York Student’s Letter Tells A Story

Though my time with staff and the members in which you support was brief, it taught me a lot about myself. If l am honest, when I initially heard that my placement was with adults with disabilities it brought back to past memories from my childhood. As a child with a physical disability, I was hesitant to associate myself with others who were also disabled because I did not want to be reminded of my own disability or be attached to the social stigma given to those with disabilities over the years that is what I ran away from. However, throughout my community placement, I was forced to face my own biases about disability, especially, disabilities different than my own. Despite knowing, that disabled people want to be treated with respect, integrity, and kindness like the ‘average person’ I spoke/speak those words from a personal place relying only on my experience alone. My time at BCCL enabled me to see what it truly means to treat everyone equally and allowed me to overcome my fear of being around or associated with others with disabilities. For that, I will be forever grateful. What I have learned during my time with everyone will not only make me a better person but a better educator.