AHEAD (USA) Webinar Series

ADCET is pleased to announce we have negotiated access to two seasons of the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) in the USA webinar series for the Australian tertiary sector.

The first of these is the 2021 Fall Webinar Series, which includes presentations on; 'Intersectionality and its Domino Effects, 'Ensuring Student Inclusion in a World of Technology' and 'Substance Use Disorder, Collegiate Recovery, and Student Accommodations'. And the Spring 2021 Webinar Series, includes presentations on; 'Online Test Proctoring Systems', 'Training Faculty to Create an Accessible and Inclusive Virtual Classroom', and Writing Effective Alternative Text for Educational Content.

Fall AHEAD Webinar Series Logo

Fall 2021 Webinar Recordings

AHEAD's Fall program featured 12 webinars with 25 speakers, representing a wealth of knowledge, experience, and backgrounds. AHEAD webinars offer professional development opportunities for individuals or whole offices. Select just the topics that you’re working with now or all 12 webinars to bring a diverse program of information by presenters to all interested members of your campus community.

Use the webinar recordings as professional development for yourself and your staff or watch with colleagues to foster dialogue about accessibility campus-wide. These webinars were hosted in Zoom and include captioning with the recordings.

Resources and Reflections on Providing Exam Accommodations in a Remote Learning Environment

Join practitioners from two different schools who will discuss common challenges involving providing remote exam accommodations during the 2020-21 academic year. This webinar will cover individual institutional responses to these challenges and the overall impact experienced from this journey, including discussions about exam integrity, service delivery, and communication with stakeholders. Thirty minutes at the end of the session will be dedicated for Q&A regarding remote exam accommodations. Kegan Clark and Priscilla Adams.

The Legal Year in Review, Round II

For unavoidable reasons, the annual presentation of the Legal Year in Review can seem like “drinking from a fire hose.” The objective of this webinar is to select fewer cases for presentation in greater depth, cover some important legal developments that have occurred since July, and provide some real time for questions and answers. For the Q & A session, our presenter, AHEAD Executive Counsel, Paul Grossman will be joined by Jamie Axelrod, past President of AHEAD and Director of Disability Resources at Northern Arizona University.

Topics to be covered include:

New Federal guidance on whether persons with COVID are individuals with disabilities
Constitutional challenges to mandatory vaccination and masking requirements
Digital test surveillance
Accommodation of students with ID or ASD in due process disciplinary hearings
The first case with an effective challenge to the use of a bona fide service animal by an individual with a well-documented disability
What receives attention when DOJ does a campus compliance review
The unique importance of protections against retaliation for persons with disabilities
The scope of the duty to accommodate students with disabilities in education abroad programs
When and whether postsecondary students with disabilities will be able to use disparate impact analysis to address discriminatory policies and practices

Paul Grossman and Jamie Axelrod.

Intersectionality and its Domino Effects

There’s no question that we all, at the most basic level, have identities that intersect. These could be race and gender, race and disability, gender and military status...the possibilities are endless and not mutually exclusive. The dissection of intersectionality and its assumptions can be cumbersome if not managed appropriately. In this facilitated session, we will explore how assumptions impact the way in which we interact with others and how the behaviors we exhibit based on assumptions of others can have a domino effect. Our session will include interactive dialogues that will examine unconscious bias, identity bias, and emotional intelligence. Participants will also have an opportunity to self-reflect and determine how their experiences may have cultivated unhealthy and healthy assumptions. This webinar will have ASL interpretation. Jesus Remigio and Juana De Los Santos.

Accessible Communications Under the ADA: Cuneiform to Captions

Colleges and universities, whether Title II or Title III institutions, have effective communication obligations imposed by the ADA. This webinar will focus on schools’ decision making and policy creation, including communication obligations and best practices. Topics expected to be covered include: ASL, CART, AI captions, braille, digital media, large print and Recorded print, audio description, and general web accessibility. Plenty of time will be devoted to Q&A. L. Scott Lissner.

