Q&A with DSU Disabled Students Community Representative candidate Kenzy Bezeau

Kenzy Bezeau is a fourth-year environmental science and French student running unopposed for the Dalhousie Student Union’s disabled community representative position. Bezeau is planning to take a fifth year at Dalhousie University.

Bezeau hopes to focus on updating the university’s accessibility services and listening to disabled students in the community to inform decisions.  

The by-election voting period is from Oct. 20 to 21.

This interview has been edited for grammar, clarity and length

SUB: Why are you running for this position?

I have always been very frustrated with accessibility at Dalhousie. 

This year I have enough time and expertise to really look at the systems in place. I’ve been comparing them with other universities’ accessibility systems, and ours are horrible.

SUB: What is the DSU doing well and what should it do better?

I’m very excited about the renovations in the SUB. I have chronic pain and fatigue, and I’m really excited to see what kind of seats they have and how comfy they are. 

It’s hard to find quiet or private places because I have autism; I can get overwhelmed, and I don’t want to go back home just to chill out. There aren’t enough spaces like that, because online it’s advertised that there are sensory-friendly places. [There’s] one on the second floor in the SUB, but they also rent out that space, so it’s not always available for neurodivergent students. 

I appreciate the bursaries that the DSU provides for disabled students. I think that’s really helpful. 

SUB: What are the three most important things your campaign is based on?

I want to look into getting another accommodation advisor, or as many as possible, because based on our population and Acadia University’s, they have more advisors than we do. We’re very behind in terms of that. 

I feel like it’s just been an afterthought, like Disabled students don’t really matter; it’s just all talk and no action. 

I really want to bring the community together. It’s hard to go through a system that doesn’t care about disabled students. You feel like [you’re] alone, and the only person you can really talk to is your accommodation advisor, but you can’t even talk to them. 

I’m looking into physical accessibility on campus. I still want to wait for input from the community about what can be better.

I am interested in, for blind people, when you go into a bathroom, you have no idea what’s in the bathroom. You just have to feel around on the wall or ask someone. I have seen plaques that you can put outside of bathrooms in Braille, with a legend. I think that’s an example of something I’ll be looking into. 

SUB: What previous experience do you have that makes you the best candidate for this position?

In high school, I was one of the founders of the racial equity alliance. I’m also currently the external coordinator for the Dalhousie Urban Garden Society.

Being in a team like that has really taught me a lot about getting along with people when we have disagreements, and it’s taught me a lot about DSU rules, which are very complicated. 

SUB: What are the biggest issues regarding accessibility for disabled students?

Wait times are really bad for an appointment or just to talk to someone. You have to wait a while to get an email back just because they’re so busy. 

If you have accommodations for testing, you’re given a “distraction-free environment,” and you’re put in a room full of people most of the time. 

The way you book an exam can be quite irritating, and recently they’ve increased the time from seven days to request a time to take a test to nine days. I know people who are forgetful or people with ADHD can find that very difficult.

SUB: How do you plan to combat these issues?

Just kind of a systematic issue where I feel like it’s a very old system and not a lot of thought is put into it because it’s “good enough”.

I really want to hear from the community why wait times are an issue for them, both personally, mentally and then academically – are they having a harder time because of it?

I’d like to reach out to other student leaders in other universities with more academic advisors and see what they do. I’d like to have a full report and go through the DSU up to the Dal president. 

SUB: Do you have any focus on the Note-taker program that was removed last year?

That’s a hot topic because they quietly got rid of it.

That’s an example of how it feels like they don’t really care about us. They just quietly get rid of it and say, “Well, it wasn’t working, so we’re not doing anything else for it.”

So I was thinking about different replacements, but I really want to hear from the community.

I want all material that professors show in lecture to be available on Brightspace, and then I would like to really push for professors to upload their own notes.