“Normality” 

Everyone wants the world to return to normal. Back to the good old days when masks were not needed and everyone could leave their homes with little fear. However, in communities with disabilities, normality does not exist. It never has and it never will because people with disabilities experience life differently. 

In a pre-pandemic world, people with disabilities experience challenges every day to do the same things that a non-disabled person would find easy. For example, people who are deaf or who have a hearing impairment rely on visual aids such as sign language and/or lipreading to understand what is being said. People who can walk are free to go anywhere they please, while people who use a wheelchair will find it difficult to enter certain buildings if there is no ramp available. Even those who have invisible disabilities/illnesses can struggle in ways most people are unaware of. Those who are epileptic must work harder in school, as they experience periods of “fog” after every seizure. These foggy periods are when their brain works slower in understanding and communicating things. 

Since coronavirus took over, the disabled community has been especially impacted. In addition to aforementioned barriers for people with disabilities, new hurdles are emerging. For example, people with underlying medical conditions are now highly restricted because of their increased risk of contracting the virus. While all of our lives have been altered, people who have disabilities may be experiencing this pandemic with greater hardships. 

Online School 

It has been seven months since the lockdown, and school has started once again. But life at university has now changed due to the pandemic. Campus life is nearly non-existent as most students are now attending classes online for health and safety reasons. Yet, this new online world is just as problematic as the former. Students with disabilities may be safe at home, but certain features of online studying interfere heavily with the students’ education. 

A visually impaired Innis student whom I interviewed experiences eye strain when she must focus on a screen for a long time. Now, with everything being accessed through screens, eyestrain and headaches only become more frequent as the term goes on. Now she must find a new routine that allows her to complete work without discomfort. 

Another interviewed Innis student who is hearing impaired stated that one of the hardest parts of attending lectures online is bad internet connection. Now that everything is online, students rely on a good connection to hear their professors and fellow students. As for this hearing impaired student who already struggles to hear people, the bad connection only makes it worse, gurgling people’s voices and making what they say difficult to understand. 

I also interviewed a New College student who has ocular albinism (a type of visual impairment), and they said that one important accommodation she needs is the ability to enlarge fonts. With a bigger font, she is able to read without eye strain. However, not all websites are able to do this. Last year, this would not be much of an issue as there are many ways to acquire information, like going to the library. But since school has been online, she must rely solely on getting information through websites that may or may not have that specific feature. 

Now, online school is not entirely horrible: commuters and people with physical disabilities are grateful for the option to stay home. However, being home leads to the problem of distraction. This problem is well known to students who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In Erin Peter’s Fulcrum article, “How online courses are affecting students with disabilities,” she explains how students with this disorder may be impacted by the change of scenery: “Without the need to wake up, arrive at a physical classroom, and leave at specific times, it can be difficult for students with learning disabilities to strike a balance between being at home and completing schoolwork.” 

 Online schooling requires students to teach themselves to some degree. They are the ones in charge of when they wake up, attend classes, and complete their assignments. While it does not deviate too much from what a university student should be doing already, there is more responsibility being put on their shoulders. Before the pandemic, students were told when and where their classes were. This year, however, some courses have turned asynchronous, which requires students to pick a day and time to watch the lecture. With this added obligation, along with keeping up with their courses, students with learning disabilities can find themselves overwhelmed. 

It is this overwhelming feeling that impacts students with learning disabilities the most. Fear and anxiety can stress students who are already registered with Accessibility Services and have wrestled with mental illness pre-pandemic. Now with the pandemic uprooting any sense of confidence in the future, students who suffer from anxiety and other illnesses may find it harder to cope at this time. 

For a few, online school has been a blessing in disguise. But for many students, attending school online has become more of a curse and a disadvantage than a blessing. 

Moving Forward 

So, what can the University of Toronto do to address this issue? How might they better serve their students with disabilities? So far, Accessibility Services has been working hard with their registered students by finding proper accommodation for their needs. But more work needs to be done if we are to fix the problem of insufficient aids. After all, it seems like the virus is going to stay a while longer.  In the meantime, the university continues to encourage students to stay home and attend classes online.  

There are two ways the university could approach this issue.  

1. Come up with new creative ways to accommodate students within the existing system. For example, in addition to note-takers, allowing students who have hearing impairments to gain access to transcripts or captioning of online synchronous lectures. 

1. Invent new forms of accommodations that are designed for an online environment. For instance, coming up with strategies for those who have ADHD and may struggle to focus at home.  

Online learning is not easy and coming up with solutions is even harder, but it is not impossible. Hopefully, students at the university will be able to succeed despite the circumstances and achieve a sense of normalcy. However, not a normal that discriminates against those who are different. Rather, a new normal, where innovative solutions allow the disabled community of the University of Toronto and beyond to thrive.