Ten Tips for Working Effectively with Administration

Ever wonder how to best work with your Dean or Vice President? Or ever been curious if a secret language exists to ensure a strong relationship with university leadership? Acknowledging that each college and leader will have unique needs and styles, come learn ten tips to incorporate into your toolbox as you build out partnerships with your administration. These tips have been vetted by Deans, Associate Vice Presidents, and Vice Presidents across two year, four year and private colleges.

Emerging Practices in Health Science Education Disability Access

Disability access within Health Professions Education (HPE) is rapidly evolving, and the number of students with disabilities matriculating into health professions programs is increasing. Appropriately, professional associations, accrediting bodies, and researchers are releasing new guidance and regulations, and are shoring up their commitment to disability as a critical component of diversity in HPE. Four emerging practices will be covered in this panel format webinar including: remote real-time captioning in health sciences, various structures of disability offices for HPE, dismantling accommodations decisions by committee, and integrating universal design in HPE assessment. New resources will be shared with the audience, with 30 minutes reserved for a robust Q&A. Jennifer E. Gossett, Carrie Knopf, Marie Lusk, Emily Magee and Lisa M. Meeks.

A Digital Skills Gap: Addressing the Cognitive Challenges of Learning Online and In-Person

Learning environments are evolving, but what does that mean for students’ learning skills? A student can be watching a lecture, taking notes, and communicating with their peers all from the same screen. For a student of any ability, this can put pressure on working memory, attention, and information processing skills. This session explores research into students’ experiences of online learning and ideas for how to future-proof support of digital skills. Katherine Hamilton.

Honoring Social Justice Values While Maintaining Rigorous and Appropriate Decision Making (a Panel Discussion)

AHEAD members frequently express that they have a commitment to the principles of social justice but aren’t always sure how to apply it in their work. Some may even feel that social justice goals can be at odds with current institutional processes. This panel of experienced disability resource providers will discuss issues such as: What exactly is social justice relative to our work? How can we articulate it for ourselves and effectively communicate it on our campus? How do we integrate values of social justice into institutional practices and processes? How do we promote a narrative that embraces social justice for disabled people as a win for our institution?

Panelists with experience with many types of student diversity will share the lessons they’ve learned, the personal principles they follow, and what they wish they had known earlier when balancing the complexities of institutional policies and the nuances of students’ personal situations. Plenty of time will be reserved for Q&A. Karen Andrews, L. Scott Lissner, Adam Meyer, Maria Schiano, Melanie Thornton, Katy Washington.

Data Driven- Storytelling with Numbers

Data is critical in understanding the populations we serve, helps focus efforts, measure outcomes, and secure funding. With so many types of information to gather, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. This webinar will walk you through the benefit of data collection, developing an evaluation plan, what criteria will be evaluated, assessing program performance, data collection, and reporting and using evaluation results (with or without an electronic data management system). With the right systems in place, we’ll show you how data collection can go from tedious and time consuming to stress-free and exciting, because you will be gathering information in small ways on a daily basis as opposed to sifting through piles of papers in a panic when the campus administrators request the information. Kelly Dormer and Leslie Johnson.

The Appointment that Can’t Wait: Developing Comprehensive Disability Resources Services for Students with Concussion on College Campuses

Concussion can have immediate and potentially devastating impact on the college student as they try to navigate return to the classroom. Effectively serving students with concussion in DR requires an immediacy in response and approach to accommodations that is tailored to the student’s unique symptomatology and course of recovery. This research to practice based webinar will:

provide attendees with an update on the latest concussion research
describe the impact of concussion on the college student
highlight unique considerations for the student-athlete
delineate how to partner with Athletics Sports Medicine programs and Student Health Services to facilitate access and a team approach.
detail considerations for the initial interview, authorizing academic accommodations, and working with students with persistent concussion symptoms.

