canadian association of graduate studies (cags) dr. mahadeo a. sukhai

Mythbusting:

Deconstructing the Experience of Graduate Students with Disabilities in Canadian Postsecondary Education

Canadian Association of Graduate Studies (CAGS)Dr. Mahadeo A. Sukhai

Chair, National Graduate Experience TaskforceNovember 05, 2013

Contact Details

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Tel: 416-946-4501 x 3498 or 416-848-6841 x 260

mailto:[email protected]



Truth or Fiction?

“Graduate students with disabilities take longer to complete their programs of study”

Time to Completion Statistics

Students were asked:– What is the EXPECTED time to completion

based on information provided by the Department/School?

– What was their program start date?– What was their (projected) program end date?

Preliminary data from NEADS’ National Graduate Student Experience Survey


Interpretation:– Student expectation of time to completion (for

students in the program)– Actual time to completion (for recent

graduates)– Ratio of actual or student expectation vs.

institutional expectation


Doctoral Students:– Average actual/student expectation of time to

completion = 1.1x the institutional requirement– 8% of students take longer than 1.5x to complete

Master’s Students:– Average actual/student expectation of time to

completion = 1.3x the institutional requirement– 15% of students take longer than 1.5x to complete

Fiction

“Graduate students with disabilities take longer to complete their programs of study”

About Me

Research fellow, University Health Network

Team Leader, Advanced Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory

Doctorate in cancer biologyPost-doctoral training in cancer genomics

and experimental therapeuticsCanada’s first blind biomedical researcherChair, NEADS’ National Graduate

Experience Taskforce

The NEADS Graduate Experience Taskforce - Rationale

There is a significant need to better understand the overall experiences of disabled students in graduate studies

Currently, there is a critical lack of information in this area– Need to understand the “student experience tapestry”– Need to catalogue institutional leading practices

9NEADS Summer 2013

Taskforce Mandate

To assemble a multi-stakeholder group of experts, in order to review and discuss the academic experience of graduate students with disabilities, in the context of the last fifteen years' advances in technology, attitudes and legislation

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Stakeholder Membership

Graduate students with disabilities Disability service providers (IDIA; CADSPPE) Student financial aid administrators (CASFAA) Graduate student services (CAGS) Faculty Community service agencies Legal Council of Ontario Universities Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

Graduate deans (advisory capacity) University senior administration (advisory capacity)

11NEADS Summer 2013

Project Goals

To examine the experiences of, and barriers faced by, graduate students with disabilities across Canada

To develop a discussion paper outlining the current system issues for graduate students with disabilities

To produce information and develop strategies to facilitate the success of students with disabilities in graduate programs

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Project Goals

To develop recommendations for the continued improvement of graduate experience for students with disabilities, that can be translated into policy at an institutional, provincial, or national level

Long term: To develop “tool-based” approaches for students, faculty and institutions to use in addressing issues faced by graduate students with disabilities

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Project Scope

Comprehensive survey of graduate students with disabilities

Literature and environmental scan: Canada, US and international data– Demographics– Financial aid– Legislation

Institutional practices and policies

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The Graduate Student with Disabilities Experience

Consensus on Definitions

Disability– WHO and OHRC definition

Distinction between “apparent” and “hidden” disabilities

Accommodation– a means of preventing and removing barriers that

impede students with disabilities from participating fully in the educational environment in a way that is responsive to their own unique circumstances

Truth or Fiction?

“Academic accommodation for students with disabilities is best delivered using a ‘short term intervention’ model, and don’t change with time.”

Case Example

Student with compound disabilities in physical anthropology doctorate

Beginning of program

Fieldwork

Lab-based follow-up research

Thesis writing and defense

Accommodation is an Iterative Process

Everything evolves with time– A student’s disability(ies)– A student’s research program– A student’s environment

Accommodation cannot be “delivered” in a single intervention and be expected to succeed

Important to consider accommodation as a long-term process framework, requiring continuous monitoring, feedback and evaluation

“Appropriate Accommodation”

Appropriate accommodation– Defined iteratively– Dependent upon a student’s research,

environment, disability and needs at any given point

– What may be necessary at the beginning of the program may not be appropriate at the half-way point

Fiction

“Academic accommodation for students with disabilities is best delivered using a ‘short term intervention’ model, and don’t change with time.”

Students may not recognize this themselves– Focus on coursework accommodations– Unaware that they could be accommodated to

do research

Truth or Fiction?

