The William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation has been collaborating with the National Federation of the Blind for several years to support digital accessibility efforts across the System. We are excited to announce that we are now collaborating to co-host an upcoming meeting to discuss how to build support for faculty around digital accessibility for learning on Thursday, September 29 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the National Federation of Blind’s offices in Baltimore.
Digital accessibility refers to the intentional design of electronic technologies and materials so that they are usable by all people, including people with disabilities. In the case of our increasingly technology-enhanced courses, digital accessibility means equal access to educational opportunity.
The purpose of this meeting, which is co-hosted by the National Federation of the Blind and the Kirwan Center, is to explore ways USM institutions—individually and collectively—might better support faculty and other educational staff as they work to ensure that the instructional technologies and digital materials they use in their courses are accessible to all learners.
How do we help faculty understand their role in and responsibility in digital accessibility for learning? What kind of support is available to them in the selection and/or creation of instructional materials? How do we create a “born accessible” culture within our academic programs? And how might we collaborate across USM institutions to share resources and best practices?
The agenda for the day will include a keynote by Dr. Jonathan Lazar, Professor, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Lazar is involved in research and teaching related to human-computer interaction (HCI), with a focus on information and communication technology (ICT) accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technologies, and law and public policy related to accessibility and HCI. Breakout sessions will address topics including building supports for faculty to evaluate and create curricular materials, facilitating culture change, laws/legal obligations and standards. Teams will have time to reflect on the day’s learnings and plan their next steps.
This event is by invitation only and all attendees must be part of a designated institutional team. Please use the Registration tab to register for the meeting.
Location
National Federation of the Blind - 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Date
September 29, 2022 | 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Cost
Free
Schedule at a Glance | |
8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. | Registration and Breakfast |
9:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. | Welcome and Opening Remarks |
9:15 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. | Keynote Address Strategies for Improving Digital Accessibility: Supporting Faculty, Staff, and Administrators Jonathan Lazar, Professor, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park |
10:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. | Institutional Team Planning |
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. | Break and Transition |
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. | Concurrent Sessions Building Institutional Awareness for Digital Accessibility through Campus Partnerships ADA IRL? NP! – Faculty’s Role in ADA Compliance in a Digital World |
11:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | Lunch |
12:15 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. | Break and Transition |
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. | Concurrent Sessions Supporting Faculty around Digital Accessibility: Challenges, Strategies, and Aspirations Making an Accessible Classroom |
1:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. | Break and Transition |
1:45 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. | Institutional Planning and Sharing |
2:45 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. | Wrap Up and Next Steps |
Jonathan Lazar
Professor, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Jonathan Lazar is a professor in the College of Information Studies (iSchool) at the University of Maryland. Dr. Lazar joined the iSchool in 2019, after 19 years as a professor of computer and information sciences at Towson University, where he served as director of the information systems program for 14 years. Dr. Lazar has authored or edited 13 books, including Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction (2nd edition, co-authored with Heidi Feng and Harry Hochheiser), Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy (co-authored with Dan Goldstein and Anne Taylor), Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology (co-edited with Michael Stein), Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations, and Web Usability: A User-Centered Design Approach. His 14th book, Accessible Technology and the Developing World, will be published by Oxford University Press in mid-2021. He has published over 150 refereed articles in journals, conference proceedings, edited books, and magazines, and has been granted two US patents for his work on accessible web-based security features for blind users. He frequently serves as an adviser to government agencies and regularly provides testimony at federal and state levels, and multiple US federal regulations cite his research publications. He has been on the executive Board of the Friends of the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped since 2009, was co-chair of the Cambridge University Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) from 2012-2020, and has been on the program committee of the ACM Conference on Accessible Computing (ASSETS) most years since 2006. Dr. Lazar was the general chair of the ASSETS 2021 conference. Dr. Lazar is the director of the Trace Center and is a faculty member in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab.
