Meeting Your Neads

By Don Barrie

The National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) was founded in 1986 at Carleton University by students who were members of Awareness Carleton. NEADS is a consumer organization, and encourages the colleges and universities in Canada to become more accessible at all levels. It was developed in response to the consumer movement and by the impulse created by the International Year of the Disabled (1981).

NEADS is governed by a 12-member Board of Directors. Its overall membership consists of students with disabilities, educators, organizations and professional service providers.

The milestones behinds NEADS are impressive. Every two years, NEADS hosts a nation-wide conference with its Board of Directors. NEADS is now a member of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), based in Winnipeg. In 1990, NEADS was honoured with the Commonwealth Youth Service Award.

The organization takes an active role in supporting and promoting annual scholarships such as the National Access Awareness Week (NAAW) Scholarship. NEADS has also published books on the accessibility of Canadian colleges and universities, and profiles of post-secondary students with disabilities. Their most recent publication is "An Annotated Bibliography of Printed Materials on Post-Secondary Access and Accommodations."

Frank Smith is national coordinator of NEADS and has been co-editor and publisher of their newsletter, published six times a year, since the organization began. I spoke with Frank regarding the success of NEADS and its future directions.

DB: Was NEADS the first educational group to be established for people with disabilities in Canada?

FS: NEADS was formed first, but there were at that time a number of organizations for people with disabilities on individual campuses. The organization developed to the point where we had two provincial associations: one in British Columbia and one in Quebec. More importantly, we are linked by about 45 groups of students with disabilities, committees and caucuses across the country. So that’s the strength of our organization. We have two provincial affiliates working towards establishing more provincial affiliates, but we have a very strong connection with our membership groups, the groups of students with disabilities, and with our consumer Board of Directors.

DB: I was fascinated when reading about the latest projects that NEADS is doing in promoting disability awareness. Has any rapid progress been made in implementing these projects?

FS: We are involved with different projects each year. Usually the emphasis of the projects is on either on access to programs or services, access to funding for going to school, or access to employment after graduation.

In October, 1993, a report called "The Study of Financial Assistance Available to Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities" looked at how 384 students with disabilities across the country funded their education, how those [financial assistance] programs met the needs of the students, where those programs were lacking, and what kinds of improvements needed to be made in the future. That report has been a very vital piece of work that we use in looking at funding issues.

We are planning on doing an employment opportunities project in the next year, which will take that report one step further. We now have a group of national employers working with us called the Employment Advisory Council. We are trying to forge links with employers so that our members are informed of other employer opportunities, and of when employers come to visit campuses to recruit, and when employment opportunities are posted. It’s all part of the empowerment in that direction.

DB: It seems that post-secondary students still have to deal with service cutbacks and tuition increases, which hurt accessibility to college or university. Has this presented any obstacles or put any pressures on NEADS to try and combat these problems?

FS: We identified concerns about increases in tuition fees and in cost of education to our members, and the difficulties in getting adequate funding to the Student Financial Aid Clinic, in October, 1993. Since that time, we are looking at cutbacks in Ottawa’s annual contribution to social programs by $2.5-billion in 1996-97 and $4.5-billion in 1997-98. Of course, that is going to put pressure on the provinces, with respect to the kind of funding available for post-secondary education programs and services.

There is a potential for tuition fees to as much as double or triple. The provincial governments and the post-secondary institutions try to deal with decreased funding, but when there is a higher cost of education, the system altogether is less accessible. Even if the Student Aid system increases funding for student aid to help alleviate some of these pressures, many students with disabilities will still decide not to pursue a post-secondary education. For example, 44 per cent of post-secondary students with disabilities, when surveyed, indicated that their total income from all sources was insufficient to cover education-related services and/or equipment costs. Sixty-two per cent of the respondents did not have a summer job.

Traditionally, with student aid, the funding that is available is based on the fact that students will make a contribution to the cost of their education through employment. In a lot of cases, our members do not have jobs -- for a variety of reasons -- so they cannot make a contribution. They also have additional costs for going to school that students without disabilities may not have. So that creates a situation that makes it very difficult for students with disabilities, in the face of government-funding cuts.

DB: Does NEADS sponsor workshops, seminars and/or courses on access to education or on disability awareness at any colleges or universities?

FS: In terms of sponsoring workshops on individual campuses, we do not do too much of that. However, we have just developed a package called "Reflections and Actions for an Accessible Post-Secondary Environment," and we are planning on turning that package into training or workshop materials, so we can hopefully go into colleges and universities and speak to students, service providers and faculty members on the different subjects in that package. I think that while we really have not done much of that in the past, we will be leaning towards that area in the next year or so.

DB: Is NEADS planning any special conferences or events for National Access Awareness Week (NAAW)?
FS: Usually our members have been involved individually in their provinces. Our involvement with NAAW primarily over the last two years has been with the NAAW Student Awards Program. We are corporate sponsors of this awards program, and it is important to us because it is one of the main areas we focus on in regards to public education.

DB: Overall, do you think that NEADS has fulfilled its initial objectives during the past nine years?

FS: I think we have a lot of work left to do -- of course. There are about 112,000 students with disabilities across Canada in post-secondary schools, and many of them are dealing with very serious issues on access and program services, and they will continue to deal with these issues. What is most encouraging is that more schools are designating funding for services for students with disabilities. Schools are increasingly recognizing that they need to have specific funding for accessibility, and that they need to have people working with students with disabilities on a full-time basis. However, there are still a lot of inequities, and there is not an equal level of accessibility from one school to the other, but there is some progress being made.

DB: What does NEADS plan to accomplish during the next few years?

FS: What we plan to do in the next couple of years -- at least -- is to increase our advocacy work in regards to access to funding for students to go to school and access to programs and services on the campuses, and also to look increasingly at employment opportunities when our members graduate from post-secondary programs, and ensure that the barriers which are currently in the employment market are eliminated.

We are also looking at strengthening our work with respect to the provision of our information and services in both official languages, and strengthening our involvement with other organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the CCD, and within our network of groups of students with disabilities. We would like to strengthen the network, expand it, and involve more students in what we do.

(For more information, or to become a member of NEADS, write to them at: NEADS, Unicentre, 4th Floor, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6. Or call (613) 233-5963 (voice/TTY).)