PC 01: Introduction to Disability Law for Disability Office Directors and Staff and ADA/504 Coordinators
Paul Grossman, J.D., Executive Counsel of AHEAD, and OCR and Hastings College of Law, retired
Jamie Axelrod, M.S., Northern Arizona University
Mary Lee Vance, Ph.D., California State University Sacramento
Back by popular demand, this updated session will give disability resource, ADA, disability law, and compliance professionals a comprehensive introduction to postsecondary student disability law, including the requirements of the Americans Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Fair Housing Act. There is no way to anticipate every question or scenario that will arise in implementing these laws. Consequently, our mission is to provide each participant with a series of comprehensive frameworks, “analytical paradigms,” and procedural tools for addressing the broad range of legal questions they are likely to encounter. The courts and the Office for Civil Rights often devote more scrutiny to the processes colleges and universities use to reach their decisions than to the decisions themselves. Accordingly, this course will present the procedures most likely to receive agency approval and deference.
This course will begin by placing the responsibilities of disability services into its civil rights context with a review of the history of discrimination against individuals with disabilities and the emergence of the intersectional disability rights movement. Participants will learn the seminal legal concepts common to all antidiscrimination laws and what is unique to disability law. With this broad foundation under our feet, we will take a quick walk through the applicable regulations and tie these concepts and regulations to a comprehensive overview of potential claims and defenses under disability discrimination law including denial of accommodation, fundamental alteration, and undue burden.
Next, we will learn to look at our daily questions as if they had been set before a judge to scrutinize. The issue underlying about 80% of all post-secondary student disability cases is whether the student complainant is “a qualified student with a disability” (QSD). This includes focusing on who is “an individual with a disability” under the ADA as amended and what the courts and DOJ tell us about documentation of disability. We will then proceed to the second element of the QSD paradigm: whether a student with a disability can meet the essential academic and technical requirements of the institution, with or without reasonable accommodation (“academic adjustments and auxiliary aids”). This will include discussion of accommodations that are “necessary” and “reasonable” and those that are not because they either entail a “fundamental alteration” or an “undue burden."
Finally, will devote significant time analyzing recent court decisions and OCR letters, whose discernible theme is that colleges and universities should never deny an accommodation to students with disabilities without first engaging in a case-by-case (individualized) and “interactive” consideration process, even if implementing the accommodation would require making an exception or modification to a long-existing rule, practice, policy, or assumption. Particularly at this stage, we will apply these foundational concepts to cutting-edge legal developments in some of the most challenging and complex issues that face disability resource offices. Opportunities to apply concepts will be provided through discussion of recent cases.
PC 02: AHEAD Start: An Introduction to Access for Newer Disability Resource Professionals
Jennifer Murchison MA, California State University, Sacramento
Katherine MacDonald EdD, Randolph-Macon College
Melissa Butler MS, Rhodes College
Are you new to disability services as a profession or been in the field 3 years or fewer? Do you need to build your skills to be a professional in this field? Build a network? Build your confidence? This two-day pre-conference workshop will help you with all those questions and more.
Through instruction, discussion, and active engagement, this workshop will address key points to consider as you grow in the field and profession. We will review best practices, philosophies of disability and access services. We will discuss legal requirements and protections, as well as cases you’re dealing with first-hand in your offices. We will help you navigate the interactive process for determining accommodations and addressing inaccessibility on your campuses. We will talk about the different needs of institutions from community colleges to law schools, tech centers and specialty schools.
- Erasure laws of the disabled, eugenics, and early advocacy for disability rights
- In-depth look at Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (and as amended in 2008)
- Philosophical models of disability and access services
- Learning about disability types
- Housing and dietary accommodations
- Testing accommodations
- Classes held in laboratories and studios (art, dance, photography)
- Athletics, military personnel, and temporary accommodations
- Animals on campus
- Roles and responsibilities (including for those who also serve as your campus’s de facto ADA Coordinator)
- Managing the initial student appointment and the importance of the interactive process
- How to make decisions about accommodations and referrals to other partners
Attendees should come away from this pre-conference with foundational knowledge on disability services and access services fields, including concrete tools and key takeaways on job functions, responsibilities, and more.
