The paper reveals the findings of a participatory ethnography with post-secondary students enrolled in a large West Coast University in British Columbia. These students had previously been identified as 'learning disabled' and thus, the 'recipients' of special educational policy interventions. The study uncovers the performative work the students engage as they negotiate the contradictory ideologies of meritocracy and equal opportunity while living with the label and realities of various 'learning disabilities'. The students' discourses are read in relation to and against the dominant common-sense ideologies of special education. The study takes into account the students readings in light of their positionalities as racialized, classed, gendered, in addition to living with the label of learning disability.