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February 18, 2025

Dear colleagues,

I’m writing to confirm the central academic accommodations services that will continue beyond April, as well as to update on our collective work to develop more sustainable strategies and supports for instructors and students.

As faculty will be aware, new time-limited central exam supports were put into place in the Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management (OREM) in 2023/24 to help manage the increase in academic accommodations, particularly those related to additional time and distraction-reduced environments. These OREM supports will continue while we work collaboratively with Deans and their leadership teams to implement more sustainable strategies and initiatives. Please continue to use the OREM supports currently in place.

The Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) services and supports are not time-limited, with base budget funding to CAL increasing by 150% over the past 10 years. We will continue to invest in CAL to ensure the successful delivery of their mandate while also implementing strategies to reduce reliance on CAL, including the adoption of access-centred approaches.

Deans, Associate Deans, Chairs, Directors and other academic leads—as well as experts in CAL and the Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation—continue to share the significant efforts made by faculty and instructors to adopt new approaches to assessments and curriculum. These efforts are notable and are having positive impacts on student outcomes while also reducing the need for individual accommodations. While there is still work to do, there is transformative work happening in faculties and units across campus, and we have made progress. Thank you to all who are contributing to this good work.

We’ve updated our FAQs to highlight some of the central and discipline-specific strategies that are working well, and we continue to collaborate with academic leaders on new strategies. Throughout the year, we will provide regular updates on central supports and our collective progress towards becoming a more access-centred campus community.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth A. Croft
Vice-President Academic and Provost
University of Victoria

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