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NEADS State of the Schools Tour Toronto Stop September 20

NEADS' State of the Schools Tour – Toronto Stop  

Join the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) as we begin the second year of our hybrid State of the Schools Tour.

On September 20, 2024, from 12:00 to 5:00 pm ET, we will be at the Chestnut Conference Center at the University of Toronto, as well as on Zoom, to engage disabled students, faculty members, and community members on topics related to activism within the realms of post-secondary education – as well as beyond it.

The tour stop will be comprised of a panel, discussion sessions, presentations, and a networking opportunity. Further information about community-based organizations, panelists, and presenters is located below.  

In-person participants will be encouraged to mask (if possible) and social distance – and contract tracing will be practiced. ASL and LSQ interpretation, closed captioning, and EN/FR interpretation will be provided – we ask that you bring your personal device and headphones (if required) to best participate in the official language of your choice. Registration is required – please register here.  

For any further information and/or questions, please contact Chloée C. Godin-Jacques, NEADS’s Lead Researcher, via email at chloee.godinjacques@neads.ca  

The State of the School Tour is a component of NEADS’ Virtual Access for All project, which is generously supported by Employment and Social Development Canada's Supports for Student Learning Program.

Participating Community-Based Organizations

Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF-FCA)

The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum is a national, not-for-profit organization working with stakeholders in all regions of Canada. We influence pan-Canadian apprenticeship strategies through research, discussion and collaboration. We share insights across trades, across sectors and across the country. We do this in order to promote apprenticeship as an effective model for training and education.

Our Board of Directors is comprised of representatives from groups such as business, labour, the jurisdictional apprenticeship authorities, education and equity-priority groups. Through our work, CAF-FCA has shed light on a number of key issues affecting apprenticeship, such as the perceived barriers to accessing and completing apprenticeship, and the business case for apprenticeship training. For more information visit the CAF-FCA website at www.caf-fca.org .

Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW)

CCRW is a national not-for-profit organization that exists to promote and support meaningful and equitable employment of persons with disabilities. At CCRW, we offer job search assistance, employer incentives, accommodation assessments, consulting services, and a variety of workshops. Additionally, we provide a range of services for employers, from consulting, to hiring and retention, and disability confidence training. Whether you are a job seeker living with a disability or an employer looking to tap into a talented pool of candidates, CCRW will partner with you to meet your unique needs and help you succeed.

Students for Barrier-Free Access (SBA)

Students for Barrier-Free Access (SBA) was created in 2002 at the University of Toronto to address the systemic barriers experienced by disabled students. Funded through student levies at the undergraduate and graduate level, SBA is governed by a Board of Directors with majority student and alumni representation. The organization aims to provide a social space where disabled students, and their allies, can engage, network, and promote accessibility and inclusion across all three of the University’s campuses. The SBA Centre, previously the University of Toronto Access Centre (UTAC), launched in 2004, and now boasts an Adaptive Technology & Resource Centre featuring accessible workstations and software, a resource library, lounge space, and study room. The SBA Board and staff collaborate with campus and community partners to offer educational workshops, social events, and advocacy services.

ND Connect

ND Connect is a mentorship and peer connections platform by-and-for neurodivergent people. On ND Connect, you can find mentors, friends, and an authentic, supportive community that gets you and wants to help you thrive in your professional and personal life. You can also access weekly hangouts that help you build genuine connections that can last a lifetime. 

Realize Canada

Realize is the leading national, charitable, organization in Canada working to improve the health and well-being of people living with HIV and other episodic disabilities, across the lifespan, through integrated research, education, policy, and practice.  Formed in 1998, Realize (formerly the Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation) promotes innovation and excellence in rehabilitation in the context of HIV and other chronic and potentially episodic conditions. We bridge the traditionally separate worlds of HIV, disability and rehabilitation through research, education and cross-sector partnerships. 

Meet The Panelists

Dr. Eliza Chandler, TMU School of Disability Studies

As an Associate Professor in the School of Disability Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, Eliza Chandler leads a research program that animates disability arts and its connections to disability rights and justice. This research interest came into focus when, from 2014-16, she was the Artistic Director of Tangled Art + Disability, an organization in Toronto dedicated to showcasing disability arts and advancing accessible curatorial practice. Chandler teaches in the areas of disability arts, critical access studies, social movements, and crip technoscience and participates in a number of research projects in these areas, including co-directing the SSHRC-funded partnership project, Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life. Chandler regularly gives lectures on disability arts, accessible curatorial practices, and disability politics in Canada and she is a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars. 

Dr. Esther Ignagni, TMU School of Disability Studies

Esther Ignagni draws on lived, work and academic experiences of disability  to inform her position as an associate professor in Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Disability Studies, where she has been teaching undergraduate students fro the past 20 years. Most recently, she has held a number of university leadership roles.  From 2019-24, she was the director of the School of Disability Studies and served as the interim director of the School of Social Work in 2023-24. Ignagni’s research explores intimate citizenship: how disabled people create families and kinship, parent children, exercise reproductive rights and intimate justice within and against dis/ableist cultures.  Before she obtained her PhD in Public Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, she worked across a variety of community, activist and clinical settings.

