Tracy Humphrey’s presentation provided some excellent food for thought on interactions with students with various disabilities and ableism in society.

Perhaps my favourite piece of advice she gave was her encouragement to take the time to read IEPs and get to know the students with them.

In my own practice, I would love to make it a habit of carving out time before every course starts to spend time closely looking them over. Perhaps it may be possible to reach out to parents for students for additional info. And of course, I could talk directly to students.

Students with learning disabilities may have preferred ways of learning, and if as an educator I can help facilitate this, I would be more than happy to.

I also appreciated Humphrey’s candor about her struggles living with ADHD. As someone who was diagnosed early on, I can definitely resonate with people labelling me as a space caded or labelled. Having an invisible disability sucks, even though with the right supports you can thrive, depite having one.

A very prominent pschologist I like — his name is Thomas E. Brown, and he’s penned numerous books and teaches at Yale University— states that everyone with ADHD typically has two or three things that they really thrive at. Once they can cut out all the noise and focus in, they are able to “hyper focus” on a specific task for a prolonged period of time, allowing them to produce top quality work.

I guesse what I’m trying to say is that all students have talented and that as educators we should make an effor to recognize people’s abilities and built upon it.