Dear Students,

We are excited to be sharing with you that we are conducting a study to learn how university and college students with disabilities use online communities and what their needs are related to these tools.

The purpose of the study is to assess post-secondary education (PSE) students with disabilities’ uses and needs related to online communities (e.g., social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook) and electronic mentoring (e-mentoring) opportunities. This study will help us to gain a better understanding of how PSE students with disabilities use online communities and what they need to support their success while attending university or college. It will also inform the development of an online network for PSE students with disabilities. This network will provide opportunities for learning, online community building, and e-mentoring. Benefits to participation include the opportunity to share your thoughts and perceptions about the development of such an online network for PSE students with disabilities.

This research is being conducted by investigators from George Brown College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology with the assistance of the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS). This study has received research ethics approval from the Research Ethics Board at George Brown College (REB file # 6004178) on 15/11/2015. If you have any questions about the study or your rights as a participant, complaints or adverse events, please contact the principal investigator, Charles Anyinam at 416-415-5000 ext. 6038 or canyinam@georgebrown.ca OR Barbara Godfrey, Chair, REB at 416-415-5000 ext 3667 or bgodfrey@georgebrown.ca. This study has been approved by the UOIT Research Ethics Board REB (Protocol 15-088) on 21/03/2016. Any questions regarding your rights as a participant, complaints or adverse events may be addressed to Research Ethics Board through the Ethics and Compliance Officer – compliance@uoit.ca or 905.721.8668 x. 3693.

We invite you to participate and provide your feedback about online communities and e-mentoring by completing the questionnaire. The questions will be available to you through a secure, accessible online survey tool called Survey Monkey. We anticipate it will take about 5-10 minutes to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire is completely anonymous and your participation in the study is voluntary. You can choose to not participate by not responding to this email or not submitting your responses if you start the questionnaire.

If you would like to participate in this study or find out more about it, please go to the following internet link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W56CWCH

Thank you for considering this invitation,

The Research Team

Via www.neads.ca