A Reasonable Accommodation? Meaningful Access? For Whom? - A Critique of Accommodation Approaches in Canadian Higher Education

Oct 15, 2026

Institutional practices for academic accommodations and access in post-secondary education have long been criticized as ableist and bureaucratic. This paper examines what meaningful access and reasonable accommodation mean to post-secondary students with disabilities. Arguing that students do not currently define these terms, it shows that policy-based definitions inadequately serve their needs. It uses eight students’ definitions, and reviews positive and negative accommodation experiences, grounded in Ontario’s 2018 policy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Undue hardship and bureaucratic framing

Terminology and research design

Disability studies project and policy review

Two-year study and student interviews

A REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION? MEANINGFUL ACCESS? FOR WHOM? A CRITIQUE OF ACCOMMODATION APPROACHES IN CANADIAN HIGHER EDUCATION GHOFRAN ALYASS The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education The University of Toronto, Canada ABSTRACT Institutional practices related to providing academic accommodationsand access have long been ableist and bureaucratic and remain that way. This paper will focus on these practices in the post-secondary education context. The central question of this paper is: What do meaningful access and reasonable accommodation mean to post-secondary students with disabilities? Proceeding from the premise that students with disabilities do not currently define meaningful access and reasonable accommodations, this paper will argue that accommodations and access as defined within policy are not adequately serving the needs of post-secondary students with disabilities. This paper then highlights the definitions of meaningful access and reasonable accommodations provided by eight students who participated in a recent study. Finally, this paper will highlight the negative and positive encounters with accommodations experienced by many post-secondary students in the province of Ontario who follow the Policy on Accessible Education for Students with Disabilities (2018) as a policy that guides educational practices. BACKGROUND The Policy on Accessible Education for Students with disabilities (2018) in Ontario, Canada, includes meaningful access and reasonable accommodation. These two terms are situated in a bureaucratic way. This policy implies that institutions are to provide meaningful access to education for students with disabilities to the point of undue hardship. The point of undue hardship shows that meaningful access as a practice and as a term within the policy is politicized. According to the Policy on Accessible Education for Students with disabilities (2018),“the code prescribes three considerations when assessing whether an accommodation would cause undue hardship. [these include] cost, outside funding resources, if any, health and safety requirements, if any”(The Ontario Human Rights Code, 2018, p. 84) . The central question of this paper is: What do meaningful access and reasonable accommodation mean to post-secondary students with disabilities? This paper will discuss how reasonable accommodations and meaningful access as terms included within the policy and institutional practices are bureaucratic and how their current definitions and implementation do not meet the needs of post-secondary students with disabilities and instead place more barriers. This discussion will be illustrated by mapping out definitions of meaningful access and reasonable accommodation highlighted by Dolmage (2017), Titchkosky (2011), Ahmad et al.,(2019), and Steele and Nind (2009) . Another crucial step that has been taken in this paper is including interviews with post-secondary students with disabilities who participated in the study discussed in this paper. Before mapping out the definitions through the authors and including the students' definitions, this paper will define bureaucracy to set the stage and make later implications about reasonable accommodations and meaningful access. Finally, this paper will highlight the negative and positive encounters with accommodations experienced by many postsecondary students in Ontario. “Meaningful access” and “reasonable accommodation” were first encountered during the first stage of a research project at the University of Timothy’s. This project was entitled Disability Studies: What is Going on? In this project, searches were conducted through the websites of various Educational Planning | Spring 2024 51 Vol. 31, No. 2 departments atthe University of Timothy’s to find policies related to accommodations, mental health, and health and safety. This project aimed to locate where disability is mentioned on the University of Timothy’s website and, if so, how. Finally, ho

FAQs

What is the central question of the paper?

What do meaningful access and reasonable accommodation mean to post-secondary students with disabilities?

How does the paper characterize institutional practices and policy definitions?

It argues that accommodations and access defined within policy do not adequately serve students’ needs and instead create additional barriers.

What approach does the paper use to ground its argument?

It highlights definitions from eight students in a recent study and discusses positive and negative encounters with accommodations experienced by students in Ontario under the 2018 policy.

Oct 15, 2026

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