Advocacy for Students with Disabilities

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Universal Design

The principles of Universal Design can help us to design our buildings and our societies differently so that people with a full range of abilities and disabilities can exercise the same degree of freedom. Universal Design principles can be applied to architecture, activities and social interactions. We support the use of Universal Instructional Design in classrooms at UVic.

Education/Awareness

We think students with disabilities have a unique responsibility to inform the campus community about the important changes in ways of thinking about disability. The disability rights movement can only be understood if the difference between the old and new models is understood. Our commitment is to raise awareness of the new social model of disability and encourage moving away from the old medical and charity models of disability. We view impairment and disability as related but not the same. It is not the impairment itself that disables; it is the lack of appropriate response to the impairment. It is our goal to educate students, staff and faculty about the impact of discriminatory attitudes.

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