Being a student with disabilities can be a complicated and expensive endeavor. While university is a financial strain for most students, disabled students often have additional costs associated with either services or equipment that we require to succeed academically. The government does recognize this additional financial burden and has grants in place to offset them.
The problem arises from the fact that the policies and restrictions for these grants are shrouded in mystery and if you can identify them, don’t necessarily mesh with reality.
On the surface the Canadian grant for Special Services and Equipment for Students with Permanent Disabilities seems amazing. It is advertised as offering qualifying students with funding up to $8000.00/academic year for services like tutoring or equipment like computers and adaptive software.
I have benefited from this grant in the past and hoped to access it again as I begin my PhD. Much of what I had received previously is either functionally obsolete after two operating system upgrades makes them no longer compatible with modern computers or just no longer functioning at all. As a result I applied for an updated version of Kurzweil 3000 (mine no longer works properly). If you are unfamiliar with Kurzweil it retails for over $2000.00 CND. It is also invaluable in that it enables me to get through my extensive list of required course readings.
The problem, the grant policies don’t allow for full upgrades of Kurzweil (purchasing an updated copy), only software upgrades (something that isn’t even available). On paper it looks like they understand that software evolves and that students need access to that update except they will only pay for it in a form that doesn’t exist. Effectively making their upgrade policy useless.
The biggest problem here isn’t that the policies are bad. Bad policies can be combated with evidence of their uselessness but that, the policies aren’t readily available to grant applicants. All you know when you apply is that you could be eligible for up to $8000.00/year. All the fine print surrounding cost restrictions and what they will replace is hidden and only available to the people deciding on whether or not you are approved.
I only found out about the restrictions after, I was only approved for a fraction of the funding I had applied for. I call my local student loan office and was met with a wall of statements like “well it is not our policy…” or “we have funding limits on…”
None of this information is available to applicants, you just end up with wrenching disappointment when you are not approved for things you were counting on.
On the National Student Loan Service Centre website, the grant is described like this
If you require exceptional education-related services or equipment, you may be eligible to receive the Canada Student Grant for Services and Equipment for Students with Permanent Disabilities. This grant offers:
- up to $8,000 per academic year (August 1 to July 31) for each year of studies after high school (including undergraduate and graduate levels), provided you continue to meet the eligibility criteria.
The assistance provided under this grant is determined apart from your assessed need.
Eligibility
You are eligible if you:
- apply and qualify for student financial assistance (have at least a $1 of assessed need)
- are in a full-time or part-time program at a designated post-secondary institution
- meet the criteria for students with permanent disabilities
- include one of the following with your loan application as proof of your permanent disability: a medical certificate, a psycho-educational assessment, or documents that prove you’ve received federal or provincial permanent disability assistance
- provide written confirmation that you are in need of exceptional education-related services or equipment from a person qualified to determine such need
- show, in writing, the exact cost of the equipment and services.
The website for my provincial loans website is even more optimistic. It says that if your needs exceed the $8000.00 limit that you may be eligible for an additional $2000.00 from the province. They then link to the various forms that must be filled out. There is no mention of specific policies or restrictions (even though it’s the government you know they must exist).
You only learn about a policy if you ask for something that goes against it. You’ve already waded into the deep end of bureaucracy through the application process. You got the proof of permanent of disability, the statement of need, and the exact cost of what you need (which you need two quotes for each item, yeah they didn’t mention that on the website either). Now you are met with even more bureaucracy as you try to figure out why you weren’t approved for the full amount. The fact that classes start next week and these things were needed already. You are now faced with the reality that you may not get them at all.
It is hard to fight a system that knows all the rules and only informs you of them piecemeal when you break one.
It isn’t entirely surprising that the Canadian government won’t replace broken or obsolete technology. They are already skeptical that disability itself can be permanent. I have in my dealings with them had to reprove my permanent disabilities countless times. The government seems to think that people miraculously recover. Forcing disabled people to waste time doing the same thing over and over.
This is best exemplified in this rant by Rick Mercer on benefits for disabled veterans.
It should be noted that in the case of veterans, the Canadian government now believes that miracles only occur every three years and have extended the length between required reproof by veterans to that time frame.
Under this system of miracles it is not difficult to understand that the government does not understand that computers break and that software becomes old and obsolete (or does not upgrade the way they want it to) necessitating repurchase.
Putting those kinds of limitations on disabled students effectively limits or can limit how much education that student can get. If the technology they received during their undergraduate degree is no longer suitable when they reach graduate school, it may affect their ability to continue in school.
Yet available information on this grant only hints at restrictions with phrases like “eligible students may qualify” and focusing on the high amount of the grant and making it seem that the help will continue by saying the money is available each year, giving the impression that you can apply for replacements.
Making the policies available or even summarizing the most common things that come up would go a long way in helping applicants tailor their applications for maximum success.
Keeping them secret makes it seem that the government doesn’t want applications to succeed or make the appeals process to onerous for applicants.
Completely erasing the fine print hurts disabled students while allowing the government to appear to be offering more aid than is actually available.
crippledscholar 