase will identify specific factors and strategies that can assist students with disabilities to fully participate in university professional programs, and the second phase will involve the development and implementation of a pilot PA Plan

Tal Jarus, Professor, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine
Ruth Warick, Senior Diversity Advisor, Disability, Access and Diversity
Michael Lee, Senior Instructor, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine
Marlee Groening, Lecturer, School of Nursing
Gurdeep Parhar, Associate Dean, Equity and Professionalism, Faculty of Medicine
Sue Murphy, Senior Instructor, Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine
Earllene Roberts, School of Social Work, UBC-O
Bathseba Opini, Educational Studies, Faculty of Education
Julia Rozanova, Assistant Professor, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine

Student Collaborators:

Laura Bulk
Kim Jensen-Fink
Sneha Shankar
Parisa Ghanouni
Deidre Olsen
Luisa Yu

Community Collaborators:

Johanna Johnson, President, BC Coalition of People with Disabilities / Teacher, Vancouver School Board
Laura Tighe, MOT, Vancouver Island Health Authority

The Supreme Court of Canada, in a unanimous ruling stated that education for students with disabilities "is not a dispensable luxury." While the case rested on school-aged children, its implications equally apply to higher education. Barriers for students with disabilities particularly are great in health and human-service programs due to complex contexts encountered in their academic and clinical settings. Year 1 of this project identified a lack of a university-wide process to address systemic barriers and individualized accommodations for students with disabilities. Base on the identified barriers we are currently piloting the effectiveness of a personalized Accessibility Plan (myAP) in facilitating fuller participation of 8 students with disabilities. In year 2 we will a) further develop and test the myAP based on feedback from the pilot, with a bigger cohort for a longer period of time; and b) focus on developing and evaluating an educational strategy for faculty and students.