About Accessibility Services

Accessibility Services takes students’ privacy seriously. Disability-related information, including all documentation, is kept separate from other academic information and is maintained with strict confidentiality. This means it will not appear on any official BCIT records, test results, academic transcripts or graduation documentation.

Disclosure of a specific diagnosis is not required to access accommodations, services and support. However, disclosure of a diagnosis or disability type can help the Vocational Rehabilitation Specialists (VRS), who are specifically trained in the provision of disability accommodations, to better understand the students’ needs.

Privacy and confidentiality laws protect student information. Accessibility Services will respond only to students’ requests and cannot communicate with parents, guardians, community agencies, or other third parties. Therefore, in the best interests of students, family involvement needs to take place within the boundaries set by the BCIT Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Policy [PDF]. Students wishing to permit others to speak or make inquiries on their behalf must provide written consent for such communication.

* There are certain circumstances where private, federally, or provincially-funded supports and/or services require a diagnosis to establish eligibility.

• All students must meet the same or functionally equivalent admission requirements and course prerequisites as other students.
• Accommodations are determined by the Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) through collaborative conversations between students, staff, and faculty to identify mutually agreeable solutions.
• As each individual student’s circumstances are unique, reasonable forms of accommodation may vary between different students.
• Accommodations are based on the student’s functional limitations due to their disability or health condition.
• Accommodations must not pose an undue risk to the health or safety of students, staff or faculty.
• Accommodations must not impose an undue financial hardship on BCIT or otherwise unreasonably affect BCIT’s operations or its ability to provide educational services to its students.
• Accommodations must not compromise the essential requirements of a course/program, to maintain the fundamental nature of the task or course. This means that all BCIT students must be able to demonstrate the acquisition of essential knowledge and skills ordinarily required to pass a course or program.
• Academic accommodations are reflected in the Individual Accommodation Plan (IAP), which serves as a written agreement between BCIT and the student. No information pertaining to the student’s disability is reproduced on the IAP.

• Accessibility Services does not provide proofreading or editing services, reduction of course standards, or re-phrasing of test/exam questions.
• Students who rely on the assistance of personal care attendants should arrange this through a community sponsoring agency (e.g. Community Living). Students are encouraged to arrange for attendant services one year or more in advance of admission to BCIT.