The CACTI Blog: What Borderland Stories Taught Me About Disability Experiences
By Sara Valderrama, 2024 – 2026 DISCAPAZ VIP Research Program
School psychologists play an important role in supporting students with disabilities. They use many different tools to identify students' unique strengths and needs. These tools include assessment, academic and social-emotional interventions, and working with families and educators. As a School Psychology, Ed.S. student, I was placed in two different districts in Tucson and in Southern Arizona. My first year (2024) placement was in Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), and then my second year (2025) placement was in Sahuarita Unified School District (SUSD). Both districts have unique student populations, resources, and student experiences. School psychologists need to be informed about the people they are working with, what community supports are available, and how to bridge the gap between schools and families.
I started working with DISCAPAZ: Disability Experiences in the Borderlands, which is a research project that shares the stories of people with disabilities in the Arizona-Sonora border communities. Participants shared their stories of overcoming obstacles and hardships, as well as their unique strengths and hopes. Those hopes include policy change, raising awareness, and ending the stigma surrounding how disabilities are perceived by others. This specific group of people is often overlooked and underrepresented in research and the media. DISCAPAZ uses digital storytelling with different types of media to center the stories and voices of people with disabilities and their families. Sharing their stories helped participants become more confident in advocating for themselves, and we as researchers gained a better understanding of the unique strengths and challenges of this community.
Each participant, including participants with similar disabilities, shared unique experiences. This challenges the stereotype that all people with disabilities have the same lived experience. Through the DISCAPAZ project, I deepened my understanding of diverse populations and communities, strengthened my ability to support children and teens with disabilities from border regions, and further developed my skills as a culturally-responsive school psychologist.
The CACTI Blog features the voices of our interdisciplinary trainees and Community Advisory Council members as they highlight diverse images of people with disabilities and provide community information and advocacy on disability issues. Check Out The CACTI Blog