UNB News
News and stories from one of Canada’s top universities

Cassandra “Cassie” Pitchford (BScEng’24) struggled with her engineering classes at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) when her hearing rapidly and unexpectedly started to deteriorate.

She sometimes questioned if she would ever walk across the graduation stage to get her diploma. In the end, she not only accomplished that but became a skilled advocate for inclusion and accessibility.

“I had a job opportunity taken away from me by an engineering firm when they found out about my hearing disability, which I know is illegal and wrong, but it discouraged me. I was always unsure if I belonged in engineering,” she said.

This year, Engineers Canada recognized her as “a passionate accessibility advocate” with the prestigious Gold Medal Student Award.

“It was only toward the end of my degree that I started feeling like I did belong, and then having one of the top undergraduate student awards for engineering was just like a cherry on top. Yes, I belong as an engineer, as a disabled woman, as Cassie.”

Born in Nottingham, U.K., Pitchford’s family moved to the Pittsburgh area when she was four and then to Riverview, N.B., in 2012.

In high school, she foresaw a future as a music teacher but shifted to engineering when she discovered an interest in physics. That brought her to UNB in 2015.

Things took an unexpected turn in February 2016. That is when her hearing loss started.

“I was unsuccessful academically and had successful academic appeals to prevent being required to withdraw. I was continuously searching for services and equipment to support my learning,” she said.

She almost dropped out after completing her third year in 2018. Fortunately, she found New Brunswick Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Inc., which helped her apply for funding for Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services. The professor would wear a wireless microphone and a remote stenographer transcribed the lectures in real time for Pitchford to read.

It was still a struggle. She had to reduce her course load because the CART system was visually overstimulating.

Pitchford faced other challenges, including two significant concussions and becoming a stepmother in 2017. She worked throughout her degree, at one time balancing three jobs alongside her studies.

Then came the pandemic. While that time was challenging for many, UNB’s online classes were a boon for Pitchford and other disabled students.

“The online year (2020-2021) was the most accessible school year for me,” Pitchford recalls. “I was so successful I bumped up my GPA by 0.2. It helped me regain confidence and see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Scholarships reduced her need to work. Triumphing over adversity, she started to advocate for accessibility and inclusion.

“Having lived life both ways, I wanted to see what I could do to make things better for students with disabilities who went to school with me and who came after me,” Pitchford said.

The memory of one incident helped motivate her.

“I was walking from Head Hall to Marshall d’Avray Hall in 2020 before the pandemic started to take a test when I slipped on ice and broke my nose,” she said, referring to the 15-minute uphill trek from the engineering building to the Student Accessibility Centre.

“After that, I tried writing the next test without my accommodations, failed it, and withdrew from the course shortly thereafter.”

In January 2021, motivated by her own experience and feedback from other students, she proposed an accessible testing space in Head Hall itself. That led to a pilot program which became permanent.

“Accessible testing spaces are now part of the renovations to Head Hall,” Pitchford said.

“Through my experience and advocacy within UNB Engineering and UNB as a whole, I became confident, especially in my positions within the Diversity Within Engineering Society. I was vice-president of inclusion for two-and-a-half years, president for two, and in my final year, I was the senior advisor. People felt comfortable coming to me.”

Pitchford’s advocacy extended off-campus. During the pandemic, she pushed Horizon Health Network to provide health-care providers with clear-windowed masks to help lip-readers like herself.

In addition, she wrote a brief for the Select Committee on Accessibility in New Brunswick about making hearing aids affordable and creating a centralized disability services hub.

At the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students, she found a community of like-minded people who wanted accessibility to be a priority.

“I got a lot of networking opportunities. I have given keynotes of my own story and provided tools and support for engineering societies to be more inclusive in their event planning, advertise their events, and how better to respond to students with accessibility needs,” she said.

“I am a seasoned public speaker. I have given workshops and presentations about my personal story, like a session called ‘Becoming an Engin-ear.’”

Pitchford’s efforts were noticed. In 2021, she was nominated for a UNB Inclusion Award. In 2022, she was awarded the provincial Youth Human Rights Award. The following year, she earned the Randy Dickinson Scholarship during Disability Awareness Week and this year, the Engineers Canada Gold Medal Student Award.

Her hearing has been stable for three years. Pitchford works in Fredericton as a project engineer-in-training in the buildings division of the provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) on its major projects team, managing the planning and design of major capital projects.

She has presented on accessibility and inclusion within DTI.

“Last summer, I took the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification program. I received my professional designation in January, and I am one of a few in New Brunswick with that designation,” she said.

“It is about improving accessibility of the built environment for people with visual disabilities, hearing disabilities, and others. It is not just signage but also improving the neuro-inclusivity of spaces.”

Pitchford is the senior advisor for the 2025 Canadian Engineering Leadership Conference, the largest undergraduate engineering conference in Canada, to be held at UNB in January.

“I’m helping them ensure their programs and services are accessible,” she said.

Pitchford says recognition is appreciated, but it was not what motivated her.

“My main goal is not about awards or recognition. It is about making sure that after I leave a space, there will be services, policies, or accessible space available to serve the people who come after me,” she said.

“UNB shaped me, and I’d like to think that I shaped UNB a little bit during my time there,” she said.