On March 11, members of the CARES Lab participated in the School of Social Work’s Memorial University 100th Anniversary Event, Social Work Education at Memorial University: Celebrating the Past and Present, Reflecting on Future Directions. The event brought together faculty, students, alumni, and community members to reflect on the history of social work education in Newfoundland and Labrador and to consider future directions for the profession.
As part of the afternoon research poster session, Dr. Ami Goulden and Lynsey Soper-Thistle presented preliminary findings from the CARES Lab project A Study on Accommodations in Canadian Social Work Education.
“Some Professors Were Supportive, Some Were Not”: Faculty Responses to Accommodation Needs in Canadian Social Work Education
This poster shared early insights from a national mixed-methods study exploring how disabled social work students and students with disabilities experience academic and field placement accommodations across Canada.
Drawing on survey responses from 154 participants, the preliminary findings highlight how faculty practices and relational dynamics can shape the emotional and practical realities of accommodation-seeking in social work education.
The study findings suggest that improving accessibility in social work education requires attention not only to institutional policies but also to relational, disability-affirming approaches to teaching and learning.
Further analysis from this study will be shared at the 2026 CASWE-ACFTS Conference, Interconnected Futures: Centering Land, Justice, Resistance and Solidarity in a Complex World, taking place June 4–7, 2026 at the University of Ottawa.
Additional results from the project will also continue to be shared through CARES Lab publications and presentations as the analysis progresses.