This week we had the pleasure of meeting Tracy Humphreys. Tracy is both the founder and chair of an organization called BCEd Access Society. This society is run completely by volunteers, most of which are parents. They work to support children and youth with disabilities and diverse learning needs to reach their fullest potential in both school and life.
Tracy Humphreys, Founder and Chair
Tracy is a mom to three children with disabilities and she herself has ADHD and other invisible disabilities. She has been an active volunteer in BC schools for over 20 years, as a board member on her local PACs, the District PAC in Victoria (VCPAC), and as a BCCPAC representative for VCPAC. She also served as Board Vice President of Elizabeth Buckley School for 3 years. She is currently a consultant CEO for beauty companies, a partner in CareQuadrant, and winner of the 2019 Victoria Community Leadership Award in Lifelong Learning for her work with BCEdAccess as a full time volunteer advocate for families of children with disabilities in British Columbia schools since 2014.
I really appreciated Tracy’s presentation style. Although she was a tad nervous, I think she was still extremely engaging! She shared information with us from the point of view of both a parent and a professional. She was really open with both her own educational journey and her children’s. She explained that when your child is first diagnosed with a disability, you are convinced to trust the public school system to make the best decisions for your child’s success. But, the system was not nearly supportive enough of her child. She had to pull him from a public school and instead enrolled him in the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, where he is now flourishing. With that being said, she urges that you must push back and fight for what you think is right for your child.
Before class, we watched an inspiring video of a boy named Damon Kirsebom. Damon is a non-reliable speaker who with the help of text to voice electronics, is able to communicate with other. It was so cool to see how technology has helped Damon in such a drastic way. I think it helps us realize that although technology has in many ways hurt society, there is still so much good in it.