Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

There is a growing number of students with disabilities enrolled in Canadian post-secondary institutions. However, administrative, financial and educational support hasn't grown at the same rate. While students can register for Offices for Students with Disabilities (OSD) to receive accommodations, each province and post-secondary institution has a different registration process. As such, students, especially those with chronic mental health and physical disabilities, face challenges with receiving accommodations. If their disabilities emerge after enrollment, for example, they may not have the extensive documentation of their disabilities needed to receive them. If they have a chronic disability, they have to pay the cost of travel and time missed in class to acquire the documentation. On the institutional side, colleges and universities face administrative costs that cannot be easily reduced or offloaded to improve processes. EduCare wants to change this. EduCare LMS Corporation (Educare) provides an online platform - called Health Information Exchange - to students with disabilities to reduce barriers to their success by connecting them and their schools to health providers. Educare and Centennial College's Wearable, Interactive and Mobile Technologies Access Centre in Health (WIMTACH) are partnering to develop a HIPPA-compliant online platform to include features, functionalities and more services that facilitate data-driven solutions, that will address and ultimately reduce the barriers.