August 2023 Meeting

Meeting Date

 

  • Opening quotation 
    • “Being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having access to every aspect of life” - Unknown
  • Agenda: 
    • Invited Guest - Allen Sheffield, Associate Director, Student Accessibility & Accommodation Services (SAAS) / Testing and Accommodations Center :  
      • Slides from today’s presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NLqfwBH-J0qLzzNzVLNUvLvMhTHuzexl3JX5b5LpKFY/edit?usp=sharing 
      • SAAS Updates for Fall term 
      • Updates from Allen:
        • When Dr. Okanlami started at SSD there were 9 people but now there are 25 spread across the 4 following departments.
          • SAAS is not just what was formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities. This office has grown rapidly and incorporated different programs. Accommodations are an integral part of their work but the office is more than that.
        • Meet the staff: https://ssd.umich.edu/staff
          • Dr. Okanlami was inducted into President Biden’s Council for Fitness.
          • Most of the team is new within the past few years.
        • Link to Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program (ASF) (a national leading program in this field):
          • Mailing list: https://umich.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4VCLKDzUBDtXlKS 
          • They are adding a quad or wheelchair rugby team to U of M. 
            • They have one of the international leaders in quad rugby, Chuck Aoki on their staff.
          • Weekly drop-in events for the community where you are able to play/experience a sport.
          • They have wheelchair basketball and tennis
            • They are having the 3rd Wolverine Invitation Basketball Tournament and need volunteers.
          • For information about ASF join the mailing list (above)
          • They focus on fitness as well as competitive sports.
        • Scholarships and Funding:
          • Under the leadership of Anya Cobler
          • This office has been able to award over $150,000 in scholarships and funding that includes the cost of being a student (sometimes includes the cost of technology to allow students to participate in all activities offered).
          • Tutoring funds and mini grants for student organizations that support students with disabilities.
        • Academic support and access partnerships (academic coaching)
          • They do academic coaching with a focus on executive functioning skills.
            • Not the tutoring component but the study and learning skills needed.
          • Peer assisted study sessions
            • Student led check-ins, being able to study, and learning strategies.
          • Coaching corner
            • Live workshops on accessibility and disability topics.
          • Canvas Classroom
            • All students connected to their office have access to this resource. It contains asynchronous modules focused on executive functioning skills and disability related topics.
          • Partnerships around campus
            • Examples of partnerships include: Sweetland, Science Learning Center, The Career Center, and Rackham.
            • They support Disability Student Organizations that seek a partnership with the office or have connections with SAAS.
            • Disability student organization partnerships
        • SSD
          • Accommodations for students at the university
        • Testing Accommodation Center (TAC)
          • There are 2 testing centers
            • The Modern Languages Building (MLB)
            • Central Campus Classroom Building (CCCB)
          • Improvements are being made to the MLB
            • Over the summer the MLB is being painted more calming colors. Previously the MLB had walls painted in a dark red.
            • The staff and welcome space is being redone to be more accessible.
          • Greater access for individuals who identify as having a disability
          • Reduce the burden on students. Students are responsible for filling out the request. Over the summer they tried a system that allowed the TAC to make the request for the student. The goal is to improve this experience for faculty and students. For finals faculty should put the finals dates in as soon as possible to allow for the appropriate arrangements.
          • Faculty will have a deadline of 5 days before the test to request accommodations through Accommodate.
          • Students can reserve a seat for an exam at the latest 48 hours before a test.
          • All of this is done through the Accomodate System- a video on how to use this system will be sent out to faculty using this system. 
          • This system was tested over the summer but is not ready to be fully implemented.
          • Students who do not need accommodations have an easy time showing up for a test and do not need to do any extra preparation. This is the goal for students with accommodations as well through this system.
          • The team is also making an effort to reduce email traffic.
      • Updates from Natalie Ridgway (Coordinator supervisor)
        • Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD)
          • Partnerships
            • Liaison model: Each school/college has a coordinator that is the primary contact for that school.
          • Assistive technology and accessibility tools (ATAT) workgroup: Focuses on implementation of AT at U of M.
            • This is not an interest group. This group is focused on the work that is going on and what is needed.
              • Contact Kevin Hicks or Natalie for information.
          • Accommodate is the platform with accommodation information. 
            • The office is working to update language.
            • An implementation guide is being developed. 
          •  
      • Updates from Deb Macintosh (Testing and Accommodations Center)
        • Looking at and incorporating faculty feedback
      • More updates from Allen:
        • Accommodate updates:
          • Reflecting name in Wolverine Access to display students and faculty’s chosen name as the primary name utilized. This allows us to honor students' identities as much as possible.
          • Faculty can download the course roster. Accommodate should be able to let faculty select students and email them directly easily.
          • They are in the process of adding the (Mid) Section to Accommodate. This allows people who utilize course coordinators to add them to that section to easily have access. Allows for group exam sections.
          • Allow people who are not Professors to  use Accommodate and use useful systems.
          • Faculty ‘To do’ portal
        • The Alpha Test: trying to do requests on behalf of students in response to an instructor indicating they wanted to use the TAC. Looking at ways to simplify requests.
      • https://ssd.umich.edu/ 
      • Updates from Saumya Gupta (SAAS Research Project Coordinator)
        • Adaptive sports and fitness research
        • 6th grader program
        • Prescription to play
        • The intersection of healthcare and disability and how it relates to fitness
        • Data collection for understanding how students are responding to services in order to improve services.  
      • Discussion and questions

 

  • Announcements
    • We received a lot of nominations for the Neubacher award and the committee will start reviewing the nominations soon.
    • October Events for the Anti-Ableist Conference and Disability Community Month.
      •  Deborah Willis suggested the community decide what they would like to see happening. The community would have to get together and plan events but there is a lot of interest around this topic so it is possible to organize.
      • Possibly an interest list and/or  a calendar for events for October and creating an interest group.
      • CDHW Annual symposium planned for the first week of October in order to not conflict with TAAA events. 
      • Usually there are a lot of places around campus that are hosting disability events around campus. We could collect all of that and have a central point of accessing the information. 
    • ECRT will be working on hosting some NDEAM events/programming/training opportunities in October as our inaugural effort at contributing to October events on campus- if anyone has ideas for sessions or events  please email [email protected]
    • Notice of proposed rulemaking for NPRM clearly codifying web and digital accessibility responsibilities under Title 2 of the APA.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/04/2023-15823/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-disability-accessibility-of-web-information-and-services-of-state