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OCTOBER 2011 ALERT

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Fall is officially upon us!  By the time you get this newsletter, many of you will be at the mid-term point in the semester.  As you will see in this month’s ALERT, our Affiliate groups and AHEAD itself have many wonderful professional development and networking opportunities coming up.  I know that most everyone has a tight budget so I highly recommend that you take advantage of these local and online offerings.  If you have not gotten involved with your local group before, this is a great time to do it.  Like all AHEAD events, these are not only great learning opportunities, but great networking opportunities as well.  If you are unfamiliar with which Affiliate group your school is near, please refer to the list on the AHEAD website at www.ahead.org.  It is a great time to take a short break, reconnect with friends, and share information with each other about the great things I am sure everyone is doing on their individual campus.

Emily (Singer) Lucio

ALERT Editor

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MESSAGE FROM AHEAD PRESIDENT

A busy school year is underway across the country.  As semesters and quarters begin, the end of the school year seems eternities away.  But, not so.  At AHEAD, we are already very excited about the 2012 Conference in New Orleans, July 9-14 even though it is months from now.  You have already gotten the Call for Proposals (CFP) announcement, and Jenny Dugger, the Conference Program Chair, is eager to see a wide array of proposals.  With the conference’s emphasis on Design as it relates to Diversity, Equity, Social Justice, Influence and Global features within the field of disability resources/services, take a look at the CFP (http://www.ahead.org/conferences/2012) to see the topical areas and where your own proposal ideas fit.  All proposals are due November 7th so get those juices flowing soon!
Between now and the 2012 annual AHEAD Conference, AHEAD will sponsor an array of trainings both in-person and on-line.  Here is a list of those sessions currently scheduled; additions and/or changes to the schedule may occur so be sure to check frequently at www.ahead.org. 

  • November 17 & 18, 2011 – Fall Workshop in Baltimore
    • Disability Topics in Higher Education
      • Executive Function & Self Regulation: Working with Students on the Autism Spectrum
      • Interpreting Diagnostic Assessments for Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities
      • Are You There Yet?  What You Need to Know about Deadlines and Duties Under Department of Justice’s 2010 ADA
  • 6th Annual AHEAD Management and TRiO Institutes – planned for February 2 – 4, 2012 in warm and beautiful Phoenix, Arizona.  Full details about this event will be distributed soon.
  • AHEAD to You! – 90 minute audioconference sessions with on-line captioning of all sessions.  Details are available online at http://www.ahead.org/events-and-workshops/audio-conference and the first session begins October 17th. 

The start of the school year is a work-heavy time of year in all disability offices, in some part due to the need to secure textbooks and other instructional materials in accessible formats for students who need them.  Over the last year the Department of Education’s AIM Commission (Accessible Instructional Materials) has been meeting, learning about the complex facets of this very issue being dealt with by disability professionals on a day-to-day basis.  Stephan Hamlin-Smith, the Executive Director of AHEAD, formally represents AHEAD on this Commission which includes members of key stakeholder groups.  The AIM Commission will submit its report to Congress and the Secretary of Education before the end of the year.  I am eager to read the final report and hopeful that it will give substantive recommendations to address the many challenges in this area - for DR/S professionals, students who need accessible formats, publishers and the various organizations/entities involved in production and dissemination of AIM. 

“AHEAD, thanks to the diligence of many, monitors the goings on around the country that are linked to disability in higher education and disability in general.  From time to time AHEAD joins its voice with other like-minded organizations in support of specific issues in the public sector.  An example is that AHEAD, along with over 100 other organizations, recently signed a letter to the White House Counsel asking that disability be made a part of ongoing efforts to achieve diversity in judicial nominations. The letter, in part, states, “It is as important to have judges who understand and respect the rights of people with disabilities as it is to have judges who understand and respect the rights of women and people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, different sexual orientations and different experiential backgrounds. To this end, the federal bench must reflect the diversity of our country, including the millions of Americans with disabilities.”

