Part 3: My Experience Trying To Take the Apex Program's CompTIA Network+ Exam at a Pearson Vue Testing Center As A Blind Woman in Canada

✏️ Sign The Petition on Change.org at: https://c.org/MZnTBDjCBK (Share this link).

If you haven’t read Part 1 or Part 2 of this article, I do encourage you to read them first, as they set the stage for this, third, follow-up article.

Quick recap. On November 25, 2024 I was humbled by the news that the Apex Program had chosen me to receive a full, $7,500 USD scholarship to the Apex Program, a 12-week cybersecurity training initiative intended to empower underrepresented communities, including blind people, sponsored by Novacoast, Inc.

I was both excited and grateful for this incredible opportunity. That is, until I learned that my “scholarship” amounted to approximately 21 Word Documents, no LMS, and not a shred of assistance from a single human being. Which was fine. I was able to overcome that. But the challenges didn’t stop there. After registering for and receiving my accomodation letter from Pearson Vue here in Canada I travelled to the testing center on October 1, 2025 to take the CompTIA Network+ Exam.

To make a long story just a wee bit shorter, I was unable to take the exam that day due to “diagrams” used on the test that did not (apparently) include verified ALT descriptions that the sighted proctor could read to me. Her response was, “I don’t know what to do here.” And so we left. This is when I wrote my first article outlining my experience.

In my second article I outlined, in painful detail, how Apex completely turned on me after the release of my first article. Instead of reaching out with, “Donna, we’re so sorry that you experienced the issues that you did in accessing our course curriculum. What can we do to make it right?” they asked me to “pause distribution” of my article (my honest experience) until they could “meet with me”. I declined to “pause distribution” of anything. My experience was real, honest and 100% truthful, and I wasn’t going to hide it for anyone.

But for that honesty, it seems I made an enemy, as stated by Apex, directly, to me, via voice, during their meeting which I finally agreed to attend. Here I will pick up where the second article left off. With Apex still trying to bully me and Pearson Vue acting as though my issue didn’t exist. Here’s what has happened since then, and boy oh boy have there been some positive twists and turns. And yet, as I say that, some things have gotten much, much worse. But what can I do? I am but one blind woman. I can only report the news. So here goes.

We tacked a Change.org petition to the end of my second article and I would like to thank everyone who signed it. I received some amazing feedback from other blind test takers as a result of this petition and what they all had in common was this. They had no idea what to do either. And no one was willing to help them either. They simply had no recourse. They were not advocates themselves and had no meaningful path to change. And it is precisely that which I hope to change. Which is precisely why I keep writing these articles. Because someone has to speak up. Someone has to speak out. Someone has to be brave enough to tell the truth. Otherwise, the bully wins.

I would like to begin by getting my final Apex experience out of the way as I honestly don’t wish to engage with or discuss them any further following this article. I will state here, unequivocally, that APEX DOES NOT CARE ABOUT BLIND PEOPLE. They care about themselves. And themselves only. They are not here to help you in any way. A fact they have proven time and again throughout this debacle. But what I have for you here in this third article, I think, is especially tragic, as it is indicative of so many organizations today who claim to “serve the blind and visually impaired”.

On the day my second article was released, December 8, 2025, I decided to send along an email to the CNIB as well. For anyone reading who doesn’t know who the CNIB is, they are a Canadian nonprofit organization founded in 1918 that supports people who are blind, Deafblind, or have low vision across Canada. I asked them to read my articles. Which they did. After which they promptly provided me with a letter that they had written to Pearson Vue and asked me for my permission to send it. Permission I was so very happy and grateful to provide. I have to say, I was and still am quite taken aback by their kindness and sense of duty.

And so, on December 12, 2025, off went the CNIB’s letter to Pearson Vue.

About 3 or 4 days later I received another email from Pearson Vue. Their tone had changed. They wanted to help. They were sorry I had the initial experience that I did and provided me with options for re-testing that directly addressed the concerns from my first attempt. So when I heard that, and thought of the incredible kindness and duty put forward by the CNIB, I simply couldn’t imagine not trying to take the test again. So I decided to go for it. I decided to take Pearson at their word and have agreed to attempt to re-take the Network+ exam again on May 26, 2026.