PC 03: Improve Student Engagement with Strengths-Based Coaching
Christina Fabrey MEd, PCC, BCC, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Jodi Sleeper-Triplett BA, MCC, BCC, JST Coaching and Training
Over the last three years, students in higher education have been facing unprecedented mental health challenges. As caseloads of students with disabilities rise and graduation rates decrease, strength-based approaches in working with students help to build student-practitioner connection in order to facilitate deeper conversations around personal growth and goal attainment. Research tells us that strengths-based approaches enhance wellbeing, resilience, and academic achievement (Lavy, 2020; White & Waters, 2015) and may buffer some of these uncertainties faced by students today. Strength based coaching strategies can nurture students with positive mindsets and skillsets within a co-created and safe environment. In this full day workshop, the presenters will share strength based coaching strategies such as employing a student-as-partner approach, strengths inventories, strength spotting, weaving strengths into coaching conversations, and additional positive psychology techniques to build student resilience and wellbeing.
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PC 04: Technology Session 1: Learning How to Add Closed Caption Files to Media In-House, Using Free and Licensed Software
Ann Fredricksen MS-LIS, University of Illinois
Aaron Stickney, University of Illinois
The Technology preconference options are broken down into three separate one-day and half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all three or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
Captioning digital media can be confusing. There are many options for software that can be used to create and edit captioned content, and finding one that works for your organization can be a daunting task. Based upon workflows developed over several years, we will showcase free software such as Webservices, YouTube, and Amara.org. Participants will also get a glimpse of newer software for our workflow such as the for-download SubtitleEdit, which has built in Whisper AI transcript generation within the program. Also, in our list of software to share will be licensed or subscription-based programs such as Kaltura, CaptionMaker, Descript, and Streams. Both pros and cons will be discussed for each so that you can choose a solution that works best for your unique needs.
Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop to follow along as each of the programs showcased include examples as well as a walkthrough on how to get started with the software/service. There will be hands-on learning for some of the paid and unpaid services as well as tips and tricks for handling common issues. Topics covered in the learning portion for each service will be creating captions, timecoding, and exporting. We will include information on how to add closed captioning to videos that you don't own, such as on YouTube, as well as mention how to troubleshoot some tricky captioning questions that you might encounter when adding closed captioning to digital educational content.
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PC 05: Leadership Session 1: Leadership in Challenging Times: Supporting Staff Wellness, Satisfaction, & Workplace Efficiency
Chris Stone Ed. D., Washington University in St. Louis
Jamie Bojarski Ph. D., Vanderbilt University
The Leadership preconference options are broken down into three separate one-day and half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all three or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
How do disability resource professionals balance growing demands on their time, energy, and resources which can negatively impact their own personal wellness, self-care, and ultimately, their satisfaction in their profession? Effective leaders help staff feel supported and valued—even in the most challenging times. This session is specifically dedicated to the wellness of disability office staff and a discussion of ways in which leaders can enact practices to help their staff—and themselves—establish and maintain personal and professional boundaries, work/life balance, and professional fulfillment. These practices ultimately benefit not only staff, but students, departments, and institutions, in both the short and long term.
Facilitators will engage participants in a preconference session designed to:
- Examine the concept of burnout, highlighting three main types often found in the workplace.
- Explore the negative impact of burnout on a department and within an institution.
- Discuss what the literatures indicates are reasons for why teams fail and offer the contrasting keys that distinguish successful organizations.
- Develop practices that foster job satisfaction for leaders and staff.
- Identify strategies and practices to help manage stressful situations in the workplace, specifically noting approaches for department leadership as well as staff.
Throughout this experience, attendees will be challenged to engage in individual and group learning designed to assist them navigate challenging situations, such as when work expectations (both real and perceived) encroach on personal well-being, by recognizing and setting necessary boundaries to preserve individual and organizational health. Participants will leave this session having engaged in reflective exercises created to help them address how they can positively influence their own departments as leaders in establishing healthy work settings, minimizing environments that frequently lead to employee burnout, and fostering environments that value and encourage appropriate work/life balance.
