The first thing that struck me about Chantelle’s Morvay-Adams presentation was the rich description she gave of herself at the beginning of our Zoom meeting. It took me a second or two to realize what she was doing; she was considering the fact there may be a visually impaired participant who didn’t have the same ‘access’ to her appearance and demographic as those with their full sight do. I have never worked with nor do I have any close friends or family that are visually impaired. I doubt I would know to offer the same considerations as she did.
The second piece of information that struck me as significant is BCEdAccess is entirely voluntary. I’m not sure whether to be impressed by this or disappointed that it’s run on a volunteer basis, with a 4000 members no less. Chantelle is clearly an advocate for her children and not a parent to ignore, but isn’t it a shame that it takes a voice and personality like hers to get equitable access for her children.
I imagine myself in my own classroom (hold on, that is a pretty amazing thought, I just want to enjoy it for a second, ok finished) am I failing as a teacher if I refer a parent to BCEdAccess because the school can’t offer enough support for the child to reach their full potential in BC education. BCEdAccess actually has an EXCLUSION TRACKER which is used to report an exclusion for K-12 students. Exclusion is defined as however “you (as the parent or student) see it.” I really don’t want my name attached to that report, but how do I access concrete supports for my student if they simply aren’t available? Who’s do door do I knock on?
