Challenging norms and celebrating differences with Neurodiversity Awareness Week
SAIT is celebrating the strengths, talents and perspectives of neurodivergent individuals as part of Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025. This worldwide initiative aims to transform how neurodivergent individuals are perceived while creating more inclusive and equitable cultures that celebrate differences and empower every individual.
As the number of students who identify as neurodivergent continues to increase, SAIT strives to provide the support and help they need to thrive. Building awareness and appreciation for our differences and the need to support them is really important, and that’s what Neurodiversity Celebration Week is all about
“At SAIT, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment where neurodiversity is valued,” shares Dani Taylor, SAIT’s Neurodiversity Specialist. “Throughout the week, we will host events to promote awareness, acceptance and meaningful conversations.”
Taylor’s position as Neurodiversity Specialist — the first in SAIT’s history — was created to focus on neurodiversity supports and guidance. Taylor comes to this unique role with a background in psychology and education, having worked with the Calgary Board of Education for seven years prior to joining SAIT as an accessibility advisor in 2023. Neurodiversity has been an area of importance to Taylor for a long time.
“It’s always been a point of personal interest … and then being in education, I honed that interest and became that teacher for those kids,” she reflects. “Neurodiverse kids are my favourite kind of people on the planet.”
Taylor recognized the increasing need to support neurodivergent students at SAIT, and this led to the creation of her new position in October 2024.
In addition to developing and implementing student supports and services, Taylor provides instructors with the tools and training to work with neurodivergent students and ensure SAIT spaces are welcoming to all minds. Several recent initiatives at SAIT have focused directly on providing students with these kinds of welcoming spaces. Dedicated to supporting students in writing accommodated exams, the newly created Johnson-Cobbe Testing Centre provides an optimal testing environment with 32 private rooms.
Support from SAIT donors has also helped create the first Sensory Calming Room on campus. This new room gives students a private and safe space to self-regulate when feeling overstimulated. The room opened in March 2025 and is already a popular location for students.
Sense of belonging
When she reflects on what she hopes to achieve in her new role, Taylor says, “I want neurodiverse students to feel like they belong here. I think it can be isolating when you feel different. And so, having those opportunities to connect with me or with other neurodiverse students and knowing they’re not alone here, I think that would be the biggest impact that I could have.”
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SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.
We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.