College Bound with a Disability? I will navigate you! Listen Now to Coach Crista 🫶🏾

Transitioning to college is a life decision.  And, if you have a diagnosis that impairs learning, working, seeing, hearing, walking, mental health, sitting, writing, reading, memory... more...meet me on this podcast.  We are going to bust barriers you face to get enrolled - persist in college - and get a job you want.  Your concerns about succeeding in college and how to do this have real answers.  

I am motivated to work with you because of the successes of 100's of students I have guided.  And I am motivated to podcast for you because students of any age are unaware of their Civil Rights to free aids and services that colleges offer.  

Like a coach, I know the plays that you need to win Super Bowl You.  You are more capable than you know, and I am ready to coach your ability.  

I will be releasing a "Play Book" a Workbook to help you very soon.  It is called "The Passport to Education®️".  I hope to meet you on my podcast soon.  Feel welcome and keep coming back for my coaching.

Blessings to you! 

Crista Shaw, M.S., VRC Transition to Higher Education Navigator. 

Our publication will soon be released as a workbook for students, families, service members, veterans, case managers, doctors, counselors, teachers and advocates.   In the meantime listen to our podcasts to become a student advocate for college success! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Good day. This is Krista Shaw with a welcome to you today. Our podcast is sponsored by the Passport to Education publication for students with disabilities going to college and seeking a degree, a certification, or short-term training. This podcast is also for students already in college and managing a disability. About myself, I'm a master's degree vocational rehabilitation counselor, meaning my career has and is focused on empowering people to become employed who have one or more disabilities. And as a navigator for students entering college, I'm also a job developer within college workforce development programs, with 18 plus years working at community and technical colleges in the Seattle, Washington area. That's me. That's my background. And the goal of our podcast adventure with you today has three parts. First, I want you to fall in love with the idea of attending college, to change your future and your financial plan for one future that includes your basic needs are met beautifully. Imagine that. A warm bed, roof over your head, you have medical insurance, you have paid vacation, your paid sick leave is a great resource to have if you need it. You have retirement, you have expendable income that matches your idea of a good living. Second, I want you to look at the word disability, and I want you to look at it closely and what opportunities and protections work for you if you are a person with a disability, or if you are an advocate, if you're a parent, a doctor, a teacher, a licensed mental health counselor, or a case manager, a nurse, an administrator of a community organization or college employee. You could really be anyone and that you have a relationship to this topic. So we want you to be involved in this podcast, and this is your time. I'm just delighted to be with you today and navigate you through some of our goals. Our third goal is I want you to fall in love with our American Federal Civil Rights for Students in College. We'll use these acronyms, for example, quote 504 unquote, to represent section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for individuals with disabilities in college, and we'll use the ADA, which is quote ADA, which represents the Americans with Disabilities Act. In times like today, where there are huge layoffs in our economy, and you may be that laid-off worker, you may be that person recovering emotionally and financially from COVID. You may have been injured on your job, but you don't yet know how to make enough money to sustain the lifestyle you've had prior to your injury. You may be a physician looking for solutions for a patient. You may be a mother or father or friend of a person struggling in college, but determined to create video games or build art in public spaces or enter a medical career. You may be a college student failing in your classes right now as we speak. Um, and 504 or ADA could help you. So where do we start today? Such that when you stop listening with me today, you have a different perspective, a strategy to help yourself, or a strategy to help another person. To begin, let's talk about the puzzle pieces that connect our goals to your goals. Our goal is that a disability does not define who you are. It is truly not you. It is just a condition, and that if it impacts learning, if your condition impacts breathing, if it impacts communicating, sitting, walking, memory, seeing, hearing, thinking, writing, mathematics, if it impacts your mental health or the function of an organ system, you need to look at how this impacts success in college. So together we need to consider what is the barrier you will experience in college and how do we address this? What support exists specifically for you? So that is puzzle piece number one. Puzzle piece number two is strategizing to get your future job. So the question is, what is your interest? What floats your boat in the career area? Where are you looking to work? Will you work for someone? Will you work for yourself? Can you work with a diagnosis that you have? Another question is, are you employable? And who are the employers that will give you an opportunity that meets their needs and yours? Where are those employers and where are those jobs? Puzzle piece number three is very simple. Will you ask for help and will you receive the gift of help? I think this is such an important question. It's pivotal, really. This podcast will have wonderful solutions for you. And when we release our publication, the Passport to Education, it will have solutions. The real question is, will you ask for solutions and accept them? Or will embarrassment override that decision? Or will shame stop you and you buy in that you must do it alone? Or else what? Those are big questions. As the podcast progresses, I want to address that in my next podcast with you all. I want to look at education trauma, and I want to look at how a disability can really kind of deconstruct your vision a lot of times. And how do you overcome that? Is what's the support that you can get? I think the more that you know, um, as my students experience, the more that they knew about their diagnosis and the support there was for it, um, the more they were able to succeed in classes, get better grades, manage their symptoms. Um and we'll go deeper into this, but there's help for this. There's help for the difficulty that you may have asking for help and receiving the help. But that's an important puzzle piece. And the last puzzle piece is I want you to share your vision and your disability barrier to success in college with your college services to students with disabilities office. They have a banquet of services that are free if you qualify. And then the next question is how do you qualify? So, very simply, you would provide a medical or mental health diagnosis from a qualified, licensed mental health counselor who can write a diagnosis or a doctor who can write a diagnosis. Ask your college SSD office, again, that's services for students with disabilities. What more can you provide to them to qualify for an accommodations plan using 504 or ADA? When you look at all the puzzle pieces, find the good and work to make them fit together. You have a disability that creates a barrier in school. You have a desire for career training that is a good fit for you, either a degree, a certification, or short-term training. You have federal civil rights laws to request. Your college offers a program to coordinate services for you. You request to qualify. This is a United States civil rights process that could benefit you. And I have worked within it and see such great success for students. I want you to be that person. I want you to be that successful person. Keep listening to the podcasts I'm putting out. My hope is to coordinate workshops soon where you can ask questions and receive more support and strategies for your life and your community. Um, so this is a wrap-up for today. I want you to be well and seek the good in your days until we meet here again, um, the Passport to Education podcast. This is Krista Shaw, your transition to college, an employment navigator. Have a great rest of your day, and I will see you soon. Bye for a while.