Fall 2023 Webinar Series

AHEAD is excited to offer another series of engaging, thought-provoking webinars! The Fall 2023 Webinar Series was created to address current issues that face AHEAD members at all career stages and at all institution types. AHEAD is welcoming more new and newer professionals than ever before, so we created some sessions with early career guidance. Other webinars are designed to provide deeper responses to recurring questions that arise on the AHEAD Community discussion boards and to address ongoing desires for trainings that further connections to other campus offices that support students. 

Unlike its other professional development offerings, AHEAD allows schools to purchase one webinar subscription to share within your institution, making them a valuable staff investment as well as an opportunity to invite other campus departments to participate. Select just the topics that you’re working with now or attend all 9 webinars to bring a diverse program of information by nationally-recognized presenters. Information about how to share the login within your institution is provided with your paid registration and must be distributed by colleagues by the paid registrant. You may view them live or watch recordings later, making the AHEAD webinars a flexible, low-cost, high impact professional development opportunity!

All webinars will be hosted in the Zoom webinar platform and have real time captioning available. ASL interpreters are also provided. 


Webinar Presentation Materials & Recordings

When available, presentation materials will be emailed to paid registrants before the live webinar event.  Recordings of the webinars will be emailed to paid registrants after the live webinar event.  These resources will also be located in the "Resources" tab located in the webinar description area  on the eLearning platform and accessible to paid registrants, even if you purchased after the live event has ended. These links can be shared within your office or with other offices you work with. The paid registrant is responsible for sharing these resources with colleagues.  All rights reserved by AHEAD. Reposting permitted only with the express, written permission of AHEAD.

CEUs
AHEAD does not pre-arrange for CEUs with any certifying bodies for its webinars, but we are happy to provide proof of attendance. If you plan to use a webinar for CEU credit, contact your certifying agency to learn what information is necessary for you to request independent CEUs. Contact AHEAD at profdev@ahead.org if you need any programming or presenter information that is not available on AHEAD’s website. To request a certificate of attendance, please contact profdev@ahead.org.

2023 Fall Webinars graphic

Quick Links

Purchasing & Costs

Individual Webinars All 9 Webinars
AHEAD Members: $59 Each AHEAD Members: $499
Non-Members: $69 Each Non-Members: $599

 

Purchase Here

AHEAD’s  webinar registration system automatically sends an email receipt and individual emails for each webinar you select. Webinar-specific email messages include the Zoom link for the webinar and an option to add the session to your calendar. You will also receive reminder emails a few days before each webinar. 

AHEAD does not offer refunds on webinar purchases because complete recordings are available to watch at your convenience in the case of a scheduling conflict.  

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Webinar Titles & Description (All Times Eastern)

Neurodiversity Cultural Responsiveness: Improving Communication and Understanding

Sara Sanders Gardner, Neurodiversity Navigators at Bellevue College; Autistic at Work, LLC

Thursday, September 28, 2023, 12:00 – 1:30 Eastern

Participants in this 90-minute interactive workshop will have the opportunity to share experiences, ask questions, and learn to better understand and communicate with neurodivergent people. We will identify current practices you are already using and answer questions you have coming into the workshop, as well as those that arise throughout. We will explore neurodiversity as a culture, including communication tools for interacting in a culturally responsive manner. Participants will be better able to recognize and respond to communication patterns and needs of neurodivergent people and will learn methods to incorporate common accommodations into classroom settings to provide improved support for all. Attendees will come away with tools to apply these learnings in their daily work. Resources for future learning will be shared as well. Staff, administrators, and faculty will benefit from attending.

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

Leading Offices in Challenging Times: Supporting Staff Wellness and Job Satisfaction

Chris Stone, Washington University in St. Louis

Wednesday, October 4, 2-3:30 Eastern

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. Join AHEAD for a session 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.

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

Psychoeducational Evaluations: A Crash Course in Reviewing Psycho-Ed Reports/Documentation

Emily Helft, Landmark College Institute for Research and Training

Thursday, October 5, 1-2:30 Eastern

Psychoeducational evaluations are a common sight in many disability offices, however most disability professionals (understandably) do not have formal training in psychoeducational evaluation administration, interpretation, or report writing. It can be a bit confusing to understand where to begin! This webinar will cover a bird's eye view of this topic, including the purpose and limitations of psychoeducational evaluation, the anatomy of a psychoeducational evaluation report, and quick tips for locating meaningful information in the documentation you receive as it relates to accommodation decision-making. While we can't cover years of graduate training in 90 minutes, attendees will walk away feeling more comfortable with the overall concept of psychoeducational evaluation and its accompanying documentation that is likely to come across your desk in your everyday work. (Please note: due to time limitations and autonomy of institutional approaches, this webinar will *not* cover what individual subtests measure, nor will it be prescriptive in regard to concrete cutoff scores.)

