Accessibility Services & Accommodation Principles in Ontario
Welcome to the University of Toronto and Accessibility Services. We recognize that choosing to disclose a disability is a deeply personal decision, and we appreciate the trust you place in us when you do. Our team is committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment that upholds disability rights in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and all related legislation.
To support transparency and help make the accommodation process feel clearer and more predictable, we have outlined below the key principles that guide accommodation planning at the University.
Accessibility Services Mission, Vision and Values
First and foremost, the work of Accessibility Services is informed by our Mission, Vision and Values.
Staff Training and Legal Obligations
We are committed to complying with Ontario’s Human Rights Code and the University’s Statement of Commitment Regarding Persons with Disabilities.
Our work is also informed by guidance from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, including its Policy on Accessible Education for Students with Disabilities and decisions from the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
To ensure our Accessibility Services team is fully prepared to meet legal and institutional obligations, staff participate in regular training led by both internal specialists and external legal experts. These sessions cover current legislation, compliance expectations, and emerging trends in accessibility. The result is a workforce that is informed, confident, and proactive in addressing student needs. This ongoing investment in training strengthens our commitment to equitable access across the University.
Accommodation as a Collaborative Process
Disability accommodation at Ontario universities is a collaborative and interactive process, grounded in the shared goal of ensuring equitable access to education.
We believe that both the student and the institution have important roles in identifying barriers and exploring meaningful solutions. Students contribute by sharing relevant information about their disability‑related needs as soon as they become aware of the need for accommodation, participating actively and constructively in discussions about their learning experiences and potential options, and engaging with recommended assessments or supports. The University, in turn, is responsible for responding in a timely manner, assessing requests fairly, and implementing accommodations that remove barriers without altering essential academic requirements.
This partnership works best when communication is open, respectful, and ongoing. Approaches that begin with predetermined outcomes or rigid expectations about what must be implemented can create adversarial dynamics that hinder good‑faith problem‑solving. Effective accommodation planning often requires creativity and flexibility, and both parties bring valuable insight to the process: students understand their lived experience, while the University understands program requirements, safety considerations, and the full range of available supports—many of which may be unfamiliar to students coming from K–12 settings where options can be more limited.
By working together, students and the institution can develop accommodations that uphold academic integrity, meet legal obligations, and foster a learning environment where all students have the opportunity to thrive.
Core Principles in Post‑Secondary Context
All Students will encounter challenges as part of their academic journey, and will inevitably navigate academic situations that they are more and less suited to as part of the expected strengths and weaknesses we all hold as unique individuals.
Disability constitutes a unique challenge that is separate and distinct from these expected learning and developmental experiences common with university studies. Disability is established through formal diagnostic criteria and assessment, supported by student self-report of the barriers they experience in the learning environment. This triggers the ‘duty to accommodate’ at the postsecondary level.
At Accessibility Services, we are guided by certain core principles in working with the students we serve:
- Dignity of Student: Students must be accommodated in ways that respect their self-worth and integrity.
- Individualization of Accommodation: Accommodations is not about treating everyone this same; it is rather focussed on responses tailored to each student’s unique needs, which are established through documented functional limitations and barriers and student self report of lived experiences with disability as they intersect with demands and requirements of a specific academic program; accommodation is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Integration and Inclusion of Every Student: As a learning institution whose academic teaching, learning and assessment is designed to be delivered in person, and as part of a large and diverse academic community, every effort is made to fully integrate students into academic life on campus wherever possible.
- Equal Opportunity Relative to Peers: In providing accommodations, we seek to mitigate disability-related access barriers, so that a student with disabilities will have equal opportunity to attain the same level of performance and enjoy the same level of benefits and privileges enjoyed by other students. Accommodation does not alter the academic standards by which success in a course in determined. University education can be very different from K-12 education in Ontario in this sense. In K-12, all children are entitled to meaningful access to public education, and legislation defines in detail the goals and requirements of the public education system.
Parameters for Accommodation
Accommodation and Student Preference
Accommodations are meant to mitigate or eliminate identified barriers to learning and assessment. While student preference is considered, approved accommodations may not match their most desired solution. Not every accommodation will perfectly address a given challenge. Instead, we seek to implement accommodations that effectively address the documented disability‑related barrier to learning or assessment. The appropriate accommodation may differ from what the student requests. It may not be perfect in the student’s view.