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PC 06: Health Science Accommodations Session 1: An Introduction and Legal Overview
Jon McGough, University of California, San Francisco
Charles Weiner J.D., Law Office of Charles Weiner
The Health Science Accommmdations preconference options are broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
For those new to working with health science programs (regardless of length of time in the field), this session will provide a practical overview of disability laws and how they apply to the health sciences, with particular attention to how disability laws relate to health science clinical accommodations. Presenters will review the interactive process that occurs between disability professionals, faculty, staff, and the student when determining reasonable accommodations in clinical and lab environments (such as fieldwork, internships, clerkships, preceptorships, etc., as well as OSCEs, sim labs, cadaver labs, etc.). Also included will be the principles of how to identify when a potential accommodation may affect the integrity of the learning outcomes, compromise patient safety, or challenge technical standards, as well as the importance of having clear, written policies and procedures available to prospective students, as well as recently admitted and currently enrolled students. This session will be mostly focused on understanding laws, processes, and policies. Later sessions in this series will focus more on their application when devising and implementing particular accommodations.
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PC 07: ADA/504 Coordinators Session 1: Introduction to the ADA Coordinator Role and Facilities Accessibility
Gabriel Merrell, Oregon State University
Emily Singer Lucio, University of Maryland
The ADA/504 Coordinators preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
The first of the four half-day sessions will provide an overview of the work generally performed by the ADA/504 Coordinator role at most higher education institutions, with a focus on introducing the seven administrative requirements in the ADA/504 and general compliance requirements. Participants will also gain knowledge about facilities accessibility considerations and ensuring access for various types of program participants that engage with an institution of higher education (attendees to events, campus visitors, etc.).
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PC 08: Leadership Session 2: Implementing Effective Change: Strategies, Processes & Resources to Create Successful New Campus Initiatives
Rachel Kruzel ATP, Texthelp
The Leadership preconference options are broken down into three separate one-day and half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all three or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
At any given moment, a professional on a college campus is likely involved in work that intersects with some type of institutional change or initiative: change or an initiative within the office you work within, change or an initiative within your division, or change or an initiative at an institutional level. But how do professionals and institutions effectively and efficiently create a plan and implement this desired change or initiative all with the goal of seeing the impact of the efforts as quickly as possible?
Implementation Science and the corresponding models which support this field of work provide best practices, guidance and approaches which can help to effectively roll out initiatives and change within an organization. Given the constant evolution of campuses today as we prepare ourselves for the future of our institutions, these principles can be applied widely to the work being done on a micro- or macro-level; within your office or across campus. Implementation Science can be applied to change and initiatives such as:
- New policies or procedures
- Training for campus on a key topic
- Digital accessibility
- Creating, revising or widening the scope of a testing center
- Adopting a database system
- A new model of support for students in crisis or on academic probation
- Elevating the profile of your office on campus
- New or updated policies as it relates to documentation
- Adopting and rolling out assistive/educational technology
- And more!
This preconference session will discuss Implementation Science including the principles, models, and best practices as it applies to the work of Disability Resource Professionals or leaders on campus as it relates to inclusion and student support. Subjects and topics discussed during the session will include:
- The Diffusion of Innovation Model which focuses on how organizations and cultures adopt innovation or embrace change.
- The Model for Managing Complex Change which illustrates the key components for successful organizational change or adoption. A lack of any of these elements can cause specific and predictable friction during rollout.
- Research from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill will provide statistics, steps, best practices around implementation.
- Effective goal setting and how this underutilized step can change the way offices and campuses work towards outcomes with the ability to measure impact.
- Strategies around advocacy to ensure financial and human capital resources are at adequate levels to ensure a positive outcome of this initiative.
- Best practices around team building and finding key players to support your initiative to maximize effective and efficient implementation.
Whether you’re just starting to consider a change or initiative, have started to implement your initiative, or are needing strategies to kickstart plans and efforts already underway, attendees will leave with countless resources and strategies to support them moving forward.
Professionals of all levels, experiences and positions are welcome and encouraged to attend this session whether you have initiatives in place, on the horizon, or have yet to be determined. The strategies, frameworks, theories, and skills discussed will benefit any professional in our field now or in the future as you roll out strategic initiatives and support change. Some of our time together will be spent discussing implementation of campus initiatives: successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Come with ideas, an openness to share, and be ready to collaborate. Participants will spend time reflecting on their initiative and the steps taken to implement it thus far. We’ll also spend time creating next steps for ourselves to bring back to campus to support our work for the academic year ahead.
