Special Education Resources & Blog | So Very Spesh

A bracelet activity became so much more than a craft. At Faces of Spesh, a simple adaptation--a pipe cleaner--opened the door for toddlers, preschoolers, and friends with fine motor needs to participate together. The #BEspesh Bracelet Bar is built on one belief: everyone deserves a way to create, connect, and belong.

This Disability Pride Month, I'm celebrating my cousin, Bailey. 💛 As she prepares to celebrate her 25th birthday, she's proudly wearing a new #BEspesh design that says, "Proud to Be Uniquely Me." Bailey reminds me that disability pride is about embracing who you are, celebrating your strengths, and recognizing the value and dignity of every person.

I'm not turning a blind eye to the policy changes affecting the disability community. As a fomer special education teacher, parent, advocate, and teacher educator, I believe it's important to understand how these decisions may impact students, families, and educators--and what we can do moving forward.

As a new preservice teacher, I once unintentionally left a student using eye-gaze AAC out of a lesson simply because I didn't know how to include him. That moment changed the way I understand communication, participation, and inclusion forever. This post is an honest reflection on learning to slow down, presume competence, and make space for every voice -- because communication is not limited to speech, and inclusion is always a choice.

I didn’t leave education—I left the classroom. I once planned to be a history teacher, but one unexpected opportunity working with a young man with autism changed my path. I loved teaching deeply, but I also care loudly, and eventually I couldn’t carry every gap alone. Leaving the classroom was hard and necessary. Now through Spesh, advocacy, and teaching at WKU, I’m still in education—just in a different form, on my own terms, building the dream I didn’t know I was already s