Attitudinal and Behavioural Barriers Impacting Access for Persons with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education

The Postsecondary Education Standards Development Committee (PESDC) 2022 Final Report identified nine barriers to access. Biweekly, ALS will be doing a deep dive into the barriers and recommendations identified.  

The recommendations were founded upon principles that accessibility efforts should be proactive, that all areas of an institution have a shared responsibility in promoting access and that students need to navigate a transparent and seamless system. 

This week’s focus is on barriers relating to attitudes, behaviours, perceptions and assumptions. The report noted the following: 

  • Attitudes can guide behaviours, perceptions and assumptions. They may lead educational institutions to develop policies, procedures and decision-making practices that exclude or marginalize students with disabilities. They can also create barriers for students with disabilities, with some students not feeling welcome or included in class activities, or social situations at school. 
  • Attitudinal barriers can also result in a form of internalized ableism.  
  • Ableism often goes unrecognized and can significantly and negatively affect a person’s well-being, performance and access to opportunities in work and school.  
  • The committee is therefore in agreement with the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s (2018) view that “we will not have an accessible province by 2025 without tackling the social attitudes that prevent persons with disabilities from participating and contributing to the community.”   

Recommendations stemming from the report include but are not limited to: 

  • Consistently integrate the commitments and values of inclusion into daily practices and decision-making. 
  • Development of an instrument to measure the effectiveness of efforts to address ableism amongst the students, and employees to identify gaps in initiatives to shift attitudes, behaviours, beliefs and assumptions related to disability. 
  • Take measures to respond to trends and address inequalities that may arise from data collection (for example, underrepresentation of people with certain types of disabilities), recognizing representation does not measure inclusion. 

The full report is now available online.

Visit our ALS Information for Faculty website to learn more about accommodating students with disabilities. 

Please email us at accessible-learning@humber.ca with suggestions for key accessibility-related topics that you would like us to address through the Communiqué.