My Story

York University's alumni, Zahra Brown, wrote her thesis  Her Master’s thesis entitled," Ableism, Intersectionality, Power, and Knowledge: The complexities of navigating accommodations in postsecondary institutions". The feminist theory of the personal is political motived her to used her lived-experience to empower and educate students, postsecondary students using this workshop which specializes in helping students utilize tools navigate postsecondary education and successfully graduate.  I help participants in this workshop in a way that they can utilize their minds and their hearts.

 

I first learned about academic accommodation when I hit a roadblock in first year at Seneca College in 2001, I was failing and was struggling to move past it.  It was not until the following of that year, I changed myself program from Office Administration to General Arts and Science where I learned about the accommodation services where I struggled receiving the right accommodations that worked for me. It was my undergrad when I was at York University, where I understood about accommodation and the impact of when my accommodation were denied and how it was a difficult process when I got my counsellor, my parents to get the professor to accommodate me in order to pass the required course.

 

These past experiences taught me new  techniques I developed were so successful when I graduated from George Brown College  in 2016 that when I went to do my masters at York University, I was able to navigate my way and graduated from my masters program on my own. I had to become my own self-advocate while seeking accommodation. I built professional relationships with my  counsellors at the accessibiltiy services and professors in all of my classes. My self advocacy skills in knowing what my needs are to be accommodated led me to study hard, enjoy school and my GPA's were great.

 

My research from my thesis have shown that the statistics of students with disabilities are still low in graduating postsecondary education. Students tend to drop out of school when their needs are not been met, when they do not know how to self advocacy and understand the accommodation process, and sometimes the impact of not having their accommodation met, they face discrimination and they end up losing focus because they spend so much time fighting can led them to dropping out of school because their struggles impacted their mental wellness and more. This motivated me to turn my newfound passion into a full-time career.  If you have any questions about my methods, or would like to schedule a consultation, please get in touch today.