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PC 09: Health Science Session 2: Determining and Implementing Accommodations in Clinical Settings, Lab Environments, and Skills-Based Assessments
Jon McGough, University of California, San Francisco
Maria Schiano, County College of Morris
The Health Science Accommmdations preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
Health Science programs often have unique structures and requirements, which mandate creative approaches to providing accommodations to meet the needs of a student. Common challenges include the lock-step nature of most programs, determining appropriate accommodations in patient care settings, meeting technical standards, and proactive planning to anticipate accommodation needs in clinical environments. Often, students don’t know what they may need because they have never been in that setting before, so disability specialists must know the programs well so that they can anticipate what students will encounter and what kinds of accommodations may be needed in the various settings.
The presenters will discuss how to address complex accommodation needs in classroom, lab, and clinical environments, including tips for developing clear processes for faculty and staff and ideas for how to work with students and faculty to improve communication around disability-related needs and implementing accommodations. Participants will have opportunities to work through scenarios to apply the learning to various types of programs and situations.
PC 10: ADA/504 Coordinators Session 2: Managing Employee Accommodations
L. Scott Lissner, The Ohio State University
Andrea Vassar, Tulane University
The ADA/504 Coordinators preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
ADA/504 Coordinators often oversee the provision of disability accommodations to not only students but also employees and those who hold the role of both student and employee simultaneously, such as graduate assistants and Work Study students. However, the process for determining employee accommodations is established by a different Title of the ADA than those that guide student accommodations. Attendees to this half-day session will learn the differences between student accommodation and employee accommodation processes, the role of the ADA Coordinator in both, and have tools to go back to their institutions to review their own employee accommodation processes. Plenty of time will be set aside for interaction.
PC 11: Ableism at Work: Unpacking How Ableism Shapes the Disability Experience and Informs Professional Practice
Amanda Kraus Ph.D., University of Arizona
Many of us are drawn to professional work in disability services because of our commitment to equity and inclusion. This pre-conference is intended for those with some background on the foundational concepts of disability studies and disability history to explore how ableism has been institutionalized in higher education and informs our professional practice in disability resources. We will discuss systemic and individual dynamics of power and privilege, and how manifestations of ableism contribute to stereotypes, biases and microaggressions that limit the disability experience in higher education and society.
After reflecting on the impact of bias on disability services and higher education, we will focus specifically on disability-related microaggressions, an emerging area of scholarship with important implications for our work. We will work collectively to unpack examples of microaggressions and the role we play in either perpetuating or dismantling these experiences and explore how these dynamics impact contemporary and professional concepts of disability. By situating disability alongside other community and identity experiences, participants will have time and space to reflect on their personal power and privilege and how their identities may impact building authentic relationships with disabled students and how they may represent disability to campus audiences. Finally, we will discuss our roles as allies and advocates and ways to cultivate effective professional partnerships that promote equity on campus. We will end with participants developing and discussing specific action items.
PC 12: Leadership Session 3: Leadership Tools for Future and New Leaders in the Higher Education Disability Field
Chester Goad, Ed.D., Tennessee Technological University and AHEAD President-Elect
Crystal Hill, Ph.D., Ohio University and AHEAD Director at Large
Katy Washington, J.D., Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University and AHEAD President
The Leadership preconference options are broken down into three separate one-day and half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all three or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
Leadership comes with challenges of many types. Perhaps you are a director who didn't get a great start in your new role and need resources to “right the ship.” Or perhaps you are thinking about applying for your first role as a director. Maybe you are a seasoned leader with aspirations to move beyond your current role. No matter where you are in your career, this session will provide guidance that can be applied to the opportunities and challenges you are, or will soon be, facing.
Please join three seasoned higher education disability leaders as we discuss experiences navigating our careers in different institutional settings and roles. We will share important lessons learned and leadership approaches developed that have helped us successfully guide our offices through murky waters, as well as transition to new roles and positions, both within and beyond the disability office. We will discuss opportunities beyond director, key skills and responsibilities, clarifying your career goals, and how to prepare yourself for advancement.
Guided by participant questions and shared experiences, we will cover the following topics:
- Assessing Your Starting Point: Where you are and Where you want to be
- Building Your Leadership Skills: Within and Outside your Institution
- Building Your Capacity: Building Institutional and Professional Relationships
- Leadership versus Management: Developing Staff
- Exploring Leadership Opportunities Within and Beyond DS: Preparing for advancement.
- Know Your Happy Place: Personal, Institutional, and Positional Fit
- Resumes, Cover Letters, and Professional References
- Thinking Ahead to the Interview Process
- Figuring Out Your Next Steps: When is the Right Time?
