Author: Trisha Whiteman

Hello Owls! We are just over a month into the fall 2023 semester, and I hope you all are thriving. This month, I want to highlight National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) which is held every October. NDEAM is led by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and the theme this year is “Advancing Access and Equity”.

Organizations must commit to disability inclusion and regularly reinforce that commitment to employees. Rice faculty, staff, and students share values that are essential to our success as a healthy community through Responsibility, Integrity, Community, and Excellence. Ensuring that disability is included in the University’s DEI efforts is vital to honoring these values and to creating an inclusive community at Rice.  

I often get asked about how we can be more disability-inclusive, and the honest answer is that it will take work and commitment from everyone. We all may have different experiences with disability, perhaps having friends or family who are disabled or being a member of the disability community ourselves. If you haven’t experienced disability or are unsure of how to be an ally to the community one of the best places to start is by learning about the community, from people with disabilities. Here are some recommended resources and approaches that you can use to get started and get involved: 

• Get comfortable with disability etiquette  
• Learn how people with disabilities use the web and disability history in the US 
• Teach students about disability and accessible design across various disciplines 
• Create accessible files and documents so everyone can use them  
• Focus on building an inclusive workforce to recruit, hire and retain employees with disabilities  

My goal for this NDEAM is to spark good conversations, share ideas and resources, and support the Rice community as we work on disability inclusion efforts. Thank you for your help in advancing access and equity for people with disabilities!

Celebrating Disability Pride Month

As the calendar turns to July, it’s time to honor and celebrate Disability Pride Month—a month dedicated to promoting acceptance, understanding, and appreciation for individuals with disabilities. During this period, we come together as a global community to acknowledge the unique experiences and contributions of people with disabilities, while also striving to break down barriers and build a more inclusive society. Did you know that July was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act? This year will mark 33 years!

Disability Pride Month serves as a crucial