“Accommodation” = “Crisis Intervention”

Case Example

Student with compound disabilities, including mental health

Student is registered with disability services office and has a long-term accommodation package

Student requires crisis intervention in the research environment during a mental health episode

Case example

The crisis intervention may lead to changes in the accommodations package for the student– The crisis intervention itself is NOT an

accommodation

Case Example #2

For a student who chooses to NOT disclose first, the mental health episode is unexpected and acts as the disclosure

Crisis intervention is now the first point of contact of the student with the institution’s service provision system

Accommodation spins out of crisis intervention

Fiction

“Accommodation” = “Crisis Intervention”

Truth or Fiction?

“Accommodations for graduate students with disabilities contravene the essential requirements of a graduate program.”

Essential Requirements

"Essential requirements of a course or program refer to the knowledge and skills that must be acquired or demonstrated in order for a student to successfully meet the learning objectives of that course or program" (Rose, 2009).

Essential Requirements

Essential requirements are those skills required for qualification in the discipline.

Defined by two factors:– Skills that must be necessarily demonstrated in

order to meet the objectives of a course– Skills that must be demonstrated in a prescribed

manner

Essential Requirements for Graduate Education

“General” Essential Requirements (applicable across all disciplines)

Discipline-Specific Essential Requirements

Technical Essential Requirements

“Philosophy of graduate education” issue – what are the universal definitions of essential requirements?

Questions for Consideration

What is being tested? What is the nature of the task? Does it have to be done in only one way?– If so, why?

Will performing this task in an alternative manner ultimately interfere with the student’s successful performance in the discipline, program or course?

Essential Requirements and Accommodation

To appropriately adapt accommodations to essential requirements:

– Clarify the essential requirements of the discipline and what assistance the student will require in order to meet these learning objectives

– Clearly outline the role for the use of accommodations in the graduate setting

Measurement of Essential Requirements

It is extremely important to not confound the evaluation method with the actual competency.

For example, if a student must understand how to design, interpret, analyze and troubleshoot a scientific experiment (“competency”), does this mean that the student must perform the experiment unaided (“measurement”)?

Accommodations Appropriately Applied

Appropriate accommodations will enable students to meet the essential requirements of the program successfully, without impact on academic standards or essential requirements

Although compromising the essential requirements of a course or program can be grounds for denying accommodation requests, the institution must be able to demonstrate how the course or program will be compromised through the provision of accommodations.

Fiction

“Accommodations for graduate students with disabilities contravene the essential requirements of a graduate program.”

Truth or Fiction?

“Accommodations for graduate students with disabilities negatively impact the academic integrity of the graduate program.”

Academic Integrity Issues

A student has violated academic integrity if they are guilty of research misconduct, either inadvertently or through deliberate action

Research Misconduct– Data falsification– Data fabrication– Plagiarism– Other questionable research practices– Definition in constant evolution

The Academic Integrity Challenge

Plagiarism is the most challenging issue with respect to disability-related accommodation

Easy to envision scenarios where essential requirements and academic integrity are synonymous

Do Students Identify with Academic Integrity Issues?

% Answering YES

Academic Integrity

Standards

RCR Standards

Intellectual Property

Standards

Student awareness of departmental

policies

79% 69% 58%

Student awareness of institutional

policies

86% 77% 62%

Students trained

68% 66% 46%

Do Students Identify with Academic Integrity Issues?

% Answering YES

Academic Integrity

Standards

RCR Standards

Intellectual Property

Standards

Students informed of impact of disability?

10% 12% 10%

Objections raised about

ability to meet

standards?

12% 9% 4%

When training occurred

Beginning/Orientation

Year 1 Not Applicable

“Have you experienced any academic integrity or intellectual property challenges due to your

disability?”

Are Accommodation/AI Issues Real?

Students not aware of any issues, and students are not experiencing any issues– Student offense at the notion that disability

impacts academic integrity

Perception on the part of faculty and administrators is different

If issues really exist, where are they coming from, and why do students not know of them?