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

The Role of Disability Resource Professionals on Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs)

Jon McGough, M.Ed., University of California, San Francisco
Emily Ackerland, M.Ed., Western Washington University

Wednesday, October 11, 1-2:30 Eastern

Every college and university has a different name and configuration of staff engaged in the important work of supporting students in crisis. Given varied orientations to the work, and different privacy concerns, communication is often muddled, and the role of each stakeholder is often ambiguous, leading some to question: Should disability resource professionals even be involved in these conversations at all? We believe the answer is YES! Whether you’re new to BITs or still working to get a seat at the table, we’ll discuss the many important roles you can play from supporting struggling students to addressing ableism and stigma on your campus.  

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

Wait... It's That Easy? Using Built-In Accessibility Features on Everyday Devices

Dan Darkow, M.S., Cleveland State University
Sean Poley, Miami University

Wednesday, October 25, 2-3:30 Eastern 

Are you working with students who need quick access to text-to-speech or speech-to-text, but don't have time for extensive training? Would you rather use built-in technology students already have access to on their personal devices for access, instead of purchasing standalone third-party software? If you've answered “Yes!” to these questions, this session is for you! We will explore the accessibility features built directly into technology such as your phones, tablets, and other personal computing devices. We will also discuss specific accessibility features available in the applications commonly used and cover leveraging virtual assistants and other technologies to facilitate and evaluate access digitally. Understanding built-in accessibility features available to ALL students helps advance universal design across campus and benefits everyone.

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

Understanding and Developing the Foundation for Sound Accommodation Decisions

Enjie Hall, CRC, LPC, University of Minnesota
Adam Meyer, Ph.D., University of Central Florida
Kristie Orr, Ph.D., Texas A&M University

Wednesday, November 1, 1-2:30pm Eastern 

As the student accommodation requests presented to a disability office grow in complexity, disability resource offices need to establish ways to balance individual decision-making with the consistency of process across situations and office personnel. Beyond the internal decisions, identifying when an accommodation in the classroom is reasonable (compared to when it may be a fundamental alteration) is also becoming more complicated in certain situations. The strength of decisions related to reasonable accommodations is based on the foundation that a disability office develops before critical decisions need to be made. This webinar will discuss these essential foundations and how these concepts align with and guide our reasonable accommodation decisions. As the pressures mount from students and even from our campus cultures, it is more important than ever that we do not lose focus on the essentials that guide our work. This webinar will explore considerations for making compliance-oriented decisions when your office operates from a social justice lens. 

This is the first of a two-part webinar series to offer strategies for how to design internal systems to meet current accommodation review needs. The second is on November 15. Attendees may attend one or both sessions.

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

 Advancing Disability Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Goals in Climates Where it is Not Encouraged or Welcomed 

Karen Andrews, Brown University
Zebadiah Hall, University of Wyoming
Melanie Thornton, University of Arkansas
Charnessa Warren, University of Chicago

Tuesday, November 7, 3- 4:30 Eastern

A topic of growing concern for many AHEAD members is the recent increase in laws limiting higher education institutions from engaging in diversity/equity/inclusion work, and whether/how that also impacts disability equity work. Join this panel of leaders with past higher education experience in states including Wyoming, Alaska, and Arkansas for this webinar to discuss how this work can continue to move forward in spite of some recent setbacks. This discussion will not focus on any particular law or state—even in locations where such laws are not in place we sometimes encounter resistance to DEI work. Please join us for this important and timely conversation.

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!

POSTPONED: Accessible Technology Procurement: A Free Tool For Accurate Assessment Beyond Technical Documentation and VPATs

Kyle Shachmut, Harvard University

Tuesday, November 14, 2-3:30 Eastern

The webinar Accessible Technology Procurement: A Free Tool For Accurate Assessment Beyond Technical Documentation and VPATs, scheduled for November 14, 2023 will unfortunately need to be postponed. AHEAD will send the new date once it has been rescheduled. The webinar will be recorded for those not able to attend on the rescheduled date. We apologize for the inconvenience.