- Getting Ready: Tips and Tricks for a Smoother DS and Institutional Leadership experience
The session will reserve lots of time for discussion and Q&A with the presenters. We look forward to joining together with current and future leaders of our field for important conversations about how we can use our talents and skills to advance access for all students.
PC 13: Writing Accommodations That are Clear and Intentional
Mandie Greiwe, Purdue University
Paul Harwell, Dartmouth College
Writing clear and effective accommodations language is part art and part science. There is no one right way to do this, but getting it right smooths the experience for everyone involved and limits the risk of confusion. The presenters, who have rewritten accommodation language at multiple schools, will offer a very practical “how to” preconference session with seven clear principles to apply when crafting meaningful accommodation language that support clarity, consistency, and action. This workshop will coach participants through the principles with real-world examples and provide an opportunity to apply the principles to either provided examples or your own current accommodation language. This session will be useful for anyone hoping to revisit their current accommodation language, but it will be particularly helpful for those who are addressing language they have recently “inherited” with a new role and those who are in the early stages of implementing an accommodation database system.
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PC 14: Health Science Session 3: Advocating for Inclusive Technical Standards: An Interactive Workshop
Matthew Sullivan Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Grace Clifford M.A.Ed., David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
The Health Science Accommdations preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
This pre-conference workshop is designed to educate attendees on promising practices related to the development of inclusive technical standards. Led by experienced presenters with a wealth of knowledge in drafting and updating technical standards across various programs, the session will provide a thorough exploration of methods to promote inclusive technical standards. Presenters will begin with an overview of the historical background of technical standards, their intended purpose, and legal and ethical implications, while highlighting key elements essential for inclusivity. Participants will then work in small groups to review their programmatic technical standards and collectively propose updates. Finally, the workshop will conclude with practical recommendations on how to effectively communicate the importance of inclusive technical standards to programmatic leadership. Active and ongoing opportunities for Q & A throughout the session will be provided, allowing participants to seek clarification and further insights, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the material covered and the proposed amendments to their technical standards.
PC 15: ADA/504 Coordinators Session 3: Policy, Process & Responsibilities for ADA/504 Coordinators
Bree Callahan, University of Washington
Emily Lucio, University of Maryland
The ADA Coordinators preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
Are you new to policy and procedure development and/or monitoring as an ADA Coordinator? Are you working to plan or coordinate an infrastructure that supports compliance and accessibility efforts at your institution? Are you interested in exchanges ideas and perspectives with peers?
This half-day session is designed as a venue for ADA/504 Coordinators or others involved in reviewing or establishing a policy structure for disability access and accessibility, to learn and discuss essential elements necessary to support the work across their institution. The session will begin with a broad discussion of policy planning and development, exploring governance structure for monitoring, and then narrow to elements of process and responsibilities. The presenters will ground policy development within larger policy processes and provide a policy development framework for participants. Some essential policies that will discussed include creating and adhering to campus grievance procedures and ensuring an effective interactive process to determine reasonable accommodations. After these presentations, participants will split into small groups based on the types of policies they are currently developing, or are interested in developing. Attendees will have an opportunity to interrogate their most challenging policy development issues in an venue that will allow for feedback and idea generation through collaborating and perspective sharing with other ADA/504 Coordinators who are doing similar work and leave the conference with progress made towards their next policy-related project.
PC 16: Technology Session 2: Digital Accessibility 101: What is it and what do we need to do about it?
Bruce Bailey M.Ed, U.S. Access Board
Korey Singleton Ph.D., George Mason University
The Technology preconference options are broken down into three separate one-day and half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all three or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
In recent months, the DOJ and OCR have signaled their intention to integrate guidance/requirements with respect to digital access in upcoming updates to Section 504 and the ADA (Title II). While many institutions are aware of the need to ensure equitable access to their information and communications technology resources, they are unaware of how to go about it.
In this session, participants will be provided with a baseline understanding of digital accessibility, the relevant laws and guidelines impacting digital access in higher education, and proposed steps that institutions should take to conform with these laws and guidelines.
