Recent Cases in Accomodation (Education)

Key differences between accommodation in employment and in Academia

• Employment is based on a contract between employer and employee in which the former agrees to pay the latter in return for work.  Education is based on a contract between a service provider and a customer in which the former agrees to provide the latter with an education in return for money.   In both the employment world and the education world, employees and students must meet occupational or academic standards in order to remain employed or to receive the education. 
• If an employee can not meet an occupational requirement due to disability, the employer has a duty to modify the job in order to accommodate the employee, unless it can prove that to do so would constitute undue hardship.  In Academia, we do not have to change academic standards in order to accommodate students with disabilities. Students must still meet academic standards, but the university must provide them the opportunity or opportunities to achieve those standards. Examples include: extended time limits for completion of a program, extended exam periods, lightened course load, flexibiltiy re. supervisors, and related funding issues.  
• Employers have a duty to accommodate employees with addictions to the point of undue hardship, even when those employees become involve in non-culpable misconduct   In residences, we are entitled to ask students with a drug problem to take a leave of absence in order to seek rehabilitation. Similarly, we do not have to accommodate suicidal or threatening behaviors amongst students. We require students to withdraw from university and to provide a letter from a psychiatrist before they can come back to the university.
• Employers have a responsibility to provide medical assessments and to request medical documentation as part of their duty to accommodate employees with mental disabilities.  In Academia, it is up to the students to get their own medical assessments and to provide their own medical documentation. 

Recent Cases

Universities and Colleges who fail to accommodate students

• University wrongfully terminates medical resident with a drug addiction 
• College fails to accommodate a dentistry student with a physical disability who could not meet occupational standard at her placement

Students who fail to provide medical documentation

• College student fails to provide medical documentation
• Applicant to law school accuses university of discrimination for its LCAT requirement