Solutions: Student-Directed

Provide appropriate training to the student, so that they understand the relevant issues;

Work with the faculty/administrators and the DSO to understand the potential interfaces between accommodation profile and research misconduct guidelines;

Clarify expectations around research misconduct with the student, in order to ensure that they are appropriately aware and informed of any concerns and their responsibilities/obligations in addressing these issues with the faculty and department;

Solutions: Directed toward Faculty/Administrators

Provide appropriate training to faculty/administrators, so that they understand the relevant issues;

Work with the student and the DSO to understand the potential interfaces between their accommodation profile and research misconduct guidelines;

Clarify expectations around research misconduct with the student, in order to ensure that they are appropriately aware and informed of any concerns and their responsibilities/obligations in addressing these issues with the faculty and department;

Solutions

Ensure that, through this effort, there are no contradictions in the specific application of institutional academic integrity/IP policies between the undergraduate and graduate environments (this is particularly relevant if the student is planning on doing their undergraduate and graduate degrees at the same institution).

Fiction? … Probably more of a (mis-)Perception

Accommodations for graduate students with disabilities negatively impact the academic integrity of the graduate program.”

Truth or Fiction

“Accommodations for graduate students with disabilities are resource-intensive”– Cost– Time– Human Resources

Accommodations and Undue Hardship

The “duty to accommodate” requires that accommodation be provided in a manner that “most respects the dignity of the person, if to do so does not create undue hardship.”

Only three elements may be considered in assessing whether an accommodation would cause undue hardship: cost; outside sources of funding, if any; and, health and safety requirements, if any.

Undue Hardship

The institution cannot argue undue hardship based on:– business inconvenience– employee morale– third-party preference– collective agreements or contracts

Cost of Accommodation

COST EASE OF APPLICATION

FREQUENCY OF REQUEST

COMPLEX MULTIPLE ACCOMMODATIONS

PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY

HR AND ASSISTANTS

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

SOFTWARE/IT SOLUTIONS

STUDY FLEXIBILITY

QUIET STUDY SPACE

Fiction

“Accommodations for graduate students with disabilities are resource-intensive.”– Cost– Time– Human Resources

The Case for Appropriate Accommodations

ESSENTIAL PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ISSUES

COST

APPROPRIATE ACCOMMODATIONS

Truth or Fiction?

“Working with a graduate student with a disability is extra work”

Student/Supervisor Interaction

Students will meet regularly with their thesis supervisor(s) around research matters

Students will meet rarely, if ever, with their thesis supervisor(s) around career development or their disability

Consistent with the general population

Student/Supervisor Relationship

Four major perspectives:– Great supervisors, chosen because of how well

they will respond to disability issues and the potential for a strong working relationships

– Majority of students who disclosed– Best-case scenario– 87% of student respondents indicated a good

working relationship with their supervisors– 83% of students who disclosed had supervisors

who were understanding of their disability– 80% of students who disclosed had supervisors

willing to assist with accommodations


Four major perspectives:– Difficult working relationship– Student comments clear that the relationship

difficulties may not have been because of the disability

– Some supervisors difficult to work with, period


Four major perspectives:– Students who have not yet disclosed/interacted

with a supervisor– Students not yet long enough in the program to

observe the consequences of not disclosing– In fairness, many students will not disclose and

not have a challenge because they find ways to be accommodated without the supervisor knowing


Four major perspectives:– Students who have had their supervisor’s

perspectives change after the disability is identified

– Protection of anti-disclose has backfired

Mentorship

Faculty have an important mentorship role to play towards students with disabilities in graduate programs– Where there is a direct one-on-one relationship

between the student and the supervisor– Where the mentorship relationship is

formalized to a significant degree.

Student Success

Students succeed with…– …faculty who are more willing to be engaged

and take an interest in the student’s success.

Students fail with… …faculty who present as indifferent, unsure,

discriminatory or outright hostile, to the point where the student may simply leave the program, or pursue legal options.

NOT always a disability issue

What Students Want from Mentors

A faculty member who is open-minded about the inclusion of disability in the graduate environment, and who demonstrates this open-mindedness in the course of their interaction with the student;

A champion or advocate, who is able to help them navigate the discipline, as well as the interface with the academic environment, in a way that the disability services staff may not be able to;

What Students Want from Mentors

A faculty member who demonstrates creativity and willingness to critically think about the interface between disability and graduate education; and,

A faculty member who is relatable, approachable and responsive to student interaction.

Qualities of Good Faculty Mentors

Being proactive: Faculty members ought to be willing to reach out and engage the student on his or her own terms, as opposed to waiting for the student to come to them with a crisis.

Being responsive: Mentors must respond to student engagement in a timely manner.

