Character Bios
Reading time: approximately 3 minutes.
The biography of the characters in the ACTon stories (instructor and student videos) are provided below. Our characters were deliberately chosen to reflect experiences that came out in the research. It may be worthwhile to look through these characters and see if you relate to their experience.
Instructor Videos
Character Bios | Performer | |
Cindi Bhata is a main character in the instructor video. Cindi has one year of experience as a contract placement instructor in Clinical Nursing. She is a dedicated instructor who cares about her students’ learning and well-being while in placement. However, she has limited experience accommodating disabled students in placement. | Puneet Bajwa | |
Tyra has five years experience as a contract placement instructor and has recently started as a tenure-track teaching-stream professor at a School of Nursing. She is a passionate instructor who seeks out professional development wherever possible. | Rosina Ferede | |
George has been a contract placement instructor in Clinical Nursing for the past four years. George enjoys working with students and caring for patients. He believes that more institutional support for contract instructors is needed. George has lived experience with disability but is not comfortable talking about his impairments. | Henry Shikongo | |
Gemma is a first-year nursing student who is about to start their first clinical placement. They are a strong student with excellent communication skills. They identify as a disabled student. | Faith Andrew | |
Claire is a first-year nursing student who is about to start her first clinical placement. Claire is warm and gregarious and easily connects with her patients. She has invisible impairments that impact her learning but does not identify as a disabled student. | Olivia Tilley | |
June is a clinical nurse in a hospital geriatric unit and has been a placement supervisor for 12 years. As a placement supervisor, students shadow June while she provides patient care. She supports students in learning and practicing their clinical skills, providing patient care, patient documentation and charting, and meeting their placement learning objectives. She has no experience accommodating disabled students in placement. | Vallerie Carrier | |
A Student Access Counsellor is assigned to every student who is registered with Student Accessibility Services. These counsellors work with the students to determine appropriate accommodation and learning needs in their courses. | Brenda Orazietti |
Student Videos
Character Bios | Performer | |
Aaleyah, the primary character in the student video, is about to start her first placement. Aleyah is excited to practice her skills and work with clients. She identifies with a disability but her accommodation letter does not identify any accommodation needs for a placement course. | Edwina Chu | |
Sam is Aaleyah’s friend and a disability activist. Their lived experience of disability has made them keenly aware of how institutional gatekeeping regarding accessibility policy can put the onus of access to accommodation on the student. | Wesley Magee-Saxton | |
Max, Aaleyah’s friend, is an able-bodied student who is passionate about social justice and activism. | Mesha Mykitiuk | |
Pat is Aaleyah’s placement instructor. Pat has 10 years of experience supervising students in placement. He most enjoys checking in on students while in placement and seeing how they have advanced through the program. | Daniel Coo | |
Joan is Aaleyah’s placement supervisor. Joan is responsible for overseeing Aaleyah’s day-to-day activities while in placement. She has supervised several placement students over the last five years, but none have requested accommodations. Joan has a hands-on management style and when faced with a difficult situation prefers to face it head on. | Sabrina Knappett | |
Cameo is Sam’s service dog. | Cameo |