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NEADS Disabled Student Leaders' Panel: Virtual Access For All Webinar Series Feature, August 20, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST

The National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) is proud to welcome student leaders from across Canada as they discuss on-campus student-led accessibility initiatives in our Access For All Panel on Friday, August 20th from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm EST.

Advocacy can take many forms on post-secondary campuses. Efforts to create a more inclusive culture are often a collaboration between departments on campus and student-led initiatives. In this one-hour, interactive panel, we will hear from four student-leaders about their experiences on campus.

We will be joined by representatives from Students for Barrier Free Access (University of Toronto); Society for Students with a Disability (University of Victoria); Maccess (McMaster University); and the USC Accessibility Committee (Western University). Panelists will share how their organization’s work differs from accessible learning/accessibility services, why student-led initiatives are critical on campus, and how these leaders came to be involved on campus.  

Closed captioning will be provided. Online registration is required. Please register here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpdeupqDorE9PEhWhmmPIj_g8X5d2H_dTU

This event is supported by Employment and Social Development Canada and is a feature of our Virtual Access for All webinar series.

More About The Panelists

Lauren Sanders, Coordinator of the USC Accessibility Committee

Lauren Sanders is a part-time student in the Western University Faculty of Law, the Coordinator of the USC Accessibility Committee, and serves on the Student Accessibility Advisory Committee at Western. She is passionate about fighting for equality in all areas, but is particularly involved with the fight for disability justice.

The USC Accessibility Committee is a student-run organization operating at the University of Western Ontario under the purview of the Student Council. Their mission is to bring the concerns of disabled students at Western to the council and to work to make Western as a whole more accessible for all students.

Emunah Woolf, Director of Maccess

Emunah Woolf is going into their fourth year of the BSW program at McMaster University and is the Maccess Director for the 2021/2022 schoolyear. They grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and are a queer, Jewish, disabled, and neurodivergent student and disability studies researcher. Emunah is passionate about community building and peer support work and has been involved in various advocacy and organizing projects. Some other activities they enjoy include cooking and crafting.

Maccess is a peer support, advocacy, and community building service run entirely by and for McMaster students who experience disability, chronic illness, mental health concerns, neurodivergence, and inaccessibility on campus. Maccess aims to build and maintain a campus environment that not only includes folks with disabilities, but actively celebrates, supports, and values disability in the community.

Alisha Krishna,  Co-Chair of Students for Barrier-Free Access

Alisha Krishna (they/them) is the co-Chair of Students for Barrier-Free Access and a law student at the University of Toronto. They are interested in labour and anti-discrimination law, especially in the post-secondary context, and they strive to use their knowledge and skills to support and empower community advocacy.

Students for Barrier-Free Access (SBA) is a disability justice group at the University of Toronto, advocating for education which is socially, environmentally, and financially accessible. SBA works to create a community for disabled students on campus and offer a wide variety of skills-building workshops and community events in addition to their advocacy.  

Julia Denley, Student Liaison for Society of Students with a Disability

Julia Denley is a student leader and disability advocate at the University of Victoria. She has been on the Board of UVic’s Society for Students with a Disability for the past three years, and presently serves as the SSD’s Student Liaison. She also Co-Chairs the SSD’s Access4All campaign, which advocates for equitable access to higher education by maintaining online learning options that were implemented during the pandemic.

The Society for Students with a Disability (SSD) is a post-secondary student advocacy group under the University of Victoria Students’ Union that promotes the full participation and inclusion of students who self-identify as having one or more disabilities. The SSD provides a variety of programs and services to support students and reduce barriers in the social, emotional, and educational domains of student life.