NORTH VANCOUVER, BC - The Alliance of BC Students is pleased today’s announcement that new investments will be made towards supporting students with disabilities accessing post-secondary education. The $250,000 investment will support the Academic Communication Equity (ACE) program, the Centre for Accessible Post-Secondary Education Resources (CAPER) and the Program for Institutional Loan of Adaptive Technology (PILAT).

“Students with disabilities face many unnecessary barriers to education due to a lack of resources to support their full participation in post-secondary ,” said Grace Dupasquier, chairperson of the Alliance of BC Students. “These barriers can be addressed - investments like this are essential to making our post-secondary system more equitable.”

Students with disabilities often face higher financial strain due to the cost of adaptive learning technologies, such as e-readers or transcribers, as well as the cost of managing their disability, such as the cost of medication not covered under public health. Investing in supports for students with disabilities is essential towards offsetting these additional costs that make accessibility post-secondary extremely difficult for many students with disabilities.

"We are glad to see these investments coming forward, but we know that more still needs to be done to ensure students with disabilities have the support they need to access their education," continued Dupasquier. “We hope to see additional investments in these programs, and other financial aid programs moving forward."

The Alliance of BC Students supports increasing investments in programs to support students with disabilities and additional data collection on the experiences of students with disabilities to ensure that these programs are supporting students where it is most needed.