When UF psychology sophomore Sarai Almanza started college, she didn’t know she had a learning disorder.
The 19-year-old said she never struggled with test taking until her first pre-calculus exam. She was frozen, surrounded by hundreds of people shuffling around and tapping their pencils.
Almanza said she learned she had math anxiety disorder. Now, she’s part of the Student Government and Disability Resource Center committee that planned today’s Accessibility Fair. This year’s fair is the biggest disability advocacy event SG has ever done, the event’s director Preeya Mody said.
The event will be held on the Plaza of the Americas from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and coincides with Disability Employment Awareness Month, the 20-year-old statistics junior said. The fair dropped the word "disability" from its title in favor of the more inclusive "accessibility," she said.
Mody said the event will also be more interactive than in years past. Students can visit guide dogs while they listen to an a cappella performance by No Southern Accent.
Almanza registered her learning disability with the DRC and can take extra time on her exams. Today, she said she hopes to show students how the DRC can help them, too.
"I have a motto that I keep in mind: Everybody in this world has some sort of disability, something they struggle with," she said. "Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean that you’re imperfect."
