Anna Junek walks into a dimly lit room with fewer than five people inside, noise-cancelling headphones in hand, as they ready to write an exam.
Junek is a third-year earth sciences student and one of the many students who took an accommodated formal exam last December — the largest number of students to do so at Carleton University.
More than 19,000 in-person exam sittings were delivered with accommodations in the Fall 2025 term — a more than 30 per cent increase from the same term the previous year, according to a university statement to the Charlatan.
The number of students registered with Carleton’s Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities — more than 5,200 — has also risen, according to a March 10 report to the Board of Governors.
In recent years, the number of young Canadians with a disability has increased to about one in five people, according to 2022 data from Statistics Canada.
For Junek and other students with accessibility needs, accommodations are essential. But for instructors, the increase adds pressure to already full workloads.
Junek is a part of this rise. They started using PMC exam accommodations this year — the difference was like “night and day.”
“I don’t dread exams and midterms nearly as much,” they said. “I’m able to focus on preparing myself for the content, as opposed to mentally preparing myself for the environment.”
Maheeshan Sivanesan, a fourth-year computer science student, has used exam accommodations throughout his degree, like writing in the McIntyre Exam Centre, which has height-adjustable desks that can fit his electric wheelchair.
For him, a lack of accommodation would have meant struggling in exams and receiving lower grades.
“Some people might have all the knowledge … but if they have a physical disability, they might not be able to show that,” he said.
Accommodations are a legal right and essential for equity, according to Anil Varughese, vice-president of Carleton University Academic Staff Association, which represents faculty and professional librarians.
But with less TA and administrative support and bigger class sizes, it’s getting harder for instructors to keep up.
Faculty often redesign courses, adjust assessments, offer alternative exams and spend lots of time coordinating accommodations, Varughese said.
“Accommodations require additional work, and the work is real.”
CUASA president Dominique Marshall added that more accommodations are also straining the PMC and the MacIntyre Exam Centre.
The centre can be overbooked, she said, forcing students to write tests later than their classmates, causing additional grading rounds for instructors and delayed feedback.
The PMC does support faculty in offering accommodations, but it also faces resource constraints, Marshall said.
“The university continues to make operational adjustments to meet this demand,” Carleton said in a statement.
Marshall also said the recent higher number of accommodation requests may reflect higher enrollment and a shift back toward in-person exams to limit AI usage.
The university confirmed demand aligns with “a broader rise in assessments overall.”
But Ethna Bernat, manager of academic advising at Brock University, said increased diagnoses and reduced stigma also play a role in higher accommodation numbers.
“Students have been taught to be a little bit more self-advocating,” she said. “Twenty years ago, it wouldn’t have been like that.”
Marshall said the issue isn’t the rise in accommodations, but whether Carleton is meeting its obligations to students while maintaining sustainable workloads for instructors.
“Both students and faculty should be calling on the university to meet their legal commitments by providing necessary support and investment in making accommodations possible,” she said.
For Junek, accommodations have helped them envision their future.
“I’m someone who wants to go into research and to pursue a higher education, and it’s made that feel a lot more accessible,” they said.
“That’ll involve taking more classes and doing more exams. Having my accommodations for those in the future, as things get harder, is only going to help me succeed more.”
Photo from Maheeshan Sivanesan
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