Postings on the various listservs used by disability professionals reflect challenges for both newer and seasoned folks.  Often these postings are bellwethers on issues that are emerging in the field.  Not a completely new area, but one receiving increasing attention, is inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities and the scope of involvement for disability offices.  AHEAD’s work in this area is led by Board of Directors member Tom Thompson.  If questions about this are coming up on your campus, the AHEAD White Paper on Students with Intellectual Disabilities and Campus Disability Services (available at http://www.ahead.org/resources) can be a source of useful information to inform campus conversations.  When I read a listserv query about what the disability office can or should do with and for a registered student at the college who has a “very low IQ but no diagnosis”, I wonder if in fact this is a student with an intellectual disability.  Think College! (www.thinkcollege.net)  is an excellent resource to learn from as a college (not just a disability office alone) explores inclusive education for these students. Several states, including Illinois and Wisconsin, have had exploratory grants this year to gather input and begin to make state-wide plans for inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities into higher education.  Reach out to AHEAD, to your regional AHEAD Affiliate, to Think College! and other groups as resources to help guide your institution’s exploration of these questions. 

Mobility International USA, www.miusa.org, is a long-time friend of AHEAD.  As AHEAD becomes more engaged internationally, MIUSA is helping and supporting us with each step.  In case you did not see it in a recent posting on the AHEAD members listserv, MIUSA is currently seeking applications for a Project Coordinator.  International exchange, study abroad, travel and disability may be your passions.  If so, check out their opening.

The AHEAD Board of Directors will meet in Albuquerque on October 13th and 14th.  Meetings are open to membership.  If you have something you would like the Board to address during the upcoming meeting, please write to me at . 

Jean Ashmore, President

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The AHEAD fall professional development workshops -Baltimore, Maryland; November 17 & 18.  The 2011 Workshops offer three great topics from which to choose (each with nationally recognized faculty):

  • Executive Function and Self Regulation: Working with Students on the Autism Spectrum

Presented by: Jane Thierfeld Brown, University of Connecticut School of Law; & Lorraine Wolf, Boston University

  • Interpreting Diagnostic Assessments for Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities

Presented by: Janet Medina, McDaniel University

  • Are You There Yet?  What You Need to Know about Deadlines and Duties Under DOJ's 2010 ADA Rules   Presented by: Irene Bowen, ADA One, LLC; & James Bostrom, U.S. Department of Justice

For more information and to register, go to:  http://www.ahead.org/events-and-workshops/regional-training/baltimore where you ca

The 2011-2012 AHEADtoYOU! Audio/Web Program line-up:

  • October 27, 2011:  Assessing Potential Alt-Format Users: Determining What's Needed Before Production
  • January 19, 2012:  Increasing Access by Decreasing Reliance on Documentation
  • February 16, 2012:  Diversity Audit Tools: Assessing Disability within Diversity in Higher Education:
  • March 15, 2012:  Advanced Topics in Curricular Accessibility: Accessible Video: Techniques, Tools, Strategies, and Solutions
  • April 19, 2012:  Technology Accessibility: Transforming our Institutions with New Guidance and New Perspectives
  • May 17, 2012:  Tools and Techniques for Managing Disability Services In Challenging Times
  • June 7, 2012:  Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: The Role for Disability Services

Advance registration is required.  Please visit http://ahead.org/events-and-workshops/audio-conference to review complete logistic and program descriptions, package pricing details, and to download the registration form.

GWU Save the date logo

SAVE THE DATE!

Thursday, November 3 - Friday, November 4, 2011
The George Washington University
Washington, DC

This two-day symposium works to consider some of the ways that disability studies and disability culture are transforming higher education and to assess how academic spaces and programs might be generated to respond to that transformation. “Composing Disability” brings together Disability and Deaf Studies, Writing Studies, Education, and Global Cultural Studies for spirited, collegial dialogue, about the production of disability culture, disability writing, and disability representation in and beyond academia today.

For more information, visit http://gwired.gwu.edu/dss or call GW’s Disability Support Services at 202-994-8250.

