Implicit bias refers to a deeply rooted, often subconscious bias towards or against a person or group of people. This differs from explicit bias, which refers to conscious beliefs and attitudes. Implicit bias may be deeply ingrained; individuals may not be aware of the implicit biases they hold. Implicit racial bias refers to a person's automatic preference for one racial group over another. Although previously thought to be unchangeable, recent studies suggest that implicit bias can be altered through intervention (Lai et al., 2016;Vuletich & Payne, 2019).

Memory aids are now frequently provided to elementary and secondary school students to increase their success in achieving provincial curriculum standards. While such an accommodation may meet the immediate goal of improved academic performance it may not be warranted based on an actual long-term memory retrieval impairment and may therefore be inequitable, providing an unfair academic advantage relative to non-disabled students. Furthermore, providing memory aid accommodations inappropriately may rob students of the opportunity to learn effective study and retrieval strategies, leading instead to dependence on an accommodation that may not be continued once they enter post-secondary education. An appropriate accommodation at the post-secondary level of education removes a disability-related barrier (functional impairment) and assists only those facing such barriers; under human rights legislation, accommodations are not implemented to guarantee success, reduce anxiety, or provide unequal access to material. Memory aids improve the retrieval of information from long-term storage for everyone. As such, the current widespread provision of this accommodation prior to post-secondary studies must be evaluated critically, with such supports offered only when justified. A six-step process for determining when memory aids are an appropriate accommodation within the post-secondary setting is provided and discussed.

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