How Writing for Accessibility Services has Helped me Learn and Stay Motivated

I have always been passionate about writing and sharing my personal experiences. Despite choosing a STEM undergraduate degree, I love maintaining writing as part of my daily life. While looking for work during the school year, I found the opportunity to become a blogger for Accessibility Services and knew I needed to apply to it. This week, I’m writing about why I decided to be the Accessibility Services blogger and how it has kept me motivated during this school year, even during our current circumstances! My reason to become a blogger is simple: I love sharing my experiences here at U of T, whether they’re positive or negative, and get students to connect with their own experiences. Sometimes, students, including myself, feel as though they are alone with their struggles and concerns. But, when we share our stories, we can see that we do have similarities and can help each other out. This is what really motivates me to write.

In the past few years, I have been writing articles with one of the main engineering newspapers on campus and have been sharing my experiences around mental health. I wanted to help inform students that it’s okay to not be okay and that not everything will go as planned. At the same time, I was trying to get my registration completed for Accessibility Services, but always lost my motivation to follow through with it. When I found the position to become a blogger, I thought I could learn so much about accessibility in general and share more of my experiences.

This was exactly the case: during my time as a writer, I have been able to complete my accessibility registration and share my journey, motivated myself to get into counselling and have taken the time to truly reflect and learn about myself during the school year. I was originally concerned about writing every week and running out of ideas – but I had so much support along the way and was able to improve myself beyond just through writing. I looked forward every week to new subjects and diving into new themes. I learned so much about the importance of accessibility accommodations and will continue learning beyond this role. My simple hobby of writing helped me grow more than I thought it would and I continue to have as much passion.

If you are in any way interested in writing for Accessibility Services, I highly encourage you to apply for this role! As a commuter, this position was really nice to work remotely while still working with incredible people. Additionally, during the past few weeks with academic changes and during this time of uncertainty, this position has been one of the few things I have been motivated for. If you are interested in other positions within Accessibility Services, keep an eye out on the CLNx work-study job board, as positions are posted here in mid-summer!