New to Our Office

New to Our Office

What You Need to Register:

If you have been diagnosed with a:

  • a chronic health or mental health condition;
  • a brain injury or post-concussive syndrome;
  • a physical or mobile disability; 
  • a sensory disability or impairment such as blindness or deafness;
  • a neurodiversity, ADD (or ADHD) or autism. 

Speak with a health care practitioner about registration with our office and the completion of a Student Accessibility Services Medical Form.

- OR -

Provide a recent, comprehensive medical/psychological report from an appropriate, regulated health care practitioner (e.g., an emergency room physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, neurologist) that outlines your functional limitations in an academic setting and your accommodation needs.

If you have been diagnosed with a Learning Disability/Disorder:
Provide a copy of your last psychoeducational assessment. Ideally this assessment was completed within the last 4 years or with adult norms (you were at least 18 years old when you were tested), however, we will accept older assessments as a starting point to register with our office.

If you graduated from an Ontario secondary school in the last 5 years, you can request a copy of your psychoeducational assessment from your high school.

A Note About Documentation
We recognize the historical and systemic disparities in educational systems and society can often have adverse consequences that further marginalize populations. They affect our students and their ability to provide documentation of a disability. 

If you have experienced a barrier to receiving documentation, we are committed to working with you to find appropriate and creative ways of ensuring access to appropriate supports and services.

4-step Registration

  1. Collect your medical/psychological documentation.
  2. Log in to the Student Accessibility Services Portal and complete our online questionnaire.
  3. Wait for a secure link where you can upload an electronic copy of your documentation.
  4. Connect with an Accessibility Counsellor.

You will be contacted about connecting with an Accessibility Counsellor after we have received your online questionnaire and medical/psychological documentation. 

 

What is a letter of accommodation?

A Letter of Accommodation (LOA) is the version of your academic accommodation plan that is shared with Course Instructors. Your LOA lists the academic accommodations recommended in a course, (it does not include your diagnosis or medical information). To access academic accommodations recommended by our office in a course, your course instructor must be provided with access to your LOA.

Not sure if you can apply?

To be eligible to register with our office you must have a documented disability/medical condition and/or a history of academic accommodation (e.g. an IEP) related to a disability/chronic medical condition.  

If you are in the process of being assessed to determine if your academic difficulties are due to an undiagnosed disability, we can explore interim academic accommodations while your assessment is completed.  Follow the 4-steps to register with us.

Our office only provides academic accommodation planning for reasons related to disability. We cannot accommodate academically for religious commitments, carer responsibilities, short-term, acute illnesses (e.g. the flu), English as a Second Language, personal or family emergencies, work obligations and/or commuting.

You can request a consultation with us to discuss the difficulties you are experiencing. If appropriate, we can suggest referrals for assessment and possible support. We do not provide assessments. 

FAQ

No. Occassionally, students become ill or have personal/family emergencies and need special consideration to write a test or exam at a later date and/or to hand in an assignment late.

Please speak to your professor if you need a special consideration.

Deferred standing is a formal arragement in which you must ask to submit coursework beyond the last day of class and/or write the final exam in a course at a later date.

Please note: Critical incident support is available to students experiencing a personal or family emergency (for example, loss of housing, hospitalization, death of a loved one) through the Office of Student Community Relations.

We will review the medical/psychological documentation submitted to another post-secondary school as a starting point to enter our service. Additional documentation might be requested as part of academic accommodation planning at York.

Academic accommodations received at another post-secondary school are not automatically transferable to York - you might have access to different academic acommodations here.

Please note: Visiting students must register with us to explore their eligibility for academic accommodations at York

No. Information for students seeking religious accommodation can be found on the Registrar's website.

You can still register with us, however, access to academic accommodations (such as accommodated tests and exams) might be limited and/or unavailable this term. 

We will review alternate/existing/old documentation as a starting point to enter our service. Follow the 4 steps to register with us.

Additional documentation might be requested as part of academic accommodation planning at York.

We can explore interim academic accommodations while your assessment is completed. Your family doctor (or specialist) can indicate on your Student Accessibility Medical Form that you are "being assessed". They are asked to provide information relating to your functional limitations on the form.

Follow the 4 steps to register with us.