CFAC Students and Faculty Were Honored at the 25th Annual University Accessibility Center Awards Banquet
CFAC students and faculty were honored for their contributions and experiences at the 2025 Accessibility Awards banquet. Liz Dibble, Department of Dance faculty member, was recognized; dance education major Caitlin Garcia, art major Madison Tilton and music education major Audrey Webb were among 26 students awarded.
The University Accessibility Center (UAC) “seeks to foster a culture recognizing disability as a valued aspect of human diversity where administrators, faculty, staff and students create accessible and inclusive environments across campus.” The UAC helps students get the accommodations they need to have a successful and positive educational experience.
“One of the best things about the UAC is that they ask what we need so that we can do our best in school and receive the education we want,” said Audrey Webb. “BYU wants us to have the same opportunities as everyone else.”
Webb has dyslexia and although she was diagnosed and received assistance during high school, she felt that because she was a BYU student, she shouldn’t need help. After asking for accommodations — including having reading assignments and test questions read out loud — her classroom experience improved. “The UAC helped me become a better advocate for myself,” she said.
Faculty member Liz Dibble personally defines accessibility as making sure equal opportunities for growth, learning and success are granted to every person regardless of external challenges. “Accessibility is about removing obstacles that might impede equity,” she said. “We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father and He expects us to care for and champion each other.”
Dibble’s choreography-based research revolves around themes of unity, belonging, the worth of souls, deep communication and weakness becoming strengths. She recently created a work entitled “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one) that “explored the idea that those things that make us feel different and sometimes ashamed are often gifts that God can use to bless others.”
Dibble said she tried to create an atmosphere where dancers and students feel valued for their unique skills. “I work to give personal feedback and attention to every student, without regard to ability level or personal circumstances,” she said. “Every student deserves a chance to be seen and to grow, whatever that next step of progression is. I hope my students know I care about them as a person first, then a dancer; their ability level does not determine their worth.”
For Caitlin Garcia, seeing professionals in her field who have similar abilities as she does is inspiring. While attending a workshop at the Joffrey Ballet, Garcia met an instructor with the same disability she has and who she now considers one of the best instructors she has ever had. “I did not expect to see someone so successful who has gone through what I have,” Garcia said. “To see them lead a whole room of people phenomenally was so inspiring. They brought out the best in their students and showed me how to use my unique talents and gifts to bring out the best in others.”
Garcia considers that experience a form of divine intervention during a time when she was very discouraged. She brought back to BYU a new perspective: “If they can do it, I can!”
For art major Madison Tilton, being diagnosed with P.O.T.S changed the way she experiences her BYU education. With specific accommodations made by the UAC, she said that she doesn’t “have to worry about [her] health nearly as much in a school context, and can focus more on receiving [her] education, completing daily tasks, etc.”
“Ever since getting diagnosed, I've felt very uncertain about my future,” Tilton said. “When I'm able to accomplish anything, I realize that it is okay to struggle with uncertainty. God will provide a way for me to accomplish whatever it is He has planned for me.”
Dibble has seen how sometimes God helps His children through other people. She attributes aspects of her life — including marriage, family and career — to Jesus Christ and to people who saw her potential when she could not and acted as Christ’s hand in her life. “I am striving every day to be that kind of advocate for my students,” she said. “I'm always working to connect better with my students, to understand them at a deeper level, to see the good, to help them become all that God knows they can become.”
Speaking from a dance perspective, she added, “The more accessible dance is to more people, the more fabulous creative voices we add to the world. I believe there is a place in the art form for those artists as well; they have important stories of the human experience to share and can do marvelous work.”
All three CFAC students said that students and professors have been kind, patient and understanding of their accommodations. They seem to share the outlook that a disability affects every aspect of a person’s life but that it does not define them.
“Don’t let the hard things define you,” said Garcia. “You have talents that others might not have.”