How do you know your school is purchasing accessible technology? And if a product is accessible today, do you have confidence it will stay that way as it gets updated?

Higher education accessibility experts from 15 universities synthesized best practices for procurement into a tool already used by hundreds of schools for IT Security vendor risk assessments to streamline processes. Learn about the questions schools are asking technology providers and how to use this free toolkit called the HECVAT (higher education community vendor assessment toolkit). Tips for collaboration on campus across units such as IT accessibility, security, privacy and purchasing will be discussed. We encourage you to invite those campus partners to join you for this webinar!

Effective Models for Reasonable Accommodation Decisions 

Enjie Hall, CRC, LPC, University of Minnesota
Adam Meyer, Ph.D., University of Central Florida
Kristie Orr, Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Valerie Hamilton, Seattle Colleges
Elisabeth Morel, Western Connecticut State University

Wednesday, November 15, 1-3pm Eastern (NOTE 2-Hour Length)

As a follow up to the November 2nd webinar, a panel of five disability office leaders from different institution types and office sizes will discuss their approaches to navigating individual and group decision-making regarding reasonable accommodations and will also explore how they handle fundamental alteration reviews. Through the details of the models shared, attendees will receive considerations for practical ways in which they can improve their own processes. 

This is the second of a two-part webinar series to offer strategies for how to design internal systems to meet current accommodation review needs. Attendees do not need to have attended the first session to benefit from the second, but newer professionals may want to view the first part to gain a foundation for this session.

Did you miss this live webinar? You can now purchase the recording and presentation materials!


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Presenter Bios

Emily Ackerland

Emily Ackerland
Western Washington University




Karen Andrews

Karen Andrews
Brown University 

Karen Andrews has over 12 years of higher education disability experience and more than 12 years of K-12 special education experience, Karen is a visionary leader in disability services. She has a passionate commitment to creating a culture of inclusion for everyone, recognizing the intersectionality of the disabled. She works to ensure equitable opportunities and compliance with federal laws, state regulations, best practices and University-wide and campus guidelines related to equal access, barrier elimination, and resources and services for disabled students. Karen’s work extends nationally as she serves on the Board of the Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) as a Director-at-Large, is the current AHEAD Board liaison to the Knowledge and Practice Communities and is the former chair for the organization’s Race, Ethnicity, Diversity and Disability Special Interest Group. She is the 2022 awardee for the AHEAD Duraese Hall Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award. Every day, Karen and her service animal, Dooley, show up to serve the Brown community in advancing the cause of disability as diversity. Karen earned a BS in Elementary and Special Education from Northern Arizona University and an M. Ed. in Adult Education and Development from Strayer University.
Dan Darkow
Dan Darkow
Cleveland State University

Dan Darkow received his BS degree in management information systems from Wright State University and MS in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Miami University. His experience includes working in residence life and serving disabled students in the field of disability services. Ensuring disability access and inclusion is at the forefront of his personal and professional lives. He views disability as a powerful identity and recognizes the sociopolitical nature of claiming disability. Dan values his connection with disabled and non-disabled students, faculty, and staff and actively works to create a culture of access. He is currently Director of Cleveland State's disability and testing services and adjunct instructor in the disability studies program at Miami University. Outside of work, Dan serves on the board of directors for a nonprofit called NMD United, a peer-led organization supporting adults living with neuromuscular disabilities. His research interests include disability access and disclosure, assistive technology, accommodation usage, and the experiences of disability services professionals and disabled college students.


Sara Sanders Gardner
Sara Sanders Gardner 
Bellevue College

Sara Sanders Gardner is the openly autistic designer and director of Bellevue College's nationally recognized Neurodiversity Navigators program, established in 2011. Sara leads a team of staff, faculty, and peer mentors, designs curriculum, teaches First Year Seminar and a first quarter Survey Course to cohort students, and works to support disability inclusion and accessibility across campus. Until 2017, they served a dual role as an Access Specialist for neurodivergent students while directing the then Autism Spectrum Navigators program. As the founder of Autistic at Work LLC, Sara also provides consultation and training for Microsoft Corporation, Amazon Web Services, and other entities. Their work in the disability field began in 2001, when as a newly diagnosed autistic, they served as a parent advocate for Individual Education Program (IEP) meetings, provided parenting classes, “Helping the Behaviorally Challenging Child” at United Cerebral Palsy and the City of Irvine, and was president of a 600-family autism support group in Orange County, CA. Sara’s pronouns are they/them.


