With the recent onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and online schooling, the McMaster Hearing Society wanted to conduct and share some research on the accessibility policies in place prior to 2020. While much of the academic landscape has changed over these months, we believe the information provided is still quite applicable when it comes to the challenges faced by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing student body as well as other individuals who experience similar barriers.
McMaster Accommodations:
McMaster offers a few accommodations to Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. These include notetaking services, captioned material and extensions on online platforms such as Microsoft Teams.
McMaster’s Student Accessibility Services offers notetaking services for students that require them, and these services can be requested in courses where instructors do not post class notes or in courses that are not podcasted. Notetaking services are the most common support service Deaf and Hard of Hearing students use in mainstream postsecondary institutions [1]. However, there are certain limitations to using notetakers in lectures. For instance, not all courses offer notetakers. If a course offers instructor notes or is podcasted, students will need special permission to get a notetaker. And even if courses allow notetaking services, there is no guarantee that the student will be able to find a volunteer notetaker for that class. The quality and accuracy of the notes are also not guaranteed, as they will be made by student volunteers. However, instructors can check the notes periodically for completion and accuracy [2].
In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), McMaster also provides captions for all recorded material, including lectures, presentations and public talks. As of 2014, all recorded material posted on McMaster websites have been required to provide captions to provide equal access to all students [3]. Even though captions are no doubt helpful to Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, they are not always completely accurate. Automatic captioning features on McMaster sites like MacVideo and Echo 360 are accurate just 90-95% of the time, which does not allow for equal access to information to course content.
McMaster also uses extensions and features of online platforms such as Microsoft Teams to make learning more accessible. One such feature is live captioning, where MS Teams uses automatic speech recognition to detect what speakers are saying and provide captions in real time. Teams also has a ‘pin’ function, where users can make an individual stay on their screen regardless of who’s talking. This allows users who require an interpreter to have access to what is being said throughout the lecture or presentation. However, just like the automatic captioning on MacVideo and Echo 360, MS Team’s live captioning is not 100% accurate [4].
McMaster’s Accessibility Policies and Implementations:
McMaster, like many Ontario universities, has been continuously working on establishing an “accessible university” in accordance with the guidelines set by the 2004 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) [5][6]. With this, they have also been documenting many of their policy implementations on accessibility and commenting on their progress. Starting in 2012, they began reporting on their advancements in accessibility in annual reports, in which they include various items that address aspects of AODA and any other relevant initiatives [7]. In their most recent report, commenting on the 2018-2019 academic terms, numerous implementations were listed that were meant to address both students, staff, faculty and other members of the McMaster community [7]. Some notable items included updated rules on captioning for courses run under Continuing Education Services, as well as a report on the updated auto-captioning system for echo360, McMaster’s most utilized podcasting program [7]. Ultimately however, most of the items came down to minute changes, or abstract concepts such as “increased awareness in customer services” [7].
Students with disabilities have always had to go through Student Accessibility Services (SAS) for most of their accommodation needs. Their resources offered many different services and support tools such as assistive technologies, testing accommodations, interpreters, etc. However, these services were not fully comprehensive [7].When it came to more specific needs such as financial services or employment, McMaster also offered support in the form of “disability scholarships” as well as employee support groups such as the Employee Accessibility Network and Career Access Professional Services (CAPS) [7]. Additional support for academic needs, specifically through research, can be found via Library Accessibility Services (LAS), who work with students that require specific support with reading and accessing documents [7]. While there is a large breadth of these services, their services are still not comprehensive. Many of the services require a lot of initiative on the student’s part in seeking out and looking into them. Additionally, students must rely on course instructors and other providers to accommodate their concerns in a system with low general standards in terms of accessibility[7][8].
Previous MSU Recommendations:
The MSU has historically been the predominant voice for the student body when it comes to evaluating and providing recommendations for the operation of McMaster services. MSU executives will publish occasional policy recommendations, in which they collect information on and summarize many of the shortcomings of the current system. In their most recent report on University Accessibility, written in 2017, the MSU outlines various needs and gaps that McMaster has yet to address when it comes to accommodations for students with disabilities [8].
While many of the problems and recommendations focused on very specific, niche problems, such as those involving specific courses or physical barriers on campus (which are less applicable in an online space), some issues are still very relevant today [8]. Among these issues, two predominant themes stood out as highly relevant towards the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. Firstly, accomodations often require a student to identify as “disabled” publicly in order to receive the services they need [8]. The MSU brings up the valid argument, that confidentiality is a student right, and it should not need to be fully breached in order for one to achieve academic equity. This further extends to members of the hard of hearing community on campus, who may not personally identify with the label of “disability”, but still require accommodations to succeed. Second, there is a general lack of standardization when it comes to course design and delivery [8]. Many of the assistive technologies and services provided by McMaster for instructors to use are still very much optional. While instructors can ask and work towards implementing these items into their courses, such as echo360 + auto-captioning, converting pdfs to docx files for auto-narration apps etc., it is really up to them to seek these out, which can leave a lot of courses being inaccessible [8]. This issue of course delivery can also extend to the issue of priority registration. Many students who require accommodations may require specific schedules to fit their lifestyles, however there is no known service in place that allows for priority course selection for students under SAS, or students with disabilities outside the organization [9].
Our Takeaways:
While McMaster had been taking many steps over the past few years to accomplish its goal of advancing accessibility for all students on campus prior to COVID-19, there were still many shortcomings that needed to be addressed. Although the University has provided many accommodation services for students, in both academics and employment, many nuances of the system leave a lot to be improved upon. Some common themes that we found in our research was a general lack of standardization when it comes to course design in the framework of accessibility, and a reliance on student initiative when it comes to accessing resources. Specifically for students in the deaf and hard of hearing community, the integration of captioning services in course delivery is still lacking in many respects, with a lot of responsibility falling onto instructor awareness or students themselves in implementing close captioned material.
Bibliography:
[1] Hastings D, Brecklein K, Cermak S, Reynolds R, Rosen H, Wilson J. Notetaking for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP). 1998. Available from: https://dcmp.org/learn/static-assets/570_report-on-notetaking-for-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing-students.pdf
[2] McMaster Student Accessibility Services. Notetaking Service. McMaster Student Accessibility Services (SAS). 2019. Available from:
[3] McMaster Library Accessibility Services. Captioning and Described Video. McMaster Library Accessibility Services (LAS). 2019. Available from:
[4] McMaster University. Covid-19 Response. Accessibility Hub. 2020. Available from:
[5] Ontario Human Rights Commision. Policy on accessible education for students with disabilities [Internet]. Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC). 2018. [cited 2020 Nov 14]. Available from: http://www3.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-accessible-education-students-disabilities
[6] McMaster Accessibility Council. McMaster University Accessibility Plan 2012-2015. McMaster Accessibility Council (MAC). 2012
[7] McMaster Accessibility Council. Accessibility and Disability Inclusion Update. McMaster Accessibility Council (MAC). 2019
[8] McMaster Student Union. University Accessibility Policy. McMaster Student Union (MSU). 2017
[9] McMaster Student Union. Academic Success Policy. McMaster Student Union (MSU). 2017