& Confidentiality

OCAD University actively promotes an environment that ensures students feel safe disclosing a disability. Maintaining confidentiality for students with disabilities is an important component of the duty to accommodate. The University requires sufficient information to reasonably evaluate and respond to a student’s request for accommodation. For this reason, students requesting academic accommodations are required to provide information pertaining to their disability and its impact to Student Accessibility Services. Personal information that identifies a student as having a disability will remain exclusively with Student Accessibility Services and separate from their academic record. 

All disability information shared with Student Accessibility Services is confidential and will not be released without  a student's written consent. Disability status is not identified on official University records, test results, academic transcripts or graduation documentation.

At times, the accommodation process may require a student to disclose information regarding the impact of their disability to other staff and instructors on a need‐to‐know basis so that specific responsibilities can be met under the terms of the Policy on Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities.

All personal information disclosed to Student Accessibility Services is governed by OCAD University’s Privacy and Personal Information Collection Procedures, and Ontario's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

Student Accessibility Services requires student consent to communicate with course instructors, TAs, on‐campus departments, parents, and external organizations.