Three years ago, Student Accessibility and Achievement (SAA) transformed the note-taking role from a paid to a voluntary position. Note-takers are students who provide their notes to other students registered with the SAA. Since the change, many students registered for the SAA’s note-taking accommodation and note-takers themselves have been disappointed[Read More…]
Tag: OSD
PGSS discusses McGill’s lack of accommodations and pay for invigilators
The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) held their second Council meeting of the 2022-23 academic year on Oct. 19 to amend their budget, update students on sustainability projects and invigilators’ rights, and discuss concerns surrounding accessibility and accommodations for graduate students. There was also a town hall portion of the evening[Read More…]
Zoom University threatens to leave students behind
During the last two weeks, students were welcomed back to a McGill that no one had ever seen before. Across time zones throughout Canada and around the world, frantic searching for class locations was replaced with anxious scrambling for Zoom links as students and academic staff struggled to adapt to[Read More…]
OSD note-takers are another example of undervalued labour on campus
McGill’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) is responsible for facilitating wider access to learning and providing adequate resources for all students. To this end, one of the services offered by the OSD is providing notes for students who may be unable to take their own. Note-takers are tasked with[Read More…]
McGill OSD replaces note-takers’ financial compensation with volunteer hours
Each semester, McGill’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) recruits approximately 300 students to take notes for McGill courses and share them on MyCourses as a service to 600 other students with disabilities that hinder their ability to take notes for themselves. In Winter 2019, peer note-takers were paid $50[Read More…]
Tribune Explains: Crunch Time – Final Exams
As the warming weather begins to melt the snow, McGill students can look forward to the summer, but, first, final exams stand as an arduous hurdle in the way of the well-deserved break. While students fill up the campus libraries to study, McGill’s Exam Office in the Enrolment Services is[Read More…]
Blind law student files complaint against McGill University
After finding out that he failed six of his classes last April, Didier Chelin, a blind student from the McGill Faculty of Law, decided to file a complaint against McGill University with the Quebec Human Rights Commission (CDPDJ). Chelin alleges that the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) and the[Read More…]
OSD-Athletics pilot project promotes inclusivity in the gym
The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) is collaborating with McGill Athletics to launch Fitness Access McGill, a project that will help students with physical disabilities maintain an active lifestyle. It offers students who self-identify as disabled two sessions of personal training to help learn exercise routines that they can[Read More…]
The Office for Students with Disabilities provides new assessments for ADHD diagnoses
The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) launched a new Learning Assessment Service in the first week of September that aims to make official diagnoses of learning disabilities like Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) more effective and financially accessible for students. While the standard cost of diagnosing learning disabilities is $1500,[Read More…]
OSD continues to be plagued with long wait times and lack of staff
Recently, the McGill Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) has faced a lack of capacity and resources due to a heavy demand from students. The OSD’s mission is to provide students who experience permanent and temporary disability, illness, and injury with a wide range of services, including workshops, note-taking services,[Read More…]