Disability Student Grant

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For those that are not familiar, the Government of Canada has a $4,000 grant (regularly $2,000) non-repayable grant for students that have disabilities. To get this grant, you and your doctor (typically a specialist) will need to fill out a form from your Provincial/Territorial (excluding Nunavut/NWT/Quebec -  but they may have their own thing) student loan provider.

Disabilities include but are not limited to: 

• Being Deaf or Hearing Impaired
• Being blind or visually impaired
• Learning disability
• Speech 
• Mobility/Agility Impairments
• ADD/ADHD
• Psychiatric or psychological (eg. severe anxiety, significant depression, etc.)
• Autism, Asperger, Rett
• Brain Injury, cognitive impairment
• Chronic Fatigue syndrome 
• Irlen syndrome 

If you suspect you may be experiencing any of the above (some would be obvious but not all), I would recommend doing yourself a favour and getting it looked into before you start school. You can benefit from non-repayable grants, but you can also benefit from potential treatment to minimize the impact, learn strategies to manage in the classroom environment, etc. 

Getting access to the grant does not mean that you need to need to utilize accommodations. There is no shame in having a diagnosis. If anything, it gives you information about something you may have suspected all along. 

There is additional money available for services and equipment and your province may even have financial assistance for getting a learning assessment like BC does.  

If you have questions, I probably won't be able to answer them, but I do recommend reaching out to your school's accessibility centre and your Provincial/Territorial student loan provider. 

At some point I was reading that there was some changes that the disability does not have to be permanent and significantly impact your education on its own but a combination of things could result in you being considered eligible. Can't find that information right now. 

Last thing - there was a rule change that you can ask that your student loan be calculated on your current year's income. Reach out to your Province/Territory for that. If I was to use my last year's income, I will not qualify for grants. When they re-calculate my income using January-August (+ EI if I am eligible until December), I will qualify. Keep this in the back of your minds - particularly those of you that work full time right now. Make sure to get it recalculated so you can maximize on the non-repayable grants that you may be eligible for. 

[Greenjuice]

Thank you so much for posting this. I have multiple disabilities/conditions and I have been struggling to find information on where to get financial support. I really appreciate it!

[officialkitty]

thanks for this! do you have any info on students with temporary disabilities? i tried to look online but found conflicting info

[GoBigOrGoHome]

9 hours ago, officialkitty said:

thanks for this! do you have any info on students with temporary disabilities? i tried to look online but found conflicting info

On this page it mentions persistent or prolonged. 

This is a BC page. I’m going to assume that because you establish eligibility with your province, you will have to find the information there. 
 

In BC, you complete Appendix 8

 

[GoBigOrGoHome]

Further to my previous comment, here is information from Appendix 8 (BC):

Have a Permanent Disability defined as:
“any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment - or a functional limitation - that restricts the ability of a person to perform the daily activities necessary to pursue studies at a post- secondary school level or to participate in the labour force and that is expected to remain with the person for the person’s expected life.”

Or a Persistent or Prolonged Disability defined as:
“any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment - or a functional limitation - that restricts the ability of a person to perform the daily activities necessary to pursue studies at a post- secondary school level or to participate in the labour force and has lasted, or is expected to last, for a period of at least 12 months but is not expected to remain with the person for the person’s expected life.”

[Ilovelamp]

Another add to this from the other coast.

I applied for my NS student loans, they added the $4000 disability grant but there is an annual maximum between federal/provincial so it didn’t increase my entire total amount of funding by $4000, only about $1500. It did decrease the provincial loan by $2500 though, the rest of the amounts stayed the same

[Lilbb19]

you can get equipment too, free macbook pro, printer etc

[Patient0L]

12 hours ago, Lilbb19 said:

you can get equipment too, free macbook pro, printer etc

How!?

[myth000]

3 hours ago, Patient0L said:

How!?

There is a separate application for the equipment.  You'll need your doctor to certify that the specific equipment is required for your disability.  https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-aid/grants-loans/disabilities-service-equipment.html

 

[Lilbb19]

11 minutes ago, myth000 said:

There is a separate application for the equipment.  You'll need your doctor to certify that the specific equipment is required for your disability.  https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-aid/grants-loans/disabilities-service-equipment.html

 

When i did it it wasnt a doctor it was just the student access office at the uni. Did it at 2 diff uni's. Just say u need it for notes and ur ready to rock. Mine was through studentaidbc though

Edited June 11, 2022 by Lilbb19

[myth000]

48 minutes ago, Lilbb19 said:

When i did it it wasnt a doctor it was just the student access office at the uni. Did it at 2 diff uni's. Just say u need it for notes and ur ready to rock. Mine was through studentaidbc though

Right, my experience is with OSAP. It has to be doctor's note for OSAP when attending school outside Ontario.  Requires the doctor to state the equipment needs on the disability verification form itself.   If attending school in Ontario can just get a note from the school's Accessibility office.  

Edited June 12, 2022 by myth000

[Patient0L]

1 hour ago, Lilbb19 said:

When i did it it wasnt a doctor it was just the student access office at the uni. Did it at 2 diff uni's. Just say u need it for notes and ur ready to rock. Mine was through studentaidbc though

Did you say which equipment you needed ahead of time, on the form?

[Sacamano]

For the grant, after having uploaded the Disability Verification Form to OSAP, is there anything else that is needed to be done? Or will the 4k be automatically applied to funding once the verification form is processed?

[ramoj]

Thank you for starting this thread. I had a question about this:

Do you need to first get a loan from the government to qualify for a grant of this kind? Or can you bag the $4K without a repayable loan? 

[Turtles]

34 minutes ago, jomar said:

Thank you for starting this thread. I had a question about this:

Do you need to first get a loan from the government to qualify for a grant of this kind? Or can you bag the $4K without a repayable loan? 

My understanding is you need to qualify for federal student loans, which requires having at least $1 in need based on the federal calculation (your province assesses this once you submit proof of the disability, assuming the proof passes). You will get assessed and given whatever amount of student loans you qualify for, but there's no prohibition on then immediately using those funds to repay the loan. That said, since loans are interest free (at the very least, during during studies, in some provinces thereafter), it would seldom be financially rational to immediately repay.

[Turtles]

FYI the doubling of this grant was presented as a temporary covid measure that will end after the current school year. It will be interesting to see if they extend it or make it permanent through the new federal budget released next week (March 28).