March 2022 Meeting

Meeting Date
  • Enjie Hall
    • Role and Experiences
      • Director of Accessibility and Disability Resources at the University of Toledo
      • Serves as University of Toledo’s ADA Section 504 Compliance Officer
      • 6.5 years at University of Toledo, before that worked at Ohio State’s disability office for 8 years
      • Identifies as disabled (blind), Asian, she/her
    • Overview of the Disability Services Infrastructure at U Toledo
      • Recently renamed their disability office to “Office of Accessibility and Disability Resources”
        • Wanted to honor disability and to highlight accessibility (as opposed to accomodations)
        • Got student input on name change
      • Serves faculty and students
        • Almost 1100 students connected with the office
        • Communication plans helps to communicate with students, faculty with disabilities, and faculty with disabled students
      • Goal is to facilitate access and ensure that activities and academics are inclusive and equitable
        • Accommodations are only one path to access
        • Part of broader campus mission to improve the human condition
        • “Nothing about us without us” philosophy
      • Initiatives and Projects
        • Annual student survey
        • Coordinate alternative media options (ASL, CART)
          • Currently moving towards providing CART always, waiting for students to ask for other options
        • Assistive technology
          • screen readers, zoom text, Jaws, Dragan naturally speaking, smart pens
          • Goal is to make students as tech savvy and independent as possible, develop skills to prepare for a career path
          • Always try to purchase the most accessible when purchasing new technology
            • Partnership with IT department and procurement
          • Unlimited auto-captioning for video and audio content, including an editor that allows for updates to the auto-captioning
        • Housing and dining accommodations
        • Plan renovations and construction for inclusivity
        • Experiential learning opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students
        • Testing accommodations across campus, not in a disability office, to make students feel comfortable and remove stigma
        • Student advisory groups
          • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) group
          • ADA liaisons, group which includes a dean from each of the 14 colleges
        • Faculty education provided at least once per college every two years
          • Currently using a curriculum about disability and accessibility through a social justice lens
        • Blackboard Ally tells faculty how accessible a document is when it’s posted to blackboard, and allows students to export the file in a different format to make it more accessible
          • Didn’t originally have auto-captioning, but chrome could still provide the captioning
        • During COVID, provided additional accommodations to support universal access
          • Difficult because of the uncertainty of COVID at the beginning
          • Accessible recordings of all classes by default
            • Included both pre-recorded material and real-time recordings, and live streams for virtual participation (Echo 360 and Media Site)
      • Disability Studies Program
        • 4 faculty that teach there
        • Bachelors and minor offered in Disability Studies, and certificate and concentration for masters students
        • Collaboration with the ability center (independent living center)
    • Questions
      • How do you respond when people provide feedback that you can’t address?
        • Start with the access that will affect the most people, work from there
        • Be creative with how to address problems/concerns
        • Close ties with students (student boards and student government) to find out what problems students are having and to put pressure on administrators
        • Ensure that DEI and accessibility are written into strategic planning documents to make sure people are constantly thinking about these things
        • Try to move beyond compliance to actual functionality
      • How does your office approach working with graduate students?
        • No difference in priority between grad and undergrad students
        • Recognize that grad students have different experiences than undergrads, so a holistic approach will recognize those differences
        • If it’s a teaching accommodation (ex. TA, GSI), they work with HR
        • If it’s an academic accommodation, they work with the office of accessibility and disability resources
      • Students coming from high school to college, it can be difficult to cope with the differences between IDEA law and ADA/college regulations. How do you straddle that transition?
        • Get information in the hands of those students
          • Transition nights for high school students trying to attend college
          • Publish information on website
          • Encourage students to meet with staff on college tours as they’re deciding where to attend
        • Clarify differences between accommodations and preferences
        • Include parents and caregivers in conversations about the transition and services available
        • Education and outreach
      • How do you collaborate with the Ability Center?
        • Transition programs for students to live on campus for a week before they permanently move in
        • Programming at the Ability Center frequently includes talks/presentations by Enjie and others about college options
        • Campaign about how to make Toledo the most accessible city in the US
        • Also partner with “Opportunities for Ohio-ans with Disabilities”
          • Program called College to Careers, 17 campuses in OH
          • Programs for disabled college students to help find internships, employment
      • What’s the next big plan/next steps?
        • Advance DEI on campus
        • Continue to innovate for student and faculty needs
        • Invest in technological access
      • Suggestion for UM:
        • For each page of questions in survey, create a space where the respondent can comment on the questions
  • Announcements and other matters arising
    • GEO is planning a disability town hall for the whole university
    • LA Community College District was litigating about providing accommodations
      • Forwarding a disparate impact theory
      • LACCD case not to continue to Supreme Court
    • Disability Day of Mourning event was wonderful, attendance encouraged next year if you haven’t gone before

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