Student with Cerebral Palsy Explains How Online School Allows Her to Succeed

“They just saw me as a student, and that’s really important to me because my other teachers at my other school would judge me for stuff I couldn’t control,” says Ember B., a senior at Arizona Virtual Academy. “They don’t know you have the disability unless you tell them.”

Ember has cerebral palsy, which has her in a wheelchair. She joined AZVA during the pandemic when the online learning platform her district had in place was not meeting her academic needs. She and her parents decided to enroll at AZVA and saw a significant difference in the quality of her education.

“From the very beginning, things were worlds different from what we had at the brick-and-mortar school,” said Ember’s dad, Dave. “It was the amount of help she had available to her, the access to instructors is far superior, and their willingness to assist is far superior.”

When it comes to online school, Dave says it was something another young man said about having a disability that made him believe it was the perfect fit for his daughter: “At online school, people see me and not my disability.”

Ember’s success in the virtual classroom earned her a scholarship to the University of Arizona, something she says she would have never been able to achieve if she had continued at a brick-and-mortar school. In preparation for college, she is already taking college-level courses through AZVA. She says the staff at Arizona Virtual Academy gave her the resources she needed for her career.

“In the brick-and-mortar school, they did not push Ember at all. It was kind of hands off, she’s going to do what she’s going to do, and we saw kids with other disabilities that were allowed not to do anything and accumulate grades.”

Learning online has also made it easier for Ember’s family to ensure she gets the care she needs. Her father, Dave, says she has appointments throughout the week, and the flexibility of online school allows her to catch up quickly on lessons she has missed. It was not as available to them when she attended school in a traditional classroom setting.

Can your family relate to Ember’s story? Enroll your child in a K12-powered online school, so they’ll get the most out of learning.