Enjie Hall
Enjie Hall

University of Minnesota


Enjie Hall, CRC, LPC, MRC, serves as both the Director for the Disability Resource Center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and the system-wide ADA Coordinator. As a disabled individual, Enjie has passionately advocated for civil rights and full participation of disabled people through inclusive design and practices for 25 years. Enjie previously worked in the disability office at The University of Toledo serving as director and ADA/Rehabilitation Act Compliance Officer, and prior to that, worked in the disability office at The Ohio State University. She served as a director at large on the AHEAD national board from 2018 to 2022 and was a past co-chair for the Blind and Low Vision Knowledge and Practice Community. She has actively mentored for the AHEAD Start program for new/er professionals. Enjie has presented locally and nationally on a variety of topics related to disability access, DEI, leadership/influence, digital accessibility and assistive technology, and navigating the interactive process. Enjie was a co-author for a white paper and articles pertaining to navigating and documenting the interactive process; best practices for emotional support animals; and the role of third-party documentation. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) as well as a licensed professional Counselor (PC). 

Zebadiah Hall
Zebadiah Hall
University of Wyoming

Zebadiah Hall is the University of Wyoming’s first full-time Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and formerly held the role of Equity Officer on the AHEAD Board of Directors. 




Valerie Hamilton
Valerie Hamilton
North Seattle College

Valerie Hamilton, M.Ed., is the Director of Disability Services at North Seattle College. She received her BA in History from the University of California - Santa Cruz, a Master of Education degree in Special Education from the University of Minnesota, and a professional degree in Post Secondary Education and Disability from the University of Connecticut. Valerie started her career as a special educator in the K-12 setting and then transitioned to working with college students with disabilities at the community college level in 2011. She has been in leadership roles at Central Connecticut State University, the University of Washington, and the University of Colorado, Boulder since 2015. She is also in instructor for the Master of Arts in Higher Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Valerie has presented at various local, state, and national conferences on topics related to team development and disability access.

Emily Helft
Emily Helft

Landmark College 


Emily Helft has over a decade of disabled student support experience in both K12 and higher education. Following her undergraduate work at Wheaton College (Massachusetts), she embarked on a career focused on supporting children and young adults with disabilities. She earned both her M.Ed. and Ed.S. in School Psychology from the College of William & Mary with an intense focus on psychoeducational assessment and evaluation, and worked as a school psychologist in the greater Richmond (Virginia) area for 3 years. After seeing the impact of regularly incorporating technology into her everyday field work supporting students, she transitioned into higher education as an assistive technology specialist. Over the next 6 years, she expanded her skill set into accommodation decision making and case management support, faculty consultation, accessible media production, academic skills development, and community education regarding accessibility and the disability community, with her disability resource office work ultimately culminating in a director role. Once she realized her true passion within the field was clearly tied to education and training, she joined Landmark’s College's LCIRT team to both narrow her focus and broaden her outreach. She is particularly interested in learning and cognition strategies, psychoeducational evaluation, and translating meaningful research into accessible content for students, educators, and parents. 

Jon McGough
Jon McGough

University of California, San Francisco


Jon McGough (he, him, his) has more than 15 years of experience coordinating ADA accommodations in higher education and private business. He served on the Board of the Coalition for Disability Access in Health Science and Medical Education and is a past President of the Washington Association on Postsecondary Education and Disability. His list of clients and past employers includes Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, the University of Washington, and Amazon, among others. He is currently the Student Disability Specialist at University of California, San Francisco.

Adam Meyer 
Adam Meyer 
University of Central Florida

Adam Meyer, Ph.D. is the Director of the Student Accessibility Services office and of Inclusive Education Services at the University of Central Florida. He was previously the Director of disability resource offices at Eastern Michigan University and Saint Louis University. Adam has served on the AHEAD Board of Directors and on AHEAD Standing Committees. He presents regularly on documentation, the social model of disability, leadership and office operations, initial student interviews, office data, and budgetary basics. Adam worked in the intellectual disability field for nearly 10 years prior to working in higher education. 

