I am a disabled student registered with the Algonquin College Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL), and I am enrolled in the Applied Museums Studies (AMS) program. Due to my disability, I have worked with my program and my Student Success Specialist to coordinate an extended program schedule to successfully complete the AMS program.
In the first week of March, Algonquin College announced that after putting our program, among 29 others, on the chopping block, the college’s Board of Directors voted to suspend the AMS program. This cut is a huge blow to cultural and arts education in Ottawa, given that the AMS program is the only museums education program you can enter directly after high school in Canada. But on top of that, I am very concerned about the college abandoning it’s disabled students.
I was told by my program coordinator and my Success Specialist that I could complete my program with my extended course load plan. This means I take less courses per semester than the typical AMS student, and I am taking a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year classes each semester. This method and approach to learning my program makes my success possible. Without an extended course load, I would not be able to complete my classes. My disability severely impacts my executive functioning skills, my time management, my ability to focus, and my capacity to be in the classroom environment for extended periods of time. Without the CAL accommodations I have now, I have struggled greatly in post-secondary. I found the AMS program after having to withdraw from uOttawa due to difficulties navigating post-secondary with a new disability. AMS sparked my joy for learning again, and CAL made it possible to manage the program in a way where I would not be drowning in my work.
The cut of the AMS program raises fears that I will be left without the proper accessible resources to be successful in my program and field. Immediately, I have been disappointed by the lack of communication to AMS students and staff on what we are supposed to do to complete our program. My professors are in the dark about the future of their employment and the ways they can meaningfully support us students in this time of great uncertainty. I have listened to some of my professors, who have almost nothing they can tell us about what will happen in the future of our studies, and how us disabled students, who are meant to have support by being registered with CAL, will be able to finish our extended course loads.
A significant number of students in the AMS program are registered with CAL, with others in my classes taking extended course loads as well. I wonder, was this not considered when the cuts were finalised? Did the Algonquin College Board of Directors completely neglect to acknowledge the negative impact this would have on several disabled students, or worse, did they know, and simply not care that we would be affected by this so greatly? Is the Board of Directors truly fine with letting students with learning disabilities and other setbacks flounder and panic, trying to figure out what we will do to be able to complete our studies?
I am very concerned that disabled students at Algonquin College are being tossed aside in this situation, that we are not given the proper resources to complete our program. I have seen this happen in other schools, even in Algonquin College’s own previous program cuts, erasing opportunities for new professionals to emerge in vitally important cultural programs, where neurodivergent and disabled students tend to show interest the most. Accessibility is not considered in these suspension decisions, and students with disabilities are left suffering and neglected by our schools and institutions.
I would like to expect meaningful answers to what AMS students, especially those of us on CAL, should be awaiting, given our program is being terminated, but I fear we will be abandoned fully as we are already beginning to see now. I do not think it is acceptable that we were promised extended course loads (a reasonable accommodation for our government-protected rights as disabled people) and now we are hearing that we may only have one or two years left to complete our classes, that we won’t be able to take a reduced course load during our remaining semesters, and that we will have to take summer classes. This is not accessibility. This is a failure of disabled students. This is a failure of the AMS professors and staff who do everything in their power to help us succeed. This is a failure of our whole program.
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