KPU launches new accessibility plan
Speakers at the event explained the history of accessibility at KPU and what the university will improve moving forward
Fiona Whittington-Walsh (left) and Anju Miller (right) present at KPU accessibility plan launch event on Oct. 27. (Austin Kelly)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey conference room was a full house on Oct. 27 for the launch of the institution’s accessibility plan.
The plan was created by students and faculty with disabilities who serve on the accessibility committee. The goal of the plan is to ensure everyone at the university is able to participate and feel welcomed, regardless of if they have a disability or not.
Ann Marie Davison is an instructor in the biology department at KPU and chair of the committee, spoke at the event in excitement about the new plan.
“I’m what I call an accidental activist. I got hired here to teach biology because I’m really good at teaching biology, but [also] because I wanted to be able to do my job well,” Davison, who uses a wheelchair, said at the event.
“I needed a place I could park. I needed a place I could pee, and so I ended up being the person explaining to people how important these things are.”
Davison says the plan has initiatives in place that will benefit students like having more accessible course materials and investing more in hybrid learning. It also includes recommendations to better support health and wellness, expand innovation in teaching, learning, and curriculum, and increase scholarships and work opportunities.
The new plan is a document divided into seven categories such as behaviours, assumptions, attitudes, and perception, teaching and learning, organizational barriers, KPU community and safety, financial barriers, physical and architectural barriers, and information and communication.
One of KPU’s current accessibility programs is the Including All Citizens Pathway (IACP). It was designed to allow students with intellectual, developmental, or learning disabilities to take courses and get university credits on par with their peers, leading to a faculty of arts certificate.
Fiona Whittington-Walsh helped create the IACP and was the lead writer for the accessibility plan. She says most high school students with moderate intellectual disabilities are put down the path to get evergreen certificates rather than dogwood diplomas, which essentially excludes them from being able to go to post-secondary institutions.
She says the IACP operates on ensuring course material is engaging, available in multiple accessible ways, and allows students to build relationships with one another and their instructors to help support learning.
“There are no curricular changes. This is key. We are not adapting or modifying the curriculum. Learning outcomes remain the same for all students and all students get access to the same resources, including educational support in class and after class,” Whittington-Walsh said.
Whittington-Walsh’s research assistant and graduate of the IACP, Anju Miller, also spoke at the event.
“When I graduated from high school, I was not informed that the courses I was taking would not work in a university setting,” Miller said.
She explained she wanted to be a writer, and while she tried taking English upgrade courses, they didn’t count for credits and so they couldn’t upgrade her to the point she needed to start taking creative writing classes.
Miller’s inability to get the degree she wanted was part of what got Whittington-Walsh to start the IACP. Because of the program, Miller was able to take creative writing and English classes. She now has a job where she can use her writing talents.
Nadia Mallay, KPU’s inaugural VP of equity and inclusive communities, says her position aims to ensure change happens and that people aren’t advocating without being heard.
“I want people to be able to come and go about their regular business. Whether you’re a student studying, you’re a guest visiting, or you’re here to work, you just get to do those things without the additional labor, being depleted and exhausted, and also exploited for advocacy,” she says.
Mallay hopes the recommendations will be implemented by the university — something that everyone at the event was enthusiastic about, including the facilities team who said they’ll be working to keep KPU accessible with the Rick Hanson Foundation accessibility guidelines at the forefront.
To learn more about the accessibility plan head to https://www.kpu.ca/accessibility-plan.
