Leading up to the United Nations-sanctioned International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, MacEwan’s Access and Disability Resources (ADR) team is sharing a bank of resources to help increase awareness and action about accessibility.

The ADR team hopes you will watch, listen to, read and think about accessibility in new ways.

“Visibility matters, and representation matters,” says Stephanie Nhan, who spent the last 10 years as an accessibility assistant with ADR before recently taking on a new position in Student Affairs. “This world is more than just how you walk through it. As able-bodied individuals, we don’t always notice what's not accessible, but we can all be a part of this change to make sure things are.”

For the almost 1,500 students who use ADR services in 2022/23 – eight per cent of the total number of enrolled full- and part-time students at MacEwan – the help can take many forms on a broad spectrum of visible and invisible disabilities, including mental illness, attention deficit, learning disabilities, chronic pain, fatigue and others. 

Al Olsen, for example, says they wouldn’t be pursuing a Bachelor of Communication Studies without support from an accessibility assistant – ADR staff members who go to class with students to help address a variety of barriers and spend time with students outside of class in one-on-one meetings to share study resources, facilitate time management, demonstrate technology, and connect students with other university resources. 

“Without an accessibility assistant, I highly doubt I would have made it through my first semester,” says Olsen. “I have Cerebral Palsy and write and type slower than the average student, so accessibility assistants are my right hand for note-taking and, on the odd occasion, my voice in class.”

Nhan was Olsen’s first note-taker when they started the program in 2022. “MacEwan was big and scary, but Stephanie made me feel welcome and safe. I’d call all of the accessibility assistants that I’ve had the pleasure of working with my friends.”

Seeing that evolution from struggling to succeeding, being stressed to enjoying learning is what Nhan appreciated most about the role. “Sometimes stepping in and taking away one problem – How will I read this? How am I going to get to class? How am I going to talk to my prof? – allows a student just to learn.”

But Nhan says that increasing accessibility goes beyond any single department at MacEwan. ADR collaborates with students and the university community to create greater access overall, including working closely with faculty to design courses that prioritize inclusion and accessibility. 

“I think it’s really important for everyone to know that they can join in and be part of that advocacy – to be part of the movement to make sure that everything is accessible. Once you become more aware of accessibility issues, it’s hard not to see the places that aren’t accessible and work to change them.”

For Olsen, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a day they hope students will use to think about the help they might need. 

“I want other students to know they shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help. You have to give yourself the tools to succeed to the best of your ability – and sometimes those tools come in human shapes.”

For more information on Access and Disability Resources at MacEwan, visit MacEwan.ca/ADR or email myaccess@macewan.ca.