Dr. Nancy Resendes Chinn.

Ensuring Student Inclusion in a World of Technology

As technology becomes a central part of instruction across higher education, the challenges for ensuring access for disabled students grows with the complexity of instructional technology. Join us to learn how Ohio State University is working to improve accessibility while balancing the needs and wants of faculty and instructional design staff. The presentation will cover legal and regulatory frameworks applying to procurement of accessible instructional materials, working with faculty on their materials selection, and discuss some approaches for assessing technology for accessibility. Scott Lissner and Peter Bossley.

Substance Use Disorder, Collegiate Recovery, and Student Accommodations

For the 2.2% of all students identifying as in recovery from substance use disorder, an often overlooked and misunderstood resource for them is their on-campus disability services and accommodation staff. This lack of clarity regarding accommodations for students in recovery often also exists for the disability resource professionals serving them. In addition to knowledge gaps, stigma related to substance use disorder is often one of the greatest barriers for individuals seeking support. Understanding our responsibility to support this growing population and what accommodations may be most appropriate is the first move in ensuring these students have an equal educational opportunity. In this webinar, information regarding the complex relationship between substance use disorder and federal disability protections will be shared and recommendations for creating more recovery-supportive policies and procedures will be suggested. Dylan Dunn.

Spring AHEAD Webinar Series Logo

Spring 2021 Webinar Recordings

The Spring 2021 webinars covered a variety of topics from technology applications to faculty and administrator relationships to accommodation decision-making, and beyond. To ensure the content is current, presenters have incorporated thoughts about ways the pandemic has impacted their topics.

Writing Effective Alternative Text for Educational Content: Best Practices for Reducing Cognitive Load

Writing alternative text for images can be a complex and subjective experience. Finding the balance between providing too much and too little information is key for creating your own alt text and for guiding faculty in adding alt text to their instructional materials. This webinar will walk through the basics of how to approach alternative text writing for educational content when being thorough, informative, and clear are paramount. Best practices for reducing cognitive load and identifying the kinds of details that should be included to provide access to photographs, charts, infographics, and diagrams will be shared. Valerie Morrison.

Training Faculty to Create an Accessible and Inclusive Virtual Classroom

Since the start of the pandemic, faculty and staff have been asked to convert many courses and programs to fit a virtual and hybrid model. For many, the task has been nearly insurmountable. Ensuring accessibility and inclusion has taken a back seat to basic logistical demands. However, now is an ideal time for disability resource professionals to leverage the work we have been doing in this area long before the COVID-era and teach colleagues how to design courses, syllabi, and programs in a manner that ensures the highest level of accessibility, inclusion, and impact. This webinar will help you support your institutional colleagues as they approach this daunting, yet critical task. Based on well-established best practices and direct feedback from 100+ students with disabilities, university faculty, and administrators who experienced the transition to virtual learning over the past year, we will offer tips and insights you can share with your campus partners. These will include basics of accessibility in the virtual space, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles for inclusion, and designing syllabi and courses that include all students. Ian Kunkes

Normalizing Adaptive Technology in the Classroom

This webinar looks at the shift to normalizing the use of adaptive technology in the classroom for all students, but especially for those with disabilities. We will draw upon principles of Universal Design for Learning while educating faculty about the holistic benefits of promoting and encouraging the acceptance of adaptive technology in the classroom setting. Specifically, we will aim to connect philosophy, framework, and implementation of practices focused on accessibility, inclusion, and diversity to support the learning development process of all students. Sidney Fletcher

Mobile Supports for the Diverse Learner – The iPad Edition

When our colleges and universities went fully on-line last March in response to the pandemic, most (if not all) classroom materials were delivered digitally. The availability of digital formats provided valuable flexibility for delivering educational content in a variety of ways. However, it also made it glaringly apparent that, in addition to accessible materials, students need to address a variety of executive functioning issues: organizational skills, planning and prioritization, self-monitoring, and task initiation. Fortunately, most students have access to mobile devices and use them to access curriculum and complete assignments. We must leverage those devices by both customizing them and using their built-in accessibility features to support diverse learners. In this webinar, we will cover the accessibility features available on the iPad and apps that students and educators can use to support student success. We’ll cover apps for note-taking, organization, optical character recognition, text-to-speech, captioning, writing supports, reading supports, and much more. Mark Coppin

