Information for students

About Learning Disabilities

What does the assessment do for you?

Why have an assessment?

How will an assessment help?

Access to Services

Accommodations that might work for you

"Preparing for Post-Secondary Accommodations"

Your Disability Office can help

Financial Supports for Students

About Learning Disabilities

A learning disability affects you ability to acquire, process, retain, understand and/or use verbal and nonverbal information.

A person, who is diagnosed with a learning disability, has an impairment in one or more of the following psychological processes:

• phonological processing
• memory and attention
• processing speed
• language processing
• perceptual-motor integration
• visual-spatial processing
• executive functions (eg, planning, monitoring and metacognitive abilities)

Learning disabilities range in severity and can interfere with the acquisition and use of one or more of the following important skills:

• oral language (e.g., listening, speaking, understanding)
• reading (e.g., decoding, comprehension)
• written language (e.g., spelling, written expression)
• mathematics (e.g., computation, problem solving)

Learning disabilities may also cause difficulties with organizational skills, social perception and social interaction.

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What does the assessment do for you?

Why have an assessment?

College and university can be very difficult when you have a learning disability (LD). The postsecondary learning environment can pose a number of unique challenges:

• tons of required reading
• long lectures
• extensive written assignments
• exams to prepare for and write
• staying organized and on top of the work.

An assessment can help you meet the challenges of college or university.

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How will an assessment help?

An assessment will help you understand the best ways for you to learn, and how your LD impacts your ability to learn. Assessment findings will not only clarify some of your learning difficulties, but will help to explain WHY these areas are a challenge for you. It will explain to you some of the processing factors underlying your difficulties. Even more important, the assessment will help you identify many of your learning strengths that have helped you achieve many of your successes to date! Further building on these strengths is important for charting your way to further academic accomplishments. As part of your assessment, we will recommend approaches to learning that have proven effective at the postsecondary level.

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Access to Services

If your assessment does diagnose a disability you will be eligible for full services and accommodations.

Accommodations that might work for you

Identifying your strengths and weaknesses will help to ascertain strategies and accommodations that are best suited to your learning style. Whether extra time to write tests, scan and read software to hear text or visual supports are required, your assessment will identify what works best for you!

Your Disability Office can help

You are encouraged to bring disability staff to support you during your final feedback session. Sharing your report with disability staff will enable you to access accommodations and supports that work best for you.

Should you require testing accommodations (such as extra time), assistive technology, or learning strategy instruction, your Disability Office will help you make these arrangements. It is these services and accommodations that can help you to cope more effectively with your learning challenges.

Contact your Disability Office Directly

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Financial Supports for Students

If you are eligible for Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), you will qualify for the Bursary for Students with Disabilities to assist you in purchasing the services and equipment you need to be successful in your chosen program. Your disability office will explain the resources available to you.

NOARC/CÉRNO bursaries are available to students, who qualify, to assist with the cost of an assessment.

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