July 2023 Meeting

Meeting Date
  • Opening quotation 
    • “An issue that I have within both Black spaces and disability spaces is that people want you to fragment yourself. If I’m going to be in your space, you need to see all of me instead of seeing the part of me that is similar to you.”
      • Vilissa Thompson
  • Agenda: 
    • Follow up from our June Meeting with the Campus Plan 2050 Team   
    • Follow up from Faculty Symposium on Anti-Racism Research and Scholarship viewing and formal letter
      • Link to rough draft letter: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypGU8b09lFnpbeP9mXh6n5ehF-_RfS5Xkah6-ChLxKY/edit?usp=sharing 
        • This is  a very rough draft; the final draft will be bullet pointed for accessibility. We will be updating this document as we go through the editing process. 
        • Background information on the project:
          • Last December or November Patricia requested virtual access for accessibility for the Faculty Symposium on Anti-Racism Research and Scholarship but they denied her request. The event included cameras but decided to deny people who wanted virtual access access to the event. The cameras recorded videos that were posted almost a month after the event. Because the symposium was very interactive we would have liked the chance for people with disabilities and people unable to attend in person to provide their team with feedback. As a result CfDC hosted viewing sessions that were open to everyone to compile feedback.
          • The in person event included a lot of accessibility features. The videos did have captions but the captions were only okay.
          • We will be restructuring the letter from a more letter based format to a list format for easy reading and accessibility.
        • Feedback from our community during the meeting:
          • One reason brought up by Todd was that one of the reasons there would be cameras but no live stream is ignorance about how to do it. People are also afraid that if they offer an online version that no one would show up in person. The problem with providing videos later is that it gives people experiencing it online a second class experience. 
          • People don’t want things bought for in person participants to go to waste but using this as an excuse to not allow online participation is an ableist way of thinking.
          • This event was in the winter so not including a virtual event could have put people in danger due to cold weather and poor road conditions. Additionally this event was held in the union which requires people with disabilities to go around the building to find an accessible entrance.
          • This event was hosted by the diversity offices which meant that people with disabilities are included in their primary audience yet were not granted the access that was asked for. 
          • Make sure that people online and in person have equitable experiences. There needs to be people who run the online event the same way we run the in person event in case there are technology issues or issues with allowing online participants to participate.
          • If there is an issue with gaining accessibility to an event please contact the ADA team to request an accommodation. If you do this as soon as the event is published you have better odds to be granted an accommodation because there will be time for the accommodation to be planned out. LSA technology services wants to provide as much help as possible so if you make a request in time they will do their best to accommodate you.
          • The UMMA recently held an event that was held before buses started running. So one of our participants asked for virtual access and was granted that access. Because some of the presenters of the event were on zoom they easily accommodated her. The event included accessible captions and other accessibility features. This event was a great example of how accessibility should be included in events.
      • Why is our feedback necessary
      • Where to find support
    • Discussion about accessibility for events at the University of Michigan
      • UMMA accessibility for an event on zoom
        • Asking for virtual access and receiving it is important 
        • Why don’t we make events hybrid? 
        • We can ask for accessibility from many U of M Events