Duty to accommodate
Duty to accommodate is a legal and ethical obligation, rooted in human rights law, that requires schools to meaningfully adjust policies, practices, and environments so students with disabilities can access education with dignity and equity—not by exception, but by right.
It is a collaborative, ongoing process that demands inquiry, consultation, and facilitation—not just reactive fixes, but proactive design—because inclusion is not a favour and support is not optional when barriers exist.
In British Columbia, this duty is protected under the Human Rights Code and upheld by precedent; it holds that when a student experiences discrimination due to disability, the school must remove those barriers unless doing so would cause undue hardship—a high threshold that includes financial, structural, and safety considerations, but never inconvenience or personal bias.
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Flourishing as an ethical imperative
Like many of you, I caught CBC’s Ideas episode the other day, where philosopher Angie Hobbs spoke about the ancient Greek concept of eudaimonia—a term sometimes translated as happiness or welfare, but more richly understood as human flourishing. In a world flooded by crisis, it may seem indulgent or impractical to contemplate the good life,…
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On toxic positivity, rationed support, and the betrayal of collaboration
“At the head of the table is almost always the school principal. Not a neutral facilitator, but a gatekeeper balancing limited resources, district priorities, and political pressures.” That sentence from Canary Collective landed in my body like a gavel. It captured what years of documentation, grief, strategic disillusionment, and moral injury have etched into my…
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Fierce is fair: when institutional tone policing meets legal obligation
There comes a moment when a parent begins to speak in plain terms, with no softening edge, no accommodating smile, no fear of being perceived as uncooperative. It’s when you realise that you won’t be liked, no matter how hard you try, because your advocacy positions you as inherently unlikable by schools with their current…
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How public education discriminates against PDA children through performative care
On Thursday, I changed my work calendar, after suffering a nervous breakdown the night before. On Wednesday, I had 7 meetings in one day, stacked with half-hour gaps. Almost every meeting ran long and I held my pee for 4 hours and my dog pooped on the floor. I had things to accomplish and they…
