Monthly Newsletter from Disability Services (DS)

Sept 2025

Welcome back everyone and welcome to all of our new students! We hope you enjoyed this beautiful summer and are ready for all the excitement of the new year.  Please reach out to disability@uml.edu with any concerns or feedback!

The DS Team (Jodi, Brandon, Lauren, Evelyn and Aida)

Disability Services is offering Semester Refresher virtual drop-in sessions to get most DS FAQs answered!  You will get a chance to meet our Peer Coaches and ask questions on their DS experience.  Join us by logging into one of the sessions listed below.  

The following topics will be covered:

Jodi Rachins

Director

Brandon Drake

Associate Director & Manager of Assistive Technology

Lauren Tornatore

Senior Assistant Director of Disability Education & Enhancement

Evelyn O'Connor

Specialist

Aida Phillips

Administrative Assistant

Fahad Alden

DS Graduate Assistant & Peer Coach, Higher Ed Administration '27, Digital Media '25

Kalib Laughran

DS Peer Coach, Business Administration '25

Thomas Mont

DS Peer Coach, Mechanical Engineering '28

I’m a sophomore in mechanical engineering planning on either the Uteach minor or the aerospace minor.

What do you bring to your coaching style?

I am a very good listener and hope to keep the friendly spirit of the DS office. I hope students can see that I want to help them know there is a lot of support at UML for them to take advantage of!

What are you up to when not studying or working?

I play violin and guitar to calm myself down, but when it’s not the vibe I’ll play video games or board games too. I especially enjoy when friends join me when gaming.

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

I’m really good at telling people that they are close to their goal and that their goals are worth it, but I find that I often don’t tell it to myself and I should more often.

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

This summer I was an Orientation leader and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to connect with the students I was working with, but I found that as the summer went on I grew more and more confident in my ability to do well at the job and look forward to holding onto that confidence.

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 via email. 

A Peer Coach has been through it, including bumpy semesters, and can offer guidance and tips. You can work together to determine a plan for the fall semester that encourages success by talking about what has and hasn't been working; building academics; organizational and time management support; and offering recommendations for other connections at UML. 

PeaNOT Day – Nuts About Safety, Not Peanuts!

Date: Monday, September 15

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Fox Hall entrance

Got a peanut allergy? You're not alone! Come celebrate PeaNOT Day, a peanut-free zone with free allergy-friendly treats made from delicious alternatives (like sunflower and pumpkin seed). Plus, you’ll get a chance to meet the campus dietitian. This event is a partnership with Disability Services and University Dining.

Live Podcast Q&A: Living a BOLD Disabled Life

Time: 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Location: Coburn 255

Join us for a makeup of the Disability Dish Podcast live recording with special guests: paralympic multimedalist Mackenzie Coan, Blind scientist/professor/world traveler Mona Minkara, and Autistic professor/comedian/musician Noah Britton to hear their inspiring stories and participate in an engaging Q&A with our hosts and audience!

Come join the Centers for Learning to kick off the new semester with tie-dye and a free shirt. 

Sept 17, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m, South Campus, McGauvran Lawn

Sept 18, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., North Campus, Cumnock Lawn 

Tutoring and The Writing Center

Fall 2025 Tutoring and 30-minute virtual Writing Center appointments are both live and robust as of Monday Sept. 8!    

Introducing the newest (and possibly cutest?) River Hawk on the block... our Registrar intern REGI!  Please follow us in Instagram at umlregistrar.

Forbes’ first-ever Accessibility 100 highlights the biggest innovators and impact-makers in the field of accessibility for people with disabilities. Some, like Apple and Google, make ubiquitous devices that introduce new and vital accessibility features year after year. Others are less visible companies and individuals whose work and innovations are revolutionizing how people with wide ranges of disabilities can communicate, learn, travel and enjoy lives as full as anyone else’s.

forbes.com

Fill in your blank. Being disabled may be a part of our identity. But it’s certainly not all of it. We can be disabled and an author, speaker, CEO, dancer, painter, tech wizard, model, baker… (we could go on forever, literally). At Disabled& our mission is to provide room—in every room—for disabled creatives to show up, connect and create as our full selves.

disabledand.com

The author of the original Consequence essay, Sam Rosenberg, focuses his analysis on how The Rehearsal’s setup evokes the experience of masking, which he defines as “a survival mechanism in which autistic individuals suppress their neurodivergent traits in order to adapt to their surroundings.” This, he points out, “is essentially what each person in The Rehearsal is asked to do: act out social scripts and embody certain roles over and over again, to create a better sense of predictability and eliminate as much collateral damage as possible.” 

slate.com

Kelvin Okafor's “Drawing Awareness,” at London’s Hope93 Gallery, features portraits of both ordinary people and celebrities, including Canadian fashion model Winnie Harlow, who has the skin condition vitiligo, Grammy-winning pop star Seal, who has facial scarring from a form of the autoimmune disease lupus, and acid attack survivor Katie Piper.

cnn.com

Turning 21, New Hampshire's Samuel wants his independence. Yet every rite of passage is fraught with challenges and social barriers. Seizures and uncontrollable movements. Inaccessible housing. Degrading ableist encounters. “No one tells you how to be an adult,” he says, “let alone an adult with a disability.” Can a community of disability activists help him follow his dreams?

pbs.org

We love staying connected with you!

Submissions/ideas/feedback are always welcome:

disability@uml.edu