Dr. Tanya Titchkosky, University of Toronto Professor of Disability Studies

Dr. Tanya Titchkosky is Professor of Disability Studies in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, U of T. She is recognized globally for her leading work in the field of disability studies and social justice all of which is influenced by her experience of dyslexia. Her teaching, research and activism aim to reveal how our lives are made meaningful in relation unquestioned versions of normalcy as this impact’s everyday interactions, education, and health. Her most recent co-edited book is DisAppearing: Encounters in Disability Studies (2022) which shows how many issues in Rethinking Normalcy (2009), co-edited with Rod Michalko, remain relevant today. Tanya’s exploration of the power of normalcy to diminish disability-concerns in everyday life has animated her desire to build a less exclusive University by, for example, making the OISE washrooms and signage, the St. George Subway entrance, and University technological infrastructure (SLATE student admissions platform), as well as courses more welcoming toward a disability and other marginalized people. These issues,  in need of further theorizing, can be read about in her The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning and other publications (OISE Faculty Research  - Titchkosky).

Her current work is funded by an Insight SSHRC grant, “Reimaging the Dis/Appearance of Disability in the Academy.” Tanya is also part of a major 6 year international research project, Disability Matters, and holds an Institute for Pandemics (U of T) research award focusing on educational and health archives as they make disability meaningful (usually only as disease). Tanya is recipient of the OISE 2019 Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. She is also a founding member of the Doing Disability in Everyday Life Research and Activist group and the Toronto Disability Circle.  

Colleen Stevenson

Colleen Stevenson (she/her) is a PhD student in Higher Education at OISE at the University of Toronto, and she identifies as neurodivergent. Her research focuses on student affairs, institutional change and EDI in higher education. Her doctoral research analyzes university EDI initiatives. Colleen has many years of experience working in student affairs, including academic advising, admissions, curriculum development, and teaching business courses. She is also an academic coach and has her own business, Choose Your University, where she helps current and future university students and their families prepare for academic success. Colleen is currently a member of the board of directors at Students for Barrier Free Access at the University of Toronto. This non-profit group serves students by providing access to resources and reducing barriers to higher education through a disability justice approach.  

Dr. Jessica Vorstermans, York University

Jessica Vorstermans (she/her) is an associate professor in the Faculty of Health at York University. As a white woman settler scholar, living, working and caring in what is now known as Toronto, on treaty 13 lands, I work to enact equity as a set of social relations, equity as relational, in all sites of my work.

Kate Welsh, Centre for Independent Living in Toronto

Kate Welsh BA, M.Ed is a queer, disabled artist, community activist and educator. They currently work at the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT) as the IDE+A coordinator. Kate is passionate about building communities of care and striving to create safer, anti-oppressive spaces. Living with both visible and invisible disabilities, they navigate complex experiences through art, activism and community care.  Kate frequently speaks on panels at conferences and reviews academic papers. Kate is the founder of Equity Buttons and the Community Resistance Intimacy Project – CRIP. They are also a mental health counselor for queer and trans disabled folks and have had a part time private practice for the past 4 years.

Dianne Wintermute, Citizens with Disabilities Ontario

Dianne Wintermute graduated from Queen’s University Law School in 1984. Since then, her focus has been on human rights disability and anti-poverty issues. Dianne has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and various tribunals.   Dianne retired in 2022. Since then, she has been sitting on the Board of Citizens with Disabilities Ontario and is a volunteer reader with an elementary school. 

Meet the Presenters

Erin Anderson, Students for Barrier Free Access  

Erin Anderson (she/her) is a PhD student in Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, who identifies as neurodivergent. Prior to beginning her doctoral work, Erin worked in student affairs where she used her lived experience to guide her practice of supporting students. Her research interests centre on barriers to inclusion within the postsecondary environment; disability identity development; mentorship and belonging; and designing inclusive and accessible learning environments. Presently, Erin is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the University of Toronto’s Students for Barrier-Free Access, a student-led non-profit that works within a disability justice framework to reduce institutional barriers for students across all three campuses.

Julie Emeid, Citizens with Disabilities Ontario

Hi, I am Julie. I use she/her pronouns. I graduated from Humber College with a diploma in Social Services with honours. I am in my final year at Toronto Metropolitan University. I am pursuing a bachelor’s in social work degree with a minor in Disability Studies. I will be pursuing a master’s degree in social work after graduation. People spend a lifetime searching for their life purpose. My goal used to be to help others. That goal has changed to a mission: to educate policymakers, employers, and the public on disability issues and create change for people with disabilities. With education, we can destigmatize disability and strive for equity.

Heather Willis, Citizens with Disabilities Ontario

Heather Willis is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan’s School of Disability Studies, and has a post-graduate diploma in Disability Studies from the University of Leeds. Born in Toronto, Heather has been an accessibility advocate since she was a teenager growing up in an institution for disabled children. In the decades since, she has served on numerous committees and boards dedicated to the equity and full inclusion of persons with disabilities. In 2010, following a 25 year career at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Heather joined Toronto Metropolitan University as its inaugural Accessibility Coordinator, now in the Office of the Vice President, Equity and Community Inclusion. She leads TMU’s accessibility initiative, "ACCESS TMU", with the goal of identifying, removing and preventing accessibility barriers for all members of the university community. Heather lives in Toronto with her husband and cat Charley. She enjoys reading, solving puzzles of any kind, kayaking and hanging out at her cottage in the Kawarthas.

Chloée C. Godin-Jacques, M.A (she/they | elle/iel), Lead Researcher | Recherchiste principale, National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), Rm. 514 Unicentre, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6

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