Online Test Proctoring Systems: An Exploration of the Options

While online testing has been popular for some time, the pandemic has kicked the practice into high gear and ensured that it’s here to stay. With this new reality, a major challenge for both faculty and disability resource professionals is identifying testing practices that are both accessible and secure, often using online test proctoring tools. Respondus, Proctorio, Honor Lock, Examity, and other proctoring tools offer different levels of accessibility and various strengths and limitations. Join our panel of experts to explore a variety of online proctoring tools, their strengths, limitations, and the workarounds that support students who use assistive technologies. Dawn Hunziker

Disability Rights in a Pandemic – Maintaining Compliance and Inclusion

The pandemic has changed higher education dramatically in the past year. It has also changed the landscape for college students with disabilities. This session will explore how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies under these changed circumstances – from admissions to online learning to exams to graduation requirements – whether they be temporary or permanent. Join us to learn more about higher education’s responsibility to students with mental health conditions and how disability resource offices can respond to issues of access and inclusion for these students as our institutions continue to evolve in response to the new “normal.” Eve Hill and Jennifer Mathis

Critical Lenses for Disability Services

Challenging access situations are prevalent in higher education, and it’s tough to know where to turn for advice on the “right” answer. Ask a question on a listserv and get a dozen different answers: someone will quote a court case and OCR Resolution Agreement, another colleague will bring up universal design, and a third will provide an explanation based on systems of power, privilege, and ableism. This is what makes listservs confusing but also wonderful! ADA compliance, universal design, student development theory, and disability studies are not mutually exclusive schools of thought; they are critical lenses to analyze and inform our work. We’ll discuss these “lenses” and share case studies outlining how we can use each in resolving questions of access. Jon McGough and Mary Gerard.

Fostering Better Teaching and Learning for Students with Disabilities

In this webinar, we will discuss innovative ways campuses and disability resource offices (DROs) can support faculty in their work with students who have disabilities – in and out of the classroom. In addition to exploring strategies for enhancing the DRO/faculty relationship and collaborating with administrators and faculty development centers, the webinar will introduce a new online faculty training resource from the National Center for College Students with Disabilities. There will be time for questions and an opportunity for participants to share ideas that have worked for them. Richard Allegra, Tammy Berberi and Elizabeth Harrison.

Full and Flexible Participation of Students with Psychological Disabilities

Disability resource offices are seeing a rapid expansion of students requesting services based on psychological conditions. The impact requires service professionals to innovate processes, adjust communication strategies, and consider standards for determining reasonable modifications that do not fundamentally alter courses. Existing frameworks inform best practices for communication with faculty and campus stakeholders and center the intersection of course design and disability as both social justice priorities and an ADA mandate. However, differentiating between qualifying for complex accommodation and implementing them and oppositional attitudes can strain our capacity to ensure access. In this webinar, we will discuss the characteristics often associated with psychological conditions that may warrant participation modification, accommodation decision-making, and the balance between reasonable accommodation and fundamental alteration. Jane M. Castillón and Jennifer Lofthus.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Temporary Conditions and Service Provision

Strategies for Prioritizing Access and Disability on Your Campus

When disability resource professionals get together, the following phrases are often part of the conversation: Access is never brought to the table; Disability is always forgotten; No one cares about access; My office is under resourced, and no one will listen. While these sentiments can be harmful to progress and self-sabotaging, they may also feel and even be true. Join us for a discussion of what you can do to impact the way your campus administration views access and disability to the benefit of your work. Amanda Kraus.