Accommodations

An accommodation may involve:

• Compensatory time added to exam time due to chronic pain that requires periods of rest.
• Extended exam time due to medications that impact memory.
• Extended exam time due to disabilities that affect processing speed.
• Computer-written exams for students requiring a spell check function, adaptive software, or the ease of keyboarding.
• A quiet exam room due to difficulties with concentration.
• Provision of support services such as sign language, oral interpreters or transcribers, taped lectures, alternate format textbooks, or adaptive technology.
• Relocation of classes to an accessible area or reasonable alterations of the physical environment.
• Priority seating whether it be at the front of the class, near electrical outlets, near a speaker system, etc.
• Listening systems, such as FM sound system.
• Wheelchair accessible tables and computer workstations.

As a student, it is your responsibility to:

• Contact Accessibility Services to review your particular needs. Be sure to plan ahead.
• Provide current medical documentation to Accessibility Services. You are responsible for any costs associated with acquiring your medical documentation.
• Connect with Accessibility Services to request new or updated accommodations should there be a change in your health condition that affects your performance.
• Sign the Student Consent to Release of Information as part of your online registration process.

• Provide reasonable accommodations based on the student’s Individual Accommodation Plan (IAP).
• Inform and refer students to Accessibility Services when students elect to identify themselves having a disability or health condition which affects their performance in educational settings.
• Assist Accessibility Services by providing information requested.
• Comply with disclosure agreements.
• Keep confidential any personal information provided by a student in connection with an accommodation request, except as provided by the disclosure agreement, or as provided in the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, or as the student may otherwise agree.
• Facilitate implementation of the IAP.
• If a review of the IAP or its implementation is requested, to comply with lawful and reasonable determinations made by the review body outlined in Procedure 4501 PR1 [PDF].

• Recommendations for accommodations must be based on functional limitations in educational settings the student experiences, which are directly related to their disability or health condition, and which are necessary to participate in post-secondary studies. Information on functional limitations are to be determined by health care practitioners to inform necessary accommodations for post-secondary participation.
• Accommodations must not pose an undue risk to the health or safety of students, staff or faculty.
• Accommodation 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.
• All students must meet the same or functionally equivalent admission requirements and course prerequisites as other students.
• A student who is provided accommodation with a documented disability must still be able to demonstrate acquisition of essential knowledge and skills ordinarily required to pass a course or program.
• As each individual student’s circumstances are unique, reasonable forms of accommodation may be different for different students.
• Reasonable accommodation processes are determined by the Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist through collaborative conversations between students, staff, and faculty to identify mutually agreeable outcomes that provide the student with access to learning.