Ontario student’s human rights win could influence other Canadian universities

[PHOTO COURTESY: Navi Dhanota/Facebook]

A two-year battle with York University led to a precedent-setting outcome for student Navi Dhanota after she fought a school policy that required students seeking academic accommodations to reveal their illness or disability to staff.

Dhanota first tried to get accommodations during her undergraduate studies. She needed to write her exams in a smaller room but was told she needed a psychiatric diagnosis to do so.

The process was overwhelming. One psychiatrist told her she could have six different mental illnesses, and after facing the same problem while trying to get academic accommodations during post-graduate studies at York, she decided to fight for change.

After filing a human rights complaint against the Toronto university, Dhanota’s efforts have forced the school to rewrite its guidelines for accessing accommodation, which could influence other universities across Canada.

“I think it will certainly change how universities determine accommodations for students,” said Cathy Rose, accessibility services co-ordinator at the University of Prince Edward Island.

The Charlottetown university reviewed its own accommodations policy in 2014 after receiving a document from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission. The document said that although students have an obligation to inform their post-secondary institution of the need for accommodation, they are in fact entitled to privacy and should not be required to disclose their specific disability.

Rose said it had been seven years since the policy was revised, and before being approved by the school’s senate in March 2015, it reviewed a number of university policies in Atlantic Canada and throughout the country.

Inga Mychasiw, director of student support services for the University of Winnipeg, said the school does require disclosure of the type of disability and it wouldn’t make changes to its policy without careful consideration and consultation with stakeholders.

“However, the Ontario ruling may prompt us to look at it in the future,” she said. “But we have no immediate plans to change it.”

The right circumstances

The creation of these policies wasn’t motivated by any negative sentiment, said James Conway, a sessional instructor for the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary who teaches about disability and the law. “It was more just bureaucratic inertia, when you’re applying for something like academic accommodation, naturally the academic institution requires some verification to back up your request.”

It’s a struggle to find balance.

“I think students and administrative bodies have been making due with what they have to offer,” said Lucy Costa with the Empowerment Council, an advocacy group that works with clients of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

But making due has harmful effects, as Costa explains. As a student she faced the same hardships that students like Dhanota have been dealing with.

“I’ve always felt very conflicted about going to the accommodations office because I didn’t want to get into personal discussions. I just wanted the ability to study and learn and do well, which I know I can do given the right circumstances,” Costa said.

What it comes down to is stigma, which Conway said is probably the real concern.

“Because we know that there’s a stigma attached to any kind of mental disability.”

The system is flawed, and the truth is, teachers just want their students to learn.

“I think that the policy of having to disclose is unfair, because it could push many people who have great potential into hiding. It’s counterproductive for everyone,” said Svetlana Shklarov, a sessional instructor who teaches disability studies at the University of Calgary.

“I don’t think it’s important for me personally to know the exact situation of the student … because what’s important to me is that the students learn the material.”

Instructor Conway concurs.

“I’ve had a number of situations where some of my students have disabilities and they request accommodation. From the point of view of an instructor, I don’t need to know what their diagnosis is. I just need to know what they need in terms of accommodation to be successful in the course,” he said.

From a legal point of view, if a student in a similar situation as Dhanota wants to make a human rights complaint, they have a lot of evidence to back them up.

“Because they have the Ontario experience and it’s certainly going to be very persuasive to any human rights commission,” Conway said. “They have an example of a situation which occurred in another province.”

“From a point of view of risk management for institutions, they should take a look at this situation, review their policy and make sure … if they want to avoid any potential human rights complaints,” Conway said.

As much as institutions are about teaching and fostering a good learning environment, they are still businesses.

“And accommodations and supporting people and equity takes time and resources,” Costa said. “It’s not like everything is going to change overnight.”

But she hopes it will open a discussion.

“A lot of people are excited about it and a lot of people are reacting to it, and I think it’s because it’s touching a nerve.”

“This is a practical experience, which shows us how you can improve your policy,” said Conway. “I think that’s the real value here, someone has taken initiative, shown us that there’s a better way, and it makes perfect sense for administrators, institution policy makers, to take this into account.”