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NEADS Attendant Services Panel with Elizabeth Mohler and Kimberley Chiasson, May 13 (noon to 1:00 EDT on Zoom)

Join the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) on Friday May 13 noon - 1:00 p.m. EDT for another engaging Q and A with NEADS researcher, Elizabeth Mohler, and Kimberley Chiasson, a fourth-year journalism student at Carleton University. This Zoom event will explore attendant care services at post-secondary institutions in Ontario, and how Carleton’s program is unique. We will discuss why so many campuses don’t have attendant care services, and how this impacts students in need of this support when making post-secondary choices. We will highlight a new, grassroots movement for a more holistic model of care that emerged as a result of restrictions to attendant care placed on students during the Covid pandemic.

Online registration is required for this event. Closed captioning. Online registration is required - register here. This event is supported by Employment and Social Development Canada, and is a feature of our Virtual Access for All webinar series.

For any questions, please contact Elizabeth at: Elizabeth.mohler@neads.ca

Kimberly Chiasson, Carleton University 

Kimberley Chiasson is a 21-year-old fourth year Journalism student at Carleton University with a minor in English. Her degree lets her remain curious, passionate about amplifying underrepresented voices through different mediums.?Living with Cerebral Palsy and accompanying chronic illnesses, she navigates campus in a power wheelchair and relies on the Attendant Services Program to meet her daily needs. Her time as an undergraduate has opened her to a greater conversation of what it means to be disabled in post-secondary. Along with fellow students, Kimberley founded movements to raise awareness surrounding the necessity of campus attendant care, sparked by the uncertainty caused during COVID-19 lockdowns. Since then, she has remained motivated to uncover accessible education options, with the hope to take on structural barriers as part of her future career. In the meantime, she focuses on bettering the experience for others, volunteering with her campus’s disability groups as well as Easter Seals camps. When she’s not frantically editing her next article or taping together a D.I.Y. piece of adaptive equipment, she can be found curing her writer’s block with a 70s playlist or looking for new book recommendations in her hometown of Sudbury, Ontario.

Elizabeth Mohler, Research Consultant 

Elizabeth Mohler currently works for NEADS as a Research Consultant, where she leads the Virtual Access for All Project and writes its quarterly publication, State of the Schools. She also works for Ryerson Magnet as their Inclusive Hiring Project Coordinator, sits on the Education Standards Committee for the Ontario Government, and is an experienced presenter, keynote speaker, lecturer, and published writer. Elizabeth is currently conducting Doctoral research at Western University, where she explores the impact of access to direct funding for self-managed attendant services on occupational performance and engagement of persons with disabilities. 

About NEADS’ Virtual Access for All Project 

NEADS' Virtual Access for All Project provides educational support and awareness aimed at students with disabilities transitioning into post-secondary education. Accessibility and accommodations resources are provided through our quarterly State of the Schools publications, while our regular webinar series addresses topics such as self-advocacy, accessing accommodations at work and school, and transitioning into the workforce. Further, financial support is available through NEADS' Student Awards Program and Accessibility Resilience Program. Virtual Access for All is generously supported by Employment and Social Development Canada's Goal Getters Program, and has recently received an upward amendment in response to positive reception.  

For further information:

National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), Rm. 514 Unicentre, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, tel. (613) 380-8065, ext. 201

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