This means I now have to re-study all of that information, all over again. Which I am currently in the process of doing. And that got me thinking. If I’m going to take the Network+ exam, then I may as well begin to prepare for the Security+ exam as well, since both were part of my Apex Scholarship. And it is here that, as you can imagine, things got complicated. I knew that Apex was angry with me for telling the truth about my experience with them and their curriculum, but what was I to do? Stay silent? As a known advocate? About a complete lack of assistance or accessibility from an organization that claims to provide both? I think not.

So I figured, well, a deal is a deal. Surely they would not openly revoke my scholarship based on an honest and true account of my experience? Surely. So I decided to reach out to Apex to request next steps for attaining access to the Security+ curriculum. You will recall that we last left off with Apex requesting a meeting with myself (Donna Jodhan) and Aaron Di Blasi (my Administrative Assistant), which we chose not to attend after they asked us to provide them with an “agenda” for the meeting. We have no “agenda”. I am a blind student trying to earn a degree all by myself. And I’m looking for help. Help that I thought Apex was here to provide. Well, soon after I sent that request for information, I received yet another dose of “Apex help.”

On January 13, 2026, Katie Mcauliff, Vice President of Operations for the Apex Program, with copy to her legal counsel, one Emmy Savenelli, wrote to inform me that: “The scholarship is no longer available.” Can you believe that?

Please, let us all take a moment to absorb the lesson here. Advocacy is not free. Speaking up about inaccessibility makes enemies (their word choice, not mine) and this can substantially affect your future. Which is why so few people choose to do it. It is often thankless and forgotten work. The only people who do not forget it are the people like myself who must surmount these obstacles.

Speaking of sacrifice, I will also mention here that Apex cancelled their sponsorship support of Top Tech Tidbits shortly after my first article appeared in which Aaron Di Blasi openly supported me in my critique. Aaron is the Publisher for Top Tech Tidbits and does great work throughout the year trying to keep it funded for the benefit of people like myself. He understands the cost of advocacy and bears it without mention. I just want readers to see the real moves being played here, and who really cares about the well being of persons with a disability.

At the advice of my legal counsel, provided by the ARCH Disability Law Centre of Toronto, I reached back out to Apex with an email that the Law Centre drafted for me asking if they could tell me why my scholarship was no longer available.

At first, no response. And then a request to meet. Again. So this time I decided I would go ahead and get on a call with them to see what they had to say. All by myself. Without owning the recording. And dear reader do you know what they said to me when I did?

On February 3, 2026 I met with Katie Mcauliff, Vice President of Operations for the Apex Program, and her legal counsel, Emmy Savenelli, hoping to get an answer to my question in order to move forward with my study plan.

Their first question to me? Donna, what is your agenda today? I actually felt sick. I repeated, once again, that I had none and that I was simply seeking a reply to my question. Which they were more than happy to answer. Their reply? “Yes Donna, we cancelled your scholarship because of the articles that you wrote about us. You’ve made us the enemy.”

Isn’t that an interesting play on words? I made them the enemy? Simply by telling the truth? I can only assume that they expected me to lie. The true “enemy” is the inaccessibility that I faced then, and that I continue to face now. Don’t ever let them try to tell you different. I honestly don’t know how much more clearly they can make their position. “We are Apex. We provide nothing of value and we don’t care about you. And if you tell the truth that we don’t care about you then we will do everything in our power to hurt you and those that support you.” Does that sound like the marketing slogan for a cybersecurity program that you want to be a part of? It is my sincerest hope that anyone deciding to try their program reads this first.

What Apex did not know, and what I did not reveal to them until the very end of the call, was that the CNIB had stepped up yet again (THANK YOU) and put me in contact with CompTIA directly, prior to my call with Apex. Once CompTIA read my articles and understood my plight and position with regard to Apex cancelling my scholarship, they granted me a full credit to take the Security+ exam. Now what do you think of that? I, personally, am immensely grateful to both the CNIB and CompTIA for their kindness, generosity and tireless efforts on my behalf. These are people that are really trying to help. These are the people that made my continued study possible, and I want each of them to know that I am eternally grateful.

So my plan now is to re-study all of the information for the Network+ exam in preparation for my upcoming May 26, 2026 test. I hope and pray that the test will be accessible that day. I simply can’t imagine going through this again. Wish me luck! And remember, things are harder for us. They’re always going to be. But that does not mean that we stop fighting for what is right and what is just. Don’t let them bully you. Don’t let them make you question yourself. Don’t let them win.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
Global Leader In Disability Rights, Digital Accessibility, And Inclusive Policy Reform
Turning policy into progress for people with disabilities.