Student Spotlight | Kyra Mazer

From the Other Side of Care

What Kyra Mazer brings to OT that can’t be taught in a classroom

By Erika Nakatsui · October 2026

Kyra Mazer, first-year MScOT student

Equity in education affects equity in healthcare. When the people training to become rehabilitation practitioners reflect the full range of human experience, including disability, the profession becomes more responsive and more just. Kyra Mazer has lived this from both sides of the clinical relationship.

And then OT came along

Four years ago, Kyra didn’t know what an occupational therapist did. Like a lot of people, she didn’t think she needed to.

Then, after a significant change in her health, Kyra went from being able-bodied to disabled. She found herself navigating a world that suddenly looked very different. That was when she met the occupational therapists who, as she puts it, restored her confidence and independence.

“When I became disabled, I was at a point where I didn’t know how to picture the rest of my life, how I would do the things I normally did,” she says. “And then OT came along.”

What followed was a collaborative process she hadn’t expected. Her therapists asked what mattered to her, worked around her priorities, and helped her picture a life that felt like her own again, and then build it.

“It was incredibly exciting to see their creativity in action, and how their patient-centred care helps people thrive and return to the activities they love,” Kyra says. “I knew I wanted to do the same for others.”

Now in her first year of the MScOT program, Kyra has faced some hurdles along the way. As a wheelchair user who experienced discrimination at two previous institutions, she came into the program with some understandable worries.

“When you come into a new institution, your guard is up,” she says. “Sharing parts of yourself means you can access accommodations, but you’re always wondering, what does that mean for how this information is used?”

To just feel heard makes me feel seen

What she found at FRM surprised her. From the start, faculty worked with her to build an accommodation plan, and she had a real say in it.

“I’ve been so pleased with how well I’m listened to. When I say something, it’s deeply considered. Questions are asked to make sure I’m comfortable and we’re accessing the right solutions. To just feel heard makes me feel seen. And I think that’s so important when I’m studying to represent clients.”

“I’d rather someone ask me something imperfectly than not ask at all.”

Kyra Mazer

Bringing the patient’s perspective to class

During a unit on wheelchair maintenance, the professor leading the session paused and asked Kyra if she had anything to add.

“I did share a little bit, and that felt so good,” she says. “To feel, once again, seen and heard, and that my perspectives are important.”

Her comments sometimes shift class discussions by adding something her classmates may not have: the patient’s point of view.

“A lot of my classmates are drawing on people they’ve worked with or volunteered with,” Kyra notes. “When I give my perspective, it’s coming from my own personal life, or from my friends who are also wheelchair users. I know you see it this way, but this is also what I’ve seen, as someone who’s been the patient.”

She knows these conversations can feel uncomfortable for many people, but she welcomes them.

“I think sometimes people don’t know what to say, so they say nothing,” she reflects. “But I’d rather someone ask me something imperfectly than not ask at all. I’m not going to be offended. I want to share.”

The gaps she’s already seeing

On a recent placement in acute care, Kyra kept noticing gaps in support.

“There’s so much that patients need that exists outside the hospital walls,” she says. “And a lot of people don’t know how to access it, or don’t have someone to help them navigate.”

She speaks from experience. When she was first navigating the healthcare system after her own health changes, strong early support made all the difference: peer mentorship, community organizations, and a rehab team that connected her to resources before she left the hospital.

“When I came out, everything didn’t still feel brand new. I felt prepared.”

She thinks about the patients who don’t have that.

“I think about the barriers that I and my community have to deal with. Improvements could be made,” she says. “Because a lot of able-bodied people are going to face those same challenges as they age.”

When she graduates, Kyra plans to return to Saskatchewan to practise. She’ll bring with her an understanding of what it means to need care, to receive it well, and to know from the inside what’s at stake when it falls short.