Accommodation process

Developing your accommodation plan is a collaborative effort between you and our accessibility advisors. Accessibility Services takes many things into account. First, we ask you to complete a self-assessment which identifies the impacts you have experienced in the past and anticipated needs while you study at AU. Next is a medical verification by a health practitioner. Both are required to register for accommodations and accessibility services.

We look at the self-assessment, medical verification, and any other relevant documents you submit (e.g., accommodations provided by another institution) to build an individualized accommodation plan. We may ask for more information or a conversation for clarification.

The purpose of the document assessment is to determine support service, assistive technology, and academic accommodation needs specific to AU.

Once an accessibility advisor has developed the accommodation plan, you will receive a Letter of Accommodation. This will describe the accommodations we are able to provide you and information on how to request services (e.g., accommodated exam booking, alternate format course material, etc.).

We recommend that you present your Letter of Accommodation to your course tutors. We do not provide it to them. It is not required that you provide the letter unless you want to request the use of an accommodation.

If you would like to discuss or revise your accommodations, please contact us.

Further medical or more recent documentation may be requested to understand the need for an accommodation.

We assess accommodations and services on an individual basis.

Accommodation is the process of adapting the way in which services are provided to eliminate or reduce the barriers that certain individuals experience when attempting to access services at Athabasca University.

Accommodation does not:

1. require that post‑secondary institutions lower academic or non‑academic standards to accommodate students with disabilities.
2. relieve the student of the responsibility to develop the essential skills and competencies expected of all students.

It is the student’s responsibility to:

1. fully participate in the accommodation process.
2. provide documentation that outlines the barriers they experience.
3. provide medical documentation confirming the limitations and/or barriers experienced by the student.

Accordingly, there are programs and courses where it will not be possible to accommodate students with disabilities. For more information on these limitations, consult the section titled "How does a post‑secondary institution determine that an accommodation is not possible?" in the AB Human Rights Duty to Accommodate.