Elisabeth Morel
Elisabeth Morel
Western Connecticut State University

Elisabeth Morel has been the Director of AccessAbility Services at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) for the past eleven years. Prior to her arrival at WCSU, she was a Program Coordinator at the Center for Students with Disabilities at her alma mater, University of Connecticut. Elisabeth holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in k-12 special education and Advanced Leadership Certificate in Postsecondary Disability Services. In addition to overseeing all student accommodations and awareness initiatives, she chairs the Digital Accessibility Compliance Committee at WCSU and co-chairs the Accessibility Counsel through the Connecticut State Colleges and University system office. Her career has included developing procedures for, and managing, AccessAbility Services, assisting faculty in understanding and using Universal Design for Learning within their classroom, providing campus wide digital accessibility training and coordinating a statewide digital accessibility training program for individuals with disabilities.  


Kristie Orr
Kristie Orr
Texas A&M University

Kristie Orr is the Director of Disability Resources at Texas A&M University.  She earned her doctorate in School Psychology from Texas A&M University.  She also holds a Master of Education in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Texas A&M University. Kristie has worked in various positions in Disability Resources for the last 24 years including Access Coordinator, Assistant Director, and Associate Director before becoming the Director in 2010. Kristie has served on the Board of Directors for the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) since 2013 and is a Past President (President 2018-2020). Kristie was appointed to the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities in March 2020 and serves the state in providing policy recommendations in that capacity. Kristie also consults with other universities including external program reviews for over a dozen disability resource offices across the country.

Sean Poley
Sean Poley
Miami University 

Sean Poley serves as the Director of Accessible Technology and coordinates Miami’s accessible technology efforts and works closely with constituents across the University to ensure that accessible technology is seamlessly integrated to meet the needs of students, faculty and staff. Central to his mission is a focus on training and outreach, with special emphasis on bringing all interested parties to the table to raise awareness and improve accessibility throughout Miami. He holds a bachelor's degree in Human Development and Family Studies from Penn State and a master's degree in Social Work from the Hunter College School of Social Work. He is a veteran of both the U.S. Air Force and the PA Air National Guard.

Kyle Shachmut
Kyle Shachmut
Harvard University 

Kyle Shachmut is the Director of Digital Accessibility at Harvard University, providing strategic direction to digital accessibility efforts across Harvard's schools. He works at the intersections of information technology, disability inclusion and academic administration. He led creation of Harvard's Digital Accessibility Services team and collaborates with institutional leaders to guide governance of the University's Digital Accessibility Policy. Previously, his focus area included a universal design approach integrating accessibility into at-scale learning experiences through HarvardX - Harvard's initiative that creates online courses through the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning. Beyond Harvard, Kyle co-chairs the EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Community Group, the largest affinity group for digital accessibility professionals in higher education.

Chris Stone
Chris Stone
Washington University  in St. Louis

Chris Stone, Ed.D. joined Washington University as Director of Disability Resources (DR) in May 2020. Chris is the current President of Missouri AHEAD (MO-AHEAD), and previously held positions on the board of AHEAD (Director-at-Large) and NCAHEAD (Treasurer, President). He has co-chaired AHEAD’s annual conference (2016), was the Accessibility Advisor to the 2022 ACPA Convention, and gave a keynote address and featured presentations at the Inaugural Inclusion School conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador (March 2020).

Melanie Thornton
Melanie Thornton
University of Arkansas

Melanie Thornton is the Coordinator of Access and Equity Outreach at the University of Arkansas - Partners for Inclusive Communities. In this role, she provides training and technical assistance to a variety of organizations on topics related to disability, access, inclusion, and leadership. She is passionate about assisting organizations in creating cultures of access and inclusion and assisting professional colleagues in operationalizing social justice perspectives of disability.

Charnessa Warren
Charnessa Warren
University of Chicago 

Charnessa Warren holds a Bachelor of Science in Speech & Hearing Science, and a Master of Science degree in Disability and Human Development, with a concentration in Rehabilitative Technology. Charnessa is a current doctoral student in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, with a concentration in Diversity & Equity in Education. Charnessa is also a NCCJ St. Louis certified DEI FaciliTrainer. Charnessa currently works with the University of Chicago as the Director of Student Disability Services, as well as leads the Ivy Plus Disability Services Workgroup for higher education disability service providers. With 23 years of experience as a disability accommodation specialist and assistive technology subject matter expert, she has grown into a well-respected disability accomplice, speaker, leader, and thought partner in establishing innovative ways to incorporate disability as a part of diversity and inclusion efforts.  

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