Carly discusses her upcoming involvement with the 15th Conference of State Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a Youth Delegate for Canada with Dave Brown. You can listen in here.

Carly was invited by Take A Pain Check and Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance to speak on the importance of self-advocacy as a young adult with a history of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and Psoriatic Arthritis. To read Carly’s accompanying blog post, click here.

As NEADS’ Researcher and Communications Officer, Carly hosted a panel of disabled student leaders across Canada as they discussed mental health, student advocacy, hybrid learning, and safe return to campus plans. Carly was joined by Cassie Pitchford (Diversity Within Engineering, University of New Brunswick), Julia Denley (Society for Students with a Disability, University of Victoria), Emilee Schevers (Mohawk Students’ Association, Mohawk College,) and Cayley Hodgson (Invisible Disability Education Awareness and Advocacy, University of Calgary).

Carly was once again hosted by uOttawa’s International Development Week, where she spoke on the systemic nature of ableism and how it intersects with other oppressive forces. Fox was joined by Alyy Patel of QSAW Network, Anjum Sultana from Plan International Canada, and Jasleen Kaur!

Along with NEADS’ colleagues Elizabeth Mohler and Katja Newman, Carly spoke about the importance of creating on-campus, online, and hybrid events that accommodate the needs of students. Highlighting the expanding definition of accessibility, Fox discussed the underlying issues of student life activities often revolving around nightlife culture – alienating many intersecting groups, including women, those with neurodivergencies and physical disabilities, and members of certain religious groups.

Hosted by Natasha Trehan and joined by her twin Makayla Fox, Carly discusses her experiences being diagnosed with JIA, the unique experience of having a twin with the same chronic illness, and additional considerations taken when moving out with an invisible disability.

As a first year international development student at the University of Ottawa, Carly was fortunate to be given a platform to share how her disabilities impacted her experiences in the performing arts, and how they now shape her experiences in development academia and practice.