Student Accessibility Services

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is an educational support program for students who require academic accommodation for a permanent or temporary disability. In addition to letters of accommodation, Advisors in SAS support students by advising, them, referring them to other relevant campus services, and facilitating their access to necessary supports (e.g. assistive technologies, OSAP guidance specific to students with disabilities).

Advisors in SAS work with students across a range of disability types with variances of severity within those ranges. The disabilities accommodated by SAS include: learning disabilities and AD/HD, traumatic brain injuries, chronic medical issues, mental health disabilities, and mobility, hearing, and visual impairments.

Students are required to self-identify to Student Accessibility Services to use its services. In order to foster self-identification and awareness of these services, instructors are encouraged to place the following statement, or something akin to it, in their course outlines:

“Students with disabilities who require academic accommodations in this course must contact an Advisor in Student Accessibility Services (SAS) to complete SAS Registration and receive the necessary Letters of Accommodation. After registering with Student Accessibility Services, you must present your Letter of Accommodation and discuss your needs with me as early in the term as possible. Please note that deadlines for the submission of documentation and completed forms to Student Accessibility Services are available on their website: www.uwindsor.ca/studentaccessibility.”

Once a student has self-identified, an intake will be completed with an Advisor in which a discussion about the nature and functional limitations of the disability, as well as possible accommodation options, will be discussed. Students are also provided guidance, in accordance with the nature of their disability, as to the medical documentation that will be required in order to provide accommodations.

Detailed information about the intake and registration processes, along with those related to documentation of the disability, can be found on the continually updated SAS website. This website also houses information for instructors, a list of frequently asked questions from faculty members about SAS services and their provision, plus useful exam information including SAS guidelines and policies.

SAS staff welcome hearing from instructors. Faculty are encouraged to contact a member of the SAS team with any questions or concerns they may have. You may also contact SAS to consult about a student who has self-identified to them as having a disability, or, who they feel may benefit from a referral to SAS. Not all students, necessarily, require involvement with SAS. Faculty members can also contact directly the Advisor listed on the letter of accommodations provided to them by the student.

SAS appreciates the continued cooperation of faculty and academic departments. This reciprocal relationship is vitally important in ensuring that SAS and faculty alike meet their shared responsibilities to uphold the University’s legal duty to accommodate its students.