MAR 2026

Hello! I’m Ella, a senior at UMass Lowell majoring in Exercise Science with a Clinical Concentration and a minor in Psychology. As an international student-athlete and someone registered with Disability Services, I’m passionate about supporting students as they build confidence, organization and balance throughout their college experience.

What do you bring to your coaching style?

I know how hard and challenging college can be as someone who has experienced it and dealt with it, but being able to turn difficulties into opportunities to learn and grow is something that’s important to me. Creating a safe space for communication, honest conversation along with creativity and a bit of humor is what I hope to bring.

What are you up to when not studying or working?

I’m usually training or playing basketball, spending time with friends, or doing something creative like photography, playing guitar or baking for my teammates. 

What is a piece of advice that you're really good at giving to others but not taking for yourself?

I’m great at reminding others to slow down and not be too hard on themselves - but I’m still learning how to give myself that same grace.

What is one risk you've taken recently (or plan to take soon) that you're proud of?

Choosing to move abroad alone to study and compete as a student-athlete, even though it meant starting fresh and being far from my family, and learning how to adapt, grow and support myself along the way.

If you would like a Peer Coach to reach out to you or you have any questions - please fill out the Peer coach form and one will get in touch with you within a couple of days. 

We've heard this is sometimes tricky for students. There are sections you can SKIP.

Then you will see all available appointments and can book either virtual or in person as best suits your needs.

Behind the Scenes Support: How Families Can Help Students Registered with Disability Services

*Specifically for families with students already registered with Disability Services*

Over the break, many families take time to reflect on the highs and lows of the semester. It’s common to feel unsure about how to balance supporting an adult student while still encouraging their independence. Join staff from Disability Services for a conversation about how to help when a student shares too little/much, ways to maximize campus resources, common challenges that arise throughout the semester, and how to serve as their guardrails rather than the driver. Hosted on Zoom - Choose one below:

March 9, 2026 7 p.m. - Register for March

Spring 2026 Tutoring and 30-minute virtual Writing Center appointments are both live and robust!

Did you know...

Building Resilience, Finding Balance

Are you preparing for a co-op, internship or off campus job?  This presentation will help you prepare for the transition from UML to full-time careers by exploring how to navigate disability-related accommodations in the workplace. This event is a collaboration between Disability Services, Career Services and Equal Opportunity and Outreach. We hope to see you there!

Presentation: South Campus

Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Time: 2-3 p.m.

Location: Coburn 245

Wednesday, March 18 - University Crossing Room 490 - 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

OAR offers free, research-informed resources for having healthy, nurturing relationships. These resources offer practical tools, strategies, and guidance for autistic teens and adult readers. 

Search & Snicker™: Conversations About Relationships & Sexuality

Sex in DCity: Lessons in Healthy Relationships & Human Sexuality 

Sex Ed for Self-Advocates

Looking for help with relationships? Navigate to the resources above to learn more!

Born with a degenerative eye condition called cone-rod dystrophy, Jesse Dufton is blind, able to see no more than a “bunch of flashing lights” if he were to hold his own hand in front of his face.

But that’s not to say he wasn’t aware of how high he was free climbing on the imposing El Matador on the aptly named Devil’s Tower in Wyoming – the “whizzing” of birds flying underneath his feet and the gusts of wind underneath him provided telling clues, he tells CNN Sport.

cnn.com

Thousands of visually impaired college students rely on screen readers to complete their coursework and participate in other campus activities. But they regularly encounter content on apps and web pages that screen readers don’t translate well.

Mitigating those and other digital accessibility disparities is also the spirit behind looming new federal regulations, which aim to reduce the hurdles students with disabilities face in accessing increasingly complex information on web pages and mobile apps. But many colleges and universities are scrambling to meet the April deadline, creating a situation one higher ed analyst described as a “regulatory time bomb.”

insidehighered.com

As I approached the first day of teaching my writing course, there was a healthy balance of excitement and anxiety coursing through my veins. But the first-day jitters weren’t for the reason that you would expect. Yes, I worried about how my inaugural class would go. But, above all, I was concerned about how the energetic group of 25 students would react to my speech disability. What if they doubt my capabilities as their teacher? What if they think I don’t know what I’m talking about?

The fact remains that we don’t talk about disability enough in the classroom. It isn’t normalized and it should be. This is precisely why I started disclosing my stuttering to my students. It served as both a way for me to challenge those what-if thoughts and put myself at ease, as well as a foundation for establishing a conversation about disability in the classroom.

edsurge.com

Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of The Pitt’s commitment to inclusion happens off-screen and is thanks to HBO’s interest in accessibility and inclusion. HBO offers viewers the option to watch The Pitt, among some of its other programming, with an American Sign Language interpreter superimposed on the screen. This may seem like a small detail, but it’s transformative for the approximately 500,000 Americans who use ASL as their primary language. For decades, Deaf viewers have been relegated to closed captioning, a text-based accommodation that fails to capture the richness, nuance and cultural identity of ASL.   

By providing ASL interpretation, HBO acknowledges that Deaf viewers deserve access to entertainment in their own language, with all its expressiveness and movement intact. 

fortune.com

Season 3 of Shrinking brought on a major new cast member this year, as Michael J. Fox joined the ensemble to play Gerry, a man who has Parkinson’s and interacts with Harrison Ford’s character Paul. Since day one, Paul has been dealing with the disease Fox has in real life, and now, the Back to the Future star has opened up.

"That’s one thing that’s amazing about Harrison. He doesn’t have Parkinson’s, but he’s a brilliant actor. I don’t have to convince him I have Parkinson’s, but he had to convince me he had Parkinson’s. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much of his own understanding of the disease he brought to it. I mean, I recognized Parkinson’s in his eyes. The things I was feeling, I recognized in the way he was expressing himself. … I was just brought to tears by it."

cinemablend.com

Nnena Kalu has won the 2025 Turner prize for her colourful drawings and sculptures made from found fabric and VHS tape, becoming the first artist with a learning disability to take home the £25,000 prize.

“Nnena’s work was very much selected for its quality but given she’s a neurodiverse artist, given her verbal communication is limited, she’s someone who previously would have been on the outside,” he said.

“[Her win] begins to erase that border between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist. You suddenly become aware that actually it’s been a boundary around our history, and around contemporary art. But that boundary is dissolving.”

theguardian.com

We love staying connected with you!

Submissions/ideas/feedback are always welcome:

disability@uml.edu