Rebecca Luce-Kapler Chairs Queen's Accessibility Working Group

Queen’s has five accessibility working groups which are seeking to improve accessibility on campus through the  Queen’s accessibility framework  (approved December 2011) . The framework addresses the Ontario government’s Access for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) legislation, which mandates that all public institutions be fully accessible by 2025.

• See the Queen’s news story: Working groups address accessibility issues

Associate Dean Graduate Studies and Research Rebecca Luce-Kapler leads the working group dedicated to issues of education, training, and awareness. Her group is focused on informing people about the provincial legislation and finding more ways to educate the Queen’s community about accessibility issues in general.

According to Dr. Luce-Kapler, making the campus community more aware of the legislation and disability issues is an important first step.  Innovative education and training for both faculty and staff also needs to be developed to ensure that the University is fully accessible. 

“We’re talking about things like universal design for learning,” Dr. Luce-Kapler explains. “For example, what can educators do to make their course materials more accessible.” She cites one of her own former students, who has severe hearing and sight impairments, as an example. “Accessibility meant making sure materials were available to him before class, that I had Power Point presentations that met his needs, and that my web materials were accessible, too.”