There are many legitimate reasons why a preferred accommodation may not be implemented. For example, if multiple accommodation options adequately address the disability‑related barrier, the University may choose the one that is less costly, less disruptive, or more feasible to deliver while still reasonably accommodating the student’s disability-related limitation.
Separate from these considerations, there are exceptional circumstances in which the University may determine that providing a particular disability‑related accommodation would result in undue hardship.
Key Learning Outcomes and Core Competencies
Accommodation is intended to ensure equitable access to the learning environment and to enable a student with disabilities the same opportunity as their peers to demonstrate their knowledge, and to be fairly assessed on clearly defined core competencies and learning outcomes of a course or academic program. At the postsecondary level, exemptions or modification of essential course or program requirements is not possible, even for students with disabilities.
Accommodations may be used to enable a student to successfully meet requirements by altering the manner in which the student demonstrates mastery, knowledge, and skills, so long as mastery of that format is not an essential requirement of the course.
When requested accommodations conflict with a course, program or degree’s core competencies or learning outcomes, the University may not be able to implement accommodations in that circumstance. Circumstances like this are very rare.
Safety
The University of Toronto is a research institution with many laboratory and research environments where the safety of students and instructors must be carefully considered, including students with disabilities who require accommodations. In these settings, additional care is required to ensure that an accommodation achieves equitable access for the student while maintaining safe practices for everyone else.
When a requested accommodation introduces a safety risk the University will explore alternative solutions that enables the student’s equitable access while preserving the safety and integrity of the learning and research setting. This may include a safety audit conducted by Environmental Health and Safety and/or an occupational therapy assessment to better understand the student’s strengths and challenges in a particular environment. These steps help determine the most appropriate accommodation—or whether any accommodation is possible—while meeting both safety requirements and the University’s legal duty to accommodate.
In rare cases, despite best efforts to identify a workable solution, we may not be able to accommodate a student in a way that sufficiently addresses the safety risk.
Duty of Care and Professional Standards
The University of Toronto has many professional faculty programs where, as part of their learning and assessment, students are placed in experiential learning settings in the community such as hospitals, medical clinics, and classrooms. While in most undergraduate and graduate research accommodation situations it is possible to “try” an accommodation and adjust it as needed, this flexibility is not always available in placements where a clear duty of care exists to vulnerable populations, including children and individuals receiving therapeutic or clinical services.
In these environments, accommodations must be carefully evaluated in advance to ensure they do not compromise client/patient safety, professional standards, or the integrity of the learning environment. As a result, certain accommodations that may be feasible in a classroom setting may not be appropriate or permissible in a placement context, and alternative solutions may need to be explored. In highly exceptional circumstances, it may be the case that no accommodation may be put in place that would adequately accommodate the student and meet ‘duty of care’ and/or professional expectations.
Before arriving at this point, the University explores all reasonable alternatives. As best practices in professional faculty accommodations have evolved, situations such as these are increasingly rare.
*In these situations, the University will also carefully assess whether a student must demonstrate a particular competency directly—by performing specific actions or showing proficiency in a required skill set—or whether it is sufficient for the student to demonstrate competency by directing another individual in the performance of the task.
Competing Rights
On occasion, there will be situations where two individuals both have disability accommodation (or other Human Rights Code protected grounds for accommodation) that may seem to be in conflict. In such situations, the following process may be put in place to navigate these situations:
- ensure claim falls properly under the Ontario Human Rights Code for each individual coming forward; this may involve asking additional questions and seeking documented evidence where appropriate from the individual and/or their health care providers
- clarify rights truly are in conflict; many situations that appear to be conflicts can be resolved through creative problem‑solving or adjustments that allow both rights to be respected.
- consider undue hardship in all cases and if any provisions apply in this case
If a true conflict remains, then the importance of each right has to be weighed, in the current context, and possible alternatives to reach the most inclusive and least‑restrictive outcome put in place.
Connect with our team
We experience a high volume of inquiries coinciding with key dates, particularly registration deadlines, exam accommodations, and other critical registrarial dates.
Please visit us in person if you have a time-sensitive need. We are located at:
455 Spadina Ave, 4th floor, Suite 400 and open Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
(except during scheduled closures)
Learn more about when to connect with Accessibility Services staff >
Use the Accessibility Services Portal to submit requests, track your inquiries and get answers faster. You’ll find everything you need to get support in one place, including forms, FAQs and a place to connect with the reception team.
Learn more about the programs, services and supports we offer on the Accessibility Services homepage >