Qualities of Good Faculty Mentors

Being open-minded: Faculty members ought to demonstrate an inclusive mindset with respect to the involvement of students with disabilities in the sciences and science labs.

Being creative: Mentors who demonstrate creativity in thinking about issues faced by their mentees in the context of their disability, and are more willing to critically think about adapting the essential requirements of the program to the student are more likely to have success.

Fiction

“Working with a graduate student with a disability is extra work”

– The best practices around clarifying expectations, communication and mentorship are universal: They should be implemented for all students, not just students with disabilities

Key Role of Graduate Faculty

Faculty members are on the front line of providing graduate education– Attitudes and willingness to provide reasonable

accommodation key to student success

Priorities and behaviours of faculty correlated with quality of student experience

The poorest student-faculty interaction profiles can lead to a student’s withdrawal from the program


Take steps to include students with disabilities in program activities;

Accept a student’s request for accommodation in good faith (even when the request does not use any specific formal language), unless there are legitimate reasons for acting otherwise;


Take an active role in ensuring that alternative approaches and possible accommodation solutions are investigated, and canvass various forms of possible accommodation and alternative solutions as part of the duty to accommodate;

Maximize a student’s right to privacy and confidentiality, including only sharing information regarding the student’s disability with those directly involved in the accommodation process.

The accessible graduate environment…

…Doesn’t yet exist!– “Making it up as we go along”

Opportunity for faculty to develop their own solutions and adapt them to their particular student’s needs

Need to be flexible, solution oriented and creative in designing an appropriate graduate thesis project and environment

The Need for Collaboration

GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

GRADUATE SUPERVISORS

GRADUATE SSDs, DEANS, ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS

DISABILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS

Recommended Best Practices

Establish a Framework of Expectations– Between student and supervisor, and inclusive

of DSO, financial aid, department, FGS– Outlines and addresses solutions for any major

issues identified during the intake process– Universal best practice – can be adapted from

Independent Development Plan framework extant in the United States


Establish a Long-term Intervention Team– Membership includes student, supervisor, DSO,

financial aid staff, FGS, department and other relevant institutional stakeholders

– Mandate to address the long-term accommodation needs of the student in the context of their program, and to collaboratively identify solutions


Improve Existing Materials on Student/Faculty Interaction– Include sections on how to handle disclosure,

the potential negative consequences of not disclosing, and how to identify receptive mentors

– Provide training on interacting with graduate students with disabilities to new graduate faculty


Enhance Student Appreciation of the Nuances of Graduate Education– Pre-application workshops on the nature of

graduate education– Explaining the differences between graduate

and undergraduate education– The role of disclosure in graduate education


Establish Institutional Accommodations Fund– Applicable to graduate students and

postdoctoral fellows with disabilities– Able to cover most low-cost accommodations– Need-based application process– Mechanism to investigate larger funding

requirements– Engagement of tricouncil agencies on

accommodations funding as part of SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR awards

Acknowledgements

Council of Ontario Universities

Adaptech Research Network

“Making Science Labs Accessible” Study Team

Graduate Taskforce Membership

NEADS Board Members – Graduate Experience Committee

Thanks for participating!

Questions and Discussion?

NEADS Since 1986

National Educational Association of Disabled Students

Cross-disability National charitable

organization

NEADS Summer 2013

NEADS Summer 2013 79

About NEADS

Vision:Post-secondary students with disabilities experience fully accessible and inclusive education and employment

Mission:Through leadership, innovation and collaboration NEADS delivers research, education and resources to advance full access and inclusion to education and employment.

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NEADS Areas Of Focus

As the national voice of students with disabilities, NEADS is a resource in the areas of: student finance, student experience in class and on campus, and student employment

NEADS Summer 2013

NEADS In Action

Student Finance: 1. NEADS Scholarship Program2. www.disabilityawards.ca 3. Making Cents Of Your Student Finances workshops

NEADS Summer 2013

NEADS In Action

Student Experience In Class And On Campus:1. Information and referrals2. the Campus Disability Services web resource3. Enhancing Accessibility Guide4. Mental Health project5. Skills To Success workshops6. Graduate Experience Project & Taskforce

NEADS Summer 2013

NEADS In Action

Student Employment:1. Strategies To Employment student workshops2. Career Centre Outreach project / workshops 3. Learn To Think Like An Employer student workshops

NEADS Summer 2013

canadian association of graduate studies (cags) dr. mahadeo a. sukhai

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