Keynote Speakers
Michael Davidson – author of Concerto for the Left Hand: Disability and the Defamiliar Body. Davidson is a Distinguished Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

Terry Galloway – a deaf and queer, writer, performer, and author of Mean Little deaf Queer. Galloway is also the co-founder of Actual Lives, a writing and performance workshop for adults with and without disabilities, and Mickee Faust Club, a performance group responsible for award-winning video parodies.

Merri Lisa Johnson – author of Girl in Need of a Tourniquet: A Memoir of Borderline Personality Disorder and the editor of Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire. Johnson is the director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate.

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AFFILIATE’S CORNER

By Terra Beethe, M.S.
CAHEAD (Capitol Area) will hold a half day workshop - A Campus-wide Approach:  Access for College Students with Mental Health Disabilities.  Presented by Barbara Blacklock.  Wednesday, October 12, 2011 from 10:00-2:00 pm at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.  For more information contact Emily Lucio at

CAPED (California Association for Postsecondary Education and Disability) is having their annual conference in Riverside, California on October 17-19, with preconference sessions on the 15th and 16th. Information is available at: http://www.caped.net/convention/index.html.

Indiana AHEAD is having their Fall Conference at Bradford Woods, October 20th and 21st. The contact person is  President, Courtney Jarrett, contact:

NCAHEAD will hold its fall conference at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC October 13-14.  Please contact Maranda Maxey () for more information.

New England AHEAD is in full membership drive mode. During the meeting in Seattle, members decided to put together two subcommittees (a program planning committee and a membership committee). The first subcommittee meeting will be either in person (at Northeastern University) or on the phone, depending on preference, on October 28 from Noon - 3:00 pm. We are so excited at the initiative the members have in driving New England AHEAD forward. It looks like NE AHEAD will have two to three webinars throughout the fall and winter and then a big two-day conference in June. Contact Kirsten Behling  more information at: .

OHIO-AHEAD will hold its Fall 2011 conference on Friday, October 21, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, at Bowling Green State University-Firelands in Huron, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie between Toledo and Cleveland. Scott Lissner will be the keynote speaker for the morning session, and there will be four breakout sessions in the afternoon. Contact Jennifer Radt for more information: radtjm@ucmail.uc.edu
Everyone is welcome!

ORAHEAD Fall Conference, Cannon Beach, Oregon.  November 2-4, 2011. Program, subject to change, includes Apple, Bookshare, and 3 separate OCR-related sessions. Details at http://orahead.org.

Utah AHEAD has scheduled its Fall 2011 conference for Friday, November 4, 2011. Attendees will meet on the campus of Salt Lake Community College, and the conference will be in conjunction with that school’s disability awareness week. As such, we are excited and honored to have Marcus Engel as our keynote speaker. Marcus is a motivational speaker, with a tremendous story to tell. During his freshman year in college, he and other members of his hockey team were driving to a diner, and their car was struck by a drunk driver. This left Marcus’ face mangled and he lost his sight. After over 300 hours on the operating table and relearning many skills, he has continued his education and is telling his remarkable story.

AHEAD in VA Fall Drive-In Conference.  Friday, September 30, 2011 Richmond, VA. J. Sagreant Reynolds CC.   Topics include:  Study/Travel Abroad, Co-Curricular Activites, OCR Legal Update. For more information:  www.aheadinva.us

WinAhead Fall 2011 Conference, October 28, 2011, Metro Community College, Fort Omaha Campus Omaha, Nebraska  Keynote speaker: Sue Butte – Securing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Focus on Poverty. Dr. Ray Burke – From Fun to Factories: Developing Assistive Technologies for Young Adults with Autism

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CAREER INFORMATION

A Nationwide Employment Mentoring Opportunity for College Students and Professionals who are Legally Blind

Finding a job after college can be a challenge in today’s economy, even with a college degree. We know that young adults who are blind often have difficulty finding employment, and we want to evaluate a mentoring intervention that may help. We are conducting a research project, funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, to see if pairing students who are legally blind with successful mentors in their career fields who are also blind will help. We are recruiting students who are graduating from colleges and graduate programs across the United States who plan to seek employment after graduation. 

Our goal is to pair students with mentors who are working in similar professions and who live close to them to allow for job shadowing opportunities and face to face contact. We would like mentees to work with mentors for about a year before they graduate so that mentees can get the most out of the mentoring relationship at a critical point in their career search process. We will examine the influence of a mentor relationship on employment outcomes for graduating students including: development of job seeking-skills, job placement, job satisfaction, and self-efficacy. 

We anticipate that students and mentors will find this program to be highly beneficial.  Potential benefits for students include: assistance in career goal development, skills training, job seeking, job placement, and opportunities for job shadowing and networking. We expect that mentors will benefit from working closely with college or graduate students as they begin their professional careers.  Both mentors and students will participate in valuable research that seeks to benefit the blind community and improve employment outcomes for students who are blind.

Eligibility for Students:

  • Undergraduate or graduate student under age 35
  • Legal blindness
  • Plans to graduate within 2-3 semesters after January 2012
  • Expects to seek employment after graduation
  • Has basic computer literacy and knowledge of accessibility software/hardware needed to access online materials

Eligibility for Mentors:

  • Legal blindness
  • Currently employed or retired from a professional career
  • Has basic computer literacy and knowledge of accessibility software/hardware needed to access online materials

We will be recruiting for this project through Summer 2012. If you wish to participate in the first cohort, please respond by November 18, 2011 to begin participation in January 2012. 

Eligibility forms can be completed online by students at http://tiny.cc/mentor-students and by professionals at http://tiny.cc/mentor-professionals. If have questions about the project, please contact Jamie O’Mally at the Mississippi State University Rehabilitation Research & Training Center on Blindness & Low Vision at 662-325-2001 or by email at .

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RESOURCES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education
Research Grant Program
2011

The Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) seeks to advance knowledge about the use of standards and self- assessment processes in enhancing programs and services to students and in developing designated student learning and developmental outcomes.

Proposal Focus:  Research proposals should address some dimension of the question:  Does the use of the CAS Standards and Guidelines in a self-assessment process enhance programs, services, or student learning outcomes?

  • Proposals with a specific focus on uses of the CAS standards in a Self-Assessment process are preferred.
  • Proposals may be at the department, division, and institutional or multi-site level.
  • Proposals may study a particular functional area.
  • Proposals should not be for the individual use of a standard for campus self-assessment as grants are intended for research purposes.
  • Dissertation research will be considered and is encouraged.

 

Proposal Content:  Proposal should be 5-7 pages with a separate one page summary and should include:

  • Name and contact information for the project director
  • Background and related literature
  • Research questions and significance of the proposed study
  • Methods (any appropriate methodology [e.g. case studies, longitudinal designs] will be considered)
  • Time frame (projects must be completed in three years or less)
  • Brief biographies of researchers
  • Budget (no overhead charges may be submitted; funds may not be used for equipment or software, salaries or tuition; proposals should indicate if funds are being sought or are provided by other sources.)

 

Grant:  Typically, grants of up to $3000 will be considered. More than one grant may be awarded.

Deadline:  Proposals must be received by October 14, 2011.

Review Process:  Proposals should be submitted electronically to CAS Research Chair, Dr. John Zacker, jzacker@umd.edu.  The review committee is comprised of the chair and research committee members who are members of the Board of Directors of CAS.

Agreements by Recipients:  Recipients of grants will receive additional information on the dispersal of funds, return of funds in the case on non-completion of a project, annual project reports and accounting, and expectations of dissemination of findings. CAS acknowledges full authorship rights to the project researchers. In general CAS will expect a summary report of findings to post on the CAS website, researcher publication(s), and presentations at appropriate conferences including a possible invitation to the CAS Symposium. CAS support must be acknowledged in all dissemination of findings.

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