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Awesome: Daughter teams up with family on advocacy venture

by Olivia Integlia

Alessia Iglio has achieved far more than most her age. At just 21 years old, she is the executive director and co-founder of Dis the Dis, a movement focused on changing the discourse around disability.  

Iglio’s track to success did not come without its challenges. At just 20 months, she was diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia, a neurodevelop- mental condition causing a global delay and impaired coordination in motor skills, such as tying laces or writing.  

“Alessia goes from A to C to get to B, whereas other people just go from A to B,” explained Angie Spatari, Alessia’s mother. “But in the end, she gets there. Everything she tries [...] she manages to conquer.”  

Iglio first got the idea for the Dis the Dis movement while she was a student at Summit School. In 2022, she was selected among her peers to make a speech during the annual Awaken the Potential golf tournament.  

Iglio thought of ways she could inspire the crowd. Having been bullied for her disability at a previous school, she wanted to talk to her audience about the negative language often used towards the special needs community.

It was then that her mother gave her the idea to create a poster with the “Dis” in disability crossed out, alongside other negative words used to classify people with disabilities.  

“This three-letter word is so negative,” said Iglio, “Even though [someone] has a dis- ability, it doesn’t mean they can’t do it. It’s just going to take them longer to do it.”  

She could not have predicted what happened next. “I made the poster, I told [the crowd] what it was about, and they were going crazy about it [...] I was very sur- prised because I made a room of full-grown men cry.”  

Just like that, the Dis the Dis movement was born. Iglio, with the help of her parents, then decided to create a website where she sells merchandise and spreads her message around the world.  

Spatari said her daughter has always been strong-willed and has always had grandiose ambitions. She thinks back to when Iglio first began taking swimming lessons. Despite doctors discouraging her from the sport due to sensory issues, she pursued it anyway.  

“The neurologist always said, ‘I’m glad you didn’t listen to me,’” said Spatari. “She cried, and she cried, but we didn’t give up [...] and now she’s a fish. It’s the same thing with skating.”  

Iglio’s ambitions are ever-growing. Currently, she is a student at the English Montreal School Board’s Wagar Adult Education Centre, where she is pursuing culinary education. She hopes to inspire others to equally pursue their passions despite any hurdles they may face.  

“If you wake up and you say, ‘Today, I’m going to give it all I got, even if I’m really low,’ then you’re still doing your best, and I’m very proud of you just even getting out of bed because it’s a tough position for people with and without disabilities.”  

She also aspires to expand the Dis the Dis movement. “I’m hoping to write a book about it and do a speaking tour at the Bell Centre,” said Iglio, “I want to show [every- one] that you could also take the Dis out a disability.”  

For more information: www.disthedis.org.