As the only public institution in Prince Edward Island, Canada, the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) plays a significant role in the success of the province. With approximately 5,500 students from over 90 countries, UPEI is a small, but mighty institution with a commitment to experiential learning opportunities, international exchange, and research excellence with an educational experience “designed to help [students] reach their full potential in both the classroom and the community.” Integral to that mission is UPEI’s Accessibility Services office which supports students with a variety of needs from academic and testing accommodations to outside-of –the-classroom needs like learning strategy support. Since December 2023, UPEI has been using Accommodate to manage their accessibility services to support the over 800 students at UPEI needing their services.
Finding the Right Solution
Prior to Accommodate, UPEI was operating with an outdated system that didn’t support the caseload that UPEI was handling. “We knew we needed a new system; what we were using wasn’t sustainable,” said Nicole Wadden Garland, Manager of Accessibility Services at UPEI. “People were waiting a long time to get support.”” While UPEI was making do, the institution was forced to find a new solution in August 2023, when they learned that the vendor for its old system was shutting down. This news came at a critical time for the university—in the lead-up to the beginning of a new academic year—sending Accessibility Services t “into panic mode.”
This development, on top of already dealing with a system that required Wadden Garland and her team to sort through various Google documents and Excel spreadsheets, was the last straw. Wadden Garland added that the team was already on the verge of burnout because of “how much effort and time the old system took, and our students complaining about their long wait times for support. It was such a cumbersome process.
The university began looking into other platforms, contacting vendors to see what system would best address its needs. Wadden Garland also approached other Canadian post-secondary institutions to find out what platforms they were using, quickly identifying that Accommodate, based on other schools’ experiences, might be a fit for UPEI. One key distinguishing feature of Accommodate that impressed Wadden Garland was that—unlike many other platforms—it offered the full functionality UPEI was looking for in a solution. “[Accommodate] is one system. Everything is in there. Everything happens there. It communicates with the central system. Changes are updated regularly. Plus, the support that Accommodate and Symplicity provide is exceptional.”
During the evaluation process, UPEI was struck by how engaged the Symplicity team was. “They quickly shared the information we needed to make an informed decision,” said Wadden Garland. “Their attention-to-detail and responsiveness was so much better than what we had received from other vendors. I was convinced right away that Accommodate and Symplicity were the right fit and then my whole team followed.” UPEI found that Accommodate allowed their staff to schedule appointments, book test rooms, receive form submissions, automate accommodation letters, and move from a paper-based record-keeping system to digitizing everything.
“Their attention-to-detail and responsiveness was so much better than what we had received from other vendors. I was convinced right away that Accommodate and Symplicity were the right fit and then my whole team followed... Starting from implementation, we received very personal, customized support. We weren’t just another sale or another institution, but instead we developed a working relationship with our client manager.
Nicole Wadden Garland,
Manager of Accessibility Services,
University of Prince Edward Island
One Fee, Many Features, Standout Support
For UPEI, another critical point to getting buy-in was the fact that Accommodate has one fee that includes all of the system features whereas other platforms have a base fee, and then charge additional fees for required modules. “So, everything can quickly add up,” said Wadden Garland. “Other vendors also limit the number hours of support over so many months, while Symplicity provides robust and unlimited support and training. This was the selling point for us.”
From day one, UPEI was assigned an implementation manager who walked the team through onboarding with weekly meetings. Since launching, UPEI now meets with their dedicated client manager regularly for troubleshooting and to help with any customization or upgrades UPEI needs. “If there's a report I want to run and I can't figure out how to do it myself, I'll email our client manager. They may already know how to do it, but if they don’t, they’ll submit a ticket on our behalf and we’ll have a solution back to us promptly. We know that we can rely on continued support with no cap on the number of times we can reach out to someone” said Wadden Garland.
Having a dedicated client manager who came from the higher education space and could speak their language was also important to UPEI. “Starting from implementation, we received very personal, customized support. We weren’t just another sale or another institution, but instead we developed a working relationship with our client manager,” noted Wadden Garland. “It always was, ‘Let’s figure this out. What do you want? What works for your institution? What works best for your team? We’ll make it happen.’”
Accommodate Today at UPEI
Today, UPEI is well positioned to continue improving its support for students in need of accessibility services: wait times for test-room bookings and meetings are shorter, there is less effort needed for staff members to coordinate, and accommodation requests are in a streamlined workflow to ensure every student gets the information and approvals they need. “Now, during the time that we spend with students, we're better able to focus on certain accommodations because we're not bogged down by the process –some of the work has already happened in Accommodate. We’re definitely reaching and supporting more students due to this increased efficiency,” said Wadden Garaland. “We're providing supports to those who need it and they're not having to wait as long to get assistance, so student satisfaction has improved.”
Because Accommodate has enabled more productive “face” time with students, the Accessibility Services team can now better identify trends through Accommodate’s tracking and reporting modules. “The tracking capability has been extremely beneficial. Before our tracking was done manually, so now with Accommodate, we can capture data more quickly and are confident the information is a more accurate reflection of what's actually happening.” As UPEI continues to expand its use of Accommodate, the reporting module will enable them to identify trends year over year and allocate appropriate resources and staff as they understand their students and their needs better.
Since implementing Accommodate in 2023, UPEI has seen a 180-degree improvement in office operations and student engagement. UPEI intends to further expand its use of the system for tracking and reporting—to deliver on its mission to support students by obtaining a better picture of the whole student all on one platform.