'It shouldn’t take a viral tweet': U of G student shares struggle receiving disability accommodation

The University of Guelph is pictured above. (CTV)

A University of Guelph student says she’s frustrated it took a viral Twitter thread to get the university to make accommodations for her to attend classes remotely due to her disability.

Second-year psychology/sociology student Brittany Hannah said she reached out to the University of Guelph in July to request an accommodation to attend classes virtually for the fall semester. A serious ATV incident in October of 2021 had left her unable to commute to school from her home in Waterloo.

In response, she said a Student Accessibility Services (SAS) advisor suggested she enroll in distance education classes or take classes through an online institution like Athabasca University.

Hannah said distance education classes weren’t available in her specialization and enrolling in another institution would come at an additional cost.

When she emailed an academic advisor with her problem, they reiterated the other options and added a third – she could drop the semester.

“A sense of normalcy is very important for me and a lot of other peoples going through difficult challenges in their life,” she said.

“Just because you’re going through a tough time, drop the semester? That’s not a solution.”

When she reached out to professors individually, she said she was similarly told classes wouldn’t be offered remotely.

“I made me feel like a burden and kind of pushed aside” Hannah said.

TAKING TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Eventually, feeling frustrated she posted about her experience on Twitter.

“I was just looking for advice for where to go from here… I did not expect for it to go as big as it,” Hannah said.

As of Monday, the Twitter thread had over 700 retweets with students from the University of Guelph and other institutions sharing similar experiences.

"After that many students reached out to me, that was when I was like 'this is much bigger than myself,'" Hannah said, explaining she's now compiling the stories to share with the university and working with the recently formed University of Guelph Disability Community.

Also as a result of the tweet, several University of Guelph professors reached out and offered to advocate for her. Hannah said with their help, the university granted her accommodations to be able to continue classes remotely, including by having professors post slides online and record lectures.

While she’s now able to continue with her semester, Hannah is concerned other disabled students might find themselves in similar positions.

“The advocacy is so exhausting… a lot of younger students might not know where to look when this kind of stuff happens – and it shouldn’t take a viral tweet for this to be brought to light,” she said.

She said she wants the university to take a look at their policies that “allow for students to fall through the gaps” and wants to see professors and SAS work collaboratively to ensure student needs are met.

“Someone shouldn’t have to advocate for themselves to get what they medically require to be able to get the education they’re paying for,” she said.

UNIVERSITY RESPONSE

University of Guelph Associate Vice President (Academic) Cate Dewey said the university cannot comment on individual student cases due to privacy concerns, but is committed to creating an equitable learning environment for individuals with disabilities.

Dewey said one of the core rolls of SAS is to put individualized academic accommodations in place and those can include providing for remote learning.

“If the student works with Student Accessibility Services, and the adviser says, ‘these are the accommodations that are required for the student based on the Human Rights Code of Ontario, then the accommodation will be done,” she said.

Speaking generally, not about this particular case, Dewey said more could be done to encourage students to register early with SAS to ensure there’s time for advisors to evaluate their needs and determine accommodations before the semester starts.

“We at the University of Guelph care deeply about our students and wish each of them to succeed and we also recognize that each student has their own specific needs,” Dewey said.