Disability Cultures + Access
The 海角社区 is committed to becoming a leader in accessibility, reducing ableist barriers and increasing belonging. These commitments are outlined in Shape: A Strategic Plan of Impact 2023–2033, and in various other institutional plans, including Changing the Story: An Integrated Action Plan for Transforming Our Vibrant and Interconnected University Community, adopted in February 2025.
Trajectory #3 of Changing the Story, in particular, outlines our institutional commitment to ensuring access to all aspects of academic and community life. Guided by the principles in Braiding Past, Present, and Future: 海角社区 Indigenous Strategic Plan, this commitment recognizes the intersectional impacts of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, colonialism and ableism on equity and accessibility.
To advance these goals, the Office of the Vice Provost (Access, Community and Belonging) has launched Disability Cultures and Access (DCA): a cross-University initiative that supports, coordinates and prioritizes efforts to address systemic disability-related barriers. DCA collaborates with faculties and units across our campuses in transforming institutional policies and procedures, designing more accessible physical and digital spaces and promoting accessible practices for the benefit of all community members, including those who are Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent.
Our Proactive Approach to Accessibility
Accommodations are the primary way that Canadian Universities have typically engaged with disability-related barriers. The 海角社区 continues to commit to robust and meaningful accommodations. At the same time, DCA marks a significant institutional shift towards proactively identifying and transforming recurring accessibility barriers by engaging deeply with disabled knowledge holders across the University. The following definitions help to frame our approach.
Disability is used here as a broad category that can refer to a wide range of distinct experiences, identities and communities. Disability is a legally-protected ground in Canadian human rights law that is defined by having a medical condition that limits one's capacity to carry out important activities in certain unadapted contexts (like work, services and education) unless they have access to accommodations. This rights-based approach tends to use person-first terminology, for example, persons with disabilities or people with low vision.
In many impacted communities, disability refers to the experiences of oppression that are created by ableist barriers and beliefs. For others, disability refers to our positive qualities, as well as the cultural identities and offerings that emerge through our specific ways of interacting with the world and each other. In these two kinds of approaches, we tend to use identity-first language, for example, disabled person, Deaf people and neurodivergent folks. Some Deaf, Mad or Autistic people capitalize their identity.
Accommodation is the process of making reasonable adjustments to the delivery of services, the conditions of employment, or the built environment in order to address barriers that inequitably impact individuals based on a characteristic or perceived characteristic referenced in the protected grounds. At the 海角社区, all staff are responsible for adhering to this legal obligation, however accommodations are operationalized by two units:
- Academic accommodations for students are managed by the Academic Success Center in Student Success and Experience;
- Employment-related accommodations are managed by Health Recovery and Return to Work in Human Resources, Health, Safety and Environment.
Accessibility is the degree to which a space, community or service has been proactively designed or facilitated to support meaningful engagement through the removal of discriminatory barriers for people with disabilities and others who encounter systemic barriers. Proactive accessibility often includes flexible and responsive designs that empower choices to allow diverse and equitable participation. When done well and robustly, some proactive accessibility measures can decrease the labour associated with recurring accommodations. At the 海角社区, accessibility is the responsibility of all community members, however, large accessibility initiatives are collaboratively coordinated through the Disability Cultures and Access initiative of the Office of the Vice Provost (Access, Community and Belonging).
Access is the means and opportunity for each and all community members to fully, meaningfully and equitably engage with a space, program, community or service. Barriers to access may be related to protected grounds (e.g., disability, religion), or any other individual characteristic or life circumstance (e.g., financial barriers, caregiving responsibilities, first generation student). Access is about providing meaningful opportunities and support for each and all community members. At the 海角社区, access should be prioritized by and for all community members, however, large access-oriented initiatives are primarily coordinated by the Office of the Vice Provost (Access, Community and Belonging).
Disability Cultures refers to the distinct and generative ways of thinking, doing and being (together) that have emerged from shared experiences, values and survival strategies of disability communities (broadly defined). Disability cultures are primarily (co)led and (co)created by disabled people, and tend to relate to disability as a natural part of human diversity, or as a positive site of human connection and creation. Examples include D/deaf aesthetics, Mad theory, disability justice movements and the neurodiversity paradigm.
Disability Cultures and Access Hub
The Disability Cultures and Access Hub (DCA Hub) is a growing database of resources that can help all 海角社区 community members improve accessibility, register for and implement accommodations, navigate disability-related barriers and engage with disability cultures. Learn more about the launch of the DCA Hub.
DCA Leadership & Structure
is an advisory and decision-making body in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Access, Community and Belonging) that is in charge of steering the direction of DCA. Its members are diverse knowledge holders, drawn from a range of disciplines, campuses and roles, who have first hand experience of disability-related barriers, as well as significant academic, professional, or community-based knowledge around accessibility, ableism and disability. (see)
DCA Strategic Collaborations Table brings together high-level institutional decision makers from across the University who are committed to addressing systemic access and accessibility barriers. These gatherings facilitate the sharing of information, resources and initiatives across units and with DCA leadership, helping unit leads to more quickly identify access issues, proactively improve accessibility and build more sustainable and transformative University-wide solutions to some of the most enduring and pressing inequitable barriers.
Academic Lead, Disability Cultures and Access is a strategic position in the Office of the Vice Provost (Access, Community and Belonging) held by a disabled knowledge holder with research expertise related to accessibility and disability cultures. The Academic lead co-chairs the Council for DCA and the DCA strategic collaborations table alongside the Vice Provost (ACB). They offer strategic, relational and administrative support to the DCA, helping to prioritize, organize and support research-informed collaborations across a wide range of impacted communities and units. The current Academic Lead (DCA) is .
DCA Collaborations
The DCA encompasses numerous ongoing collaborative projects that are at various stages of formalization. Below are a few examples of successful collaborations to date with portfolios across the University:
The Accessibility Enhancement Project is a DCA collaboration led by Student Success and Experience. The goal of the Accessibility Enhancement project is to help transform the student, instructor and staff experience of academic accommodation services toward improved accessibility. Changes to technology, processes and communication will shape a more equitable, clear and consistent delivery of services.
The is a DCA collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning. This is an asynchronous learning space that provides a series of highly actionable and sustainable intersectional practices that instructors can adopt that each contribute towards a more equitable and accessible course for learners. It can be engaged like a course or like a Choose Your Own Adventure (diving into whatever course design areas you are currently working on). .
The Accessible Spaces Project: This is a new DCA collaboration with multiple units (including Infrastructure Planning, Development and Partnerships) and communities across our campuses that are all working towards increasing the accessibility experience of community members who are engaging with the built environment. This project includes trying to improve how we design, build and renovate spaces, but also how we communicate about, schedule and navigate our spaces, helping to ensure our community members can spend more time engaging in spaces that are accessible to them.