Trisha Brockway
Disability Support Specialist and Advocate
“Mentoring is revolutionary. Do not control, be gracious, guide. Concern yourself with the depths and not the superficial but never lose sight of simplicity. Articulate thought, follow up with action, as they go hand in hand, without demanding from others. Gather knowledge but remember, with wisdom comes responsibility. Love unconditionally. To be a mentor is to effect lasting positive personal and social change, one mentee at a time.”
We are proud to induct Trisha Brockway into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.
Trisha has been championing the equal and fair treatment of her fellow human beings for most of her life. Whether it be defending classmates from schoolyard bullies as a child, mentoring youth for over two decades, or working as a Disability Support Specialist and Advocate (DSSA) for more than a decade advocating for college professionals and students with disabilities against ableist ideologies and disabling structures in her adulthood, Trisha has always been guided by the basic principle that every person deserves to be seen and treated equally and fairly regardless of who they are, where they come from, or what they can or cannot do. This guiding principle drives her to serve as the voice of the unheard through advocacy and help the unheard find their voices through mentorship.
As a DSSA, she manages real-time access and inclusion needs through advocacy and accessibility solutions for higher education professionals and students with disabilities. The professional services and accessibility solutions she provides have been designed in collaboration with her clients and colleagues to enable her clients to meet their academic and professional responsibilities without the time delays and the physical and emotional hardships of encountering disabling barriers within ableist academic structures.
Some of the accommodation services and accessibility solutions Trisha provides are making digital and print materials accessible to screen reading and magnifying software in a timely and efficient manner, including visual information support, conveying nonverbal body language, social cues, and visual data in inaccessible illustrations, charts, and graphs. She provides communication support using specialized hearing equipment, sign language and voice-over techniques, classroom support for lectures and presentations, discussion facilitation, and classroom management. Other accessibility solutions Trisha provides are access technology and analysis software support and editing and design support for presentations, lectures, research papers, manuscripts, and data tables. Additionally, she co-facilitates diversity and inclusion professional development workshops with her colleagues to educate persons about the historical and contemporary implicit biases about persons with disabilities, the impacts on persons with disabilities, and strategies for creating inclusive, accessible environments.
Trisha is truly a renaissance woman. The diversity of her skills, talents, and interests enhances her professional career and personal life. Although she puts family first and commits most of her time to support professionals and students with disabilities, advocating for disability justice or empowering youth with disabilities through mentoring, she finds balance as a musician, artist, mechanic, engineer, avid gardener, and outdoor adventurer.