Join the challenge to explore accessibility strategies and apply them to one small chunk of content in your course. We also encourage you to share your reflections, strategies, and examples with your peers in the asynchronous discussion. In the new Digital Accessibility Toolkit, you will find accessibility strategies, on-demand tutorials, and resources in these accessibility categories: Course structure, Text and documents, audio and video, plain language, images and tables, colors and animation.

Through this deeper drive, you will be guided in exploring the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which is comprised of a research-based set of principles that encourages instructors to remove barriers to learning in order to provide access to diverse students, beyond considerations of accommodations for students with disabilities. UDL can inform course and lesson design by prompting instructors to provide their students with multiple ways of engaging with course content, constructing knowledge, and demonstrating learning while accommodating cultural and learning differences.

73 million Americans, or 26% of the US population, listen to podcasts monthly, and 17%, or 48 million people, listen weekly. If you’ve thought about doing your own podcast to promote your scholarship or research, but don’t know where to start or how to make it accessible, this workshop will walk you through the basics. We’ll cover how to plan, record, publish, and promote your podcast in a way that is accessible for all listeners.

UMass Allies for Illness and Disability Access (UMAIDA) Network Promoting a supportive network and work environment that is inclusive and accessible for all individuals with lived experience of disability, deafness, illness (chronic and mental), injury, neurodiversity and their allies. The group also focuses on ways to support the recruitment, retention, professional development and career advancement of employees with disabilities.

The Digital Media Lab's 3D Print Services will introduce 3D printing, review 3D printed accessible objects, and review projects with a Q & A to follow.

This session is intended to introduce students, faculty, and staff to Assistive Technology (AT). Participants will learn more about AT and have access to explore some of the AT with Assistive Technology Center staff.

Accessible digital media is essential for people with disabilities, and is useful for everyone. In this workshop, participants will go beyond capturing audio and video to explore the barriers inaccessible digital media creates and how to avoid or remove them. Through activities and discussions, participants will learn how to identify accessible media and how to make new audio and video accessible from the start. Participants will also learn about tools and resources for creating accessible audio and video.

This presentation is intended for UMass web communications staff responsible for maintaining Drupal websites. The goal of the presentation is to showcase a way to recreate electronic documents, such as word and PDF files, as html pages using the book module. More often than not, electronic files aren’t accessible and can be a barrier to users of all levels. Recreating these files as web pages provides the largest benefit allowing them to be more easily edited and updated for administrators and more easily accessed by users.

In a partnership with Northeastern University we invite you to join a Conversations For Change panel discussion exploring accessibility in technology. The panel will feature three leaders working at the intersection of education, industry and accessibility to create technology that is broadly accessible and creates spaces that are truly inclusive to all. The discussion will address current accessibility challenges, areas of activism around accessibility, and ways to continue improving technology to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities.

Join Kate Sonka, Executive Director of Teach Access, to develop a further understanding of why teaching accessibility to our students is as important as teaching accessibly. Teach Access envisions a fully accessible future in which students enter the workforce with knowledge of the needs of people with disabilities and skills in the principles of accessible design and development, such that technology products and services are born accessible.

Join us to celebrate disability as diversity and share what we've learned and what we can proactively do to make our family more equitable for our disabled community.

This will be an informal gathering to talk about steps we have taken to make the campus more accessible and inclusive and to plan our next steps to make it more so!