NERCOMP EVENT
Technology for Accessibility
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Join us for a day of informative presentations and discussions of technology for accessibility. Presenters will provide a framework for discussion, including current demographic trends and legal issues related to accessibility at post secondary institutions, and then proceed to discuss inclusive instruction techniques that incorporate technology readily available to most classroom as well as more specialized assistive technology. Presenters will bring in multiple perspectives as administrators, faculty members, and technology instructors. Dr. Joan McGuire and Dr. Manju Banerjee, both from the University of Connecticut Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability, and Dr. Richard Jackson, Associate Professor at Boston College will be among the presenters. This event will be useful for all individuals, regardless of their level of experience with accessible technology.
Workshop Organizer/Host: Todd Herriott and Braddlee, both of Simmons College
Date/Time:
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
9:15am - 3:15pm
Registration begins at 8:00am
Location:
Usdan University Center
Wyllys Avenue
Middletown, CT
Special instructions:
There is Visitors parking on Vine Street with walkways leading to Wyllys Ave where Usdan is located. There is also street parking on most surrounding streets - High Street, Court Street, My Vernon Street, Wahington Terrace...
Pricing:
NERCOMP Members: $95
Non-Members: $220
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Additional Information
Event Schedule:
8:00am - 9:15am Registration and Coffee
9:15am – 10:15am Building a Framework: Establishing the Importance of Accessibility in Higher Education
Speaker: Todd K. Herriott, Director, Center For Academic Achievement, Simmons College
The demographics of today’s college student population have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. One significant change is the increasing enrollment of students with disabilities, due in large part to the American’s with Disabilities Act of 1990. This session will present a framework for the day’s discussion by outlining the legal issues involved as well as the current need for greater levels of access for all learners. Participants will be given an opportunity to look at the question of access from an institutional perspective as well as a practical application perspective.
10:15am – 10:30am Break
10:30am – 12:30pm Shifting the Focus: Technology Tools for Inclusive Instruction
Speakers:
Dr. Manju Banerjee, Assistant Professor in Residence at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Dr. Joan McGuire, Professor Emerita of Special Education and Co-Director of the Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability at the University of Connecticut.
Instructional practices at the postsecondary level have been guided by the belief that assistive technologies (AT) are only for students with disabilities. Historically, AT has provided alternative means and methods for accessing the educational environment. In recent years, the paradigm of universal design has redefined accessibility to include learning environments that are inclusive of all students. When re-envisioned as tools for inclusive access for all, technology options for faculty can quickly become overwhelming. Drawing on the paradigm of Universal Design for Instruction and pedagogy for the digital screen, this presentation will highlight ways for faculty in collaboration with other campus constituencies to embed high and low end technology tools within “tech blended” courses to create instructional environments that blur the line between AT and “mainstream” technologies.
12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch
1:30pm – 2:30pm Teaching and Learning with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework
Speaker: Dr. Richard Jackson, Faculty, Lynch School of Education, Boston College
Richard Jackson, who is legally blind and hearing impaired, has been teaching at Boston College for nearly 30 years. In this presentation, he illustrates how digital resources and technology tools have transformed the nature of his academic work from dependence on others to self-reliance in carrying out his scholarly research and course delivery. In his course work, Jackson is engaged in preparing teacher candidates to include diverse learners in the general education classroom following the Universal Design for Leaning (UDL) framework. The UDL framework shifts the focus from correcting learner deficits to increasing curricular flexibility. By applying three design principles, curricular offerings are extended to a wider array of learners. Jackson models these principles in his teaching by providing his students with multiple representations of content, multiple means of expressing what they know and can do, and multiple ways of engaging in the learning process. This presentation will reveal by example how the UDL framework plays out in the university classroom and course structure.
2:30pm – 3:15pm Roundtable Discussion and Audience Q & A with participants
Facilitator: Todd Herriott, Director, Center For Academic Achievement, Simmons College
3:15pm End
Speaker:
Manju Banerjee
Manju Banerjee, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in Residence at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. She is also a Research and Education Consultant for the Educational Testing Service, and has over 20 years experience in the field of learning and other disabilities. Dr. Banerjee is a certified diagnostician and teacher-consultant for learning disabilities, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability. Her research interests include universal design and its application to assessment practices, issues related to disability documentation and technology competencies for high school students transitioning to college.
Speaker:
Todd Herriott
Todd Herriott is the Director, Center For Academic Achievement at Simmons College. Todd has worked within Higher Education for more than 8 years, with much of that time providing services to students with Disabilities. Prior to entering higher education, he was a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Counselor. He has worked at both large, state science and technology institutions as well as small, private liberal arts institutions. He has authored multiple book chapters and journal articles related to issue of access for persons with disabilities and he has presented every year for the last eight years at national conferences. He completed his undergraduate work at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and his MS in Education at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
Speaker:
Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson, Ph.D. is a senior member of the Lynch School faculty at Boston College and senior research scientist at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) in Wakefield, Massachusetts. He is nationally recognized for his presentations on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an innovative framework for guiding curriculum reform in education. Most recently, Jackson served as the director of the Boston College teaching practices partnership for the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, which was based at CAST. Himself visually impaired, Jackson models the application of UDL in his teaching and daily life. For many years at Boston College, Jackson directed multiple federal training grants for the preparation of personnel to serve individuals with low-incidence disabilities. His scholarly research has appeared in government supported websites, professional journals and the Harvard Education Press. He currently serves as a national advisor for the National Center on Implementing Technology in Education, the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, the Technology Assisted Reading Assessment (TARA) Project, and Teaching Exceptional Children, a practitioner journal published by the Council for Exceptional Children. Jackson holds a masters degree in psychology and education from Harvard University and a doctorate in special education from Columbia University.
Speaker:
Joan McGuire
Joan McGuire, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Special Education and Co-Director of the Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability at the University of Connecticut. She was the 2005 recipient of the University’s AAUP Teaching Excellence Award, and has more than 80 published refereed journal articles. She is the recipient of more than $3.8 million in federal and state grants including $2 million for demonstration projects focused on inclusive instructional strategies for college teaching. Her research interests include Universal Design for Instruction (UDI); postsecondary disability program development, administration, and evaluation; and adults with learning disabilities.
Related Media Files:
http://64.3.162.168/media/Universal Access 2008.ppt
http://64.3.162.168/media/Learning and Teaching with UDL.pdf
http://64.3.162.168/media/Shifting the Focus.ppt
Contact Information:
Lisa DiMauro
860-345-2081
ldimauro@nercomp.org
Hotel Information:
Rooms are available at the Middletown Inn, for $115 per night.
To make reservations contact the Middletown Inn at 860-854-6300 and request the "NERCOMP Room Block". The room block will be released on May 19, 2008.
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