PC 17: Community and Two-Year Campus Tools for Success
Michelle Mitchell M.Ed., Lehigh Carbon Community College
Teressa Eastman MBA, Butler Community College
Everett Deibler M.Ed., Badger Consulting and LCCC Adjunct
Meri Faulkner M.A., Spartanburg Community College
Come join us as we dive into the unique issues faced by two-year campuses around the country including dual/concurrently enrolled students, doing more with less by building relationships with faculty/staff, effective training on disability issues/accommodations for your institution, open enrollment issues including inclusive higher education programs, and advocating for more money through effective evaluation and assessment of your office. This session will provide dedicated time for networking, small group discussion, and experiential activities all culminating into an end-of-session roundtable discussion on “I have a situation that…”. So whether you work at a traditional community college, at your regional or state university, or some other configuration, we welcome you to join us for ½ day filled with practical application and discovery.
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PC 18: Health Science Session 4: Special Topics in Health Science Education
Grace Clifford M.A.Ed., David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Matthew Sullivan Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Charles Weiner J.D., Law Office of Charles Weiner
Maria Keller, Ph.D, University of California, Riverside
Maria Schiano, County College of Morris
The Health Science Accommodations preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
Specialized course accommodations are just one of many issues that are unique to health science programs. This session will cover many of the other commonly faced challenges for disability professionals who work with health science programs of any size or level, including:
- Requesting accommodations on standardized and high stakes exams (licensure, STEP exams, OSCEs, etc)
- Guiding students with recent diagnoses through the accommodation request process
- Student self disclosure of disability in clinical settings
- Remote learning requests
- Advising faculty and administrators who may instinctively slip from the role of faculty into their roles as health care providers when working with students with disabilities
- Addressing concerns from clinical faculty and staff about patient safety and student competence
- Service and emotional support animals in lab and clinical settings
- Anything else attendees bring to the session!
Come prepared for discussions about how these issues and more can be approached, and bring your stickiest situations for creative input from peers and experts!
PC 19: ADA/504 Coordinators Session 4: Navigating the Spectrum and Nuance of ADA Coordination
Heidi Pettyjohn, University of Cincinnati
Bree Callahan, University of Washington
The ADA/504 Coordinators preconference is broken down into four half-day segments - attendees may choose to attend all four or pick and choose among them to customize their learning.
The role of ADA/504 Coordinator is designed to support an institution of higher education systematically ensure equitable access across their institutional programs, services and activities. To engage in this work successfully a role needs to explore and understand a broad array of areas and aspects of accessibility through the across the numerous environments of a college. This session will cover many of the universally faced challenges for disability professionals who have the role of ADA/504 Coordinator on their campuses, including:
- Guide leadership on organizational needs and priorities to address access requirements.
- Advance work to confirm campus digital environments are accessible (library holdings, websites, social media, software, etc.)
- Ensure accommodations processes occur outside of the traditional academic and employment spaces, such as: the student conduct process or intersections with Title IX measures
- Support systems of access and accommodations in university run hospitals, clinics, and or care facilities
- Partner with stakeholders supporting accessible campus-sponsored events
- Monitor changes to laws and regulations and inform the campus community about new legal obligations
- Other topics or questions posed by attendees
Come ready to engage in active discussion and leave with new professional connections and a better sense of how to manage all of the various ADA/504 Coordinator duties.
PC 20: Technology Session 3: A.I. Unleashed: Transforming the Accessibility of Images, Graphics, and Math Through Alt Text Automation
Kristin Juhrs Kaylor M.A., University of Alabama
How can you improve the quality of your alt text and the accessibility of your math while reducing the time spent on manual writing and work in MathML? This BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) hands-on pre-conference workshop guides accessibility experts, digital content creators, educators, and instructional designers in mastering the use of AI to generate accurate and intricate alternative text (alt text) and create accessible math. Using standard prompts and images that need alt text, attendees will have the opportunity to use AI (Google Bard and/or Chat GPT 4) to create alt text for infographics, diagrams, charts, figurative images, general images, art appreciation images, tables, scatter plots, graphs, math, and complicated math. AI generated alt text is changing the game for math because it is quickly generated and screen readers reliably read it properly, versus MathML which is time consuming to create and does not always read reliably. Images and math will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring images and math of their own from their work. Finally, participants will explore best practices for using AI in accessibility work. Ultimately, this workshop can empower participants to speed their accessibility processes and enhance their online course and web accessibility, making digital content more inclusive for those with visual, learning, and cognitive disabilities, as well as those with limited internet bandwidth.
Participants should bring their own device to practice and are encouraged to bring examples of images from their work so that they can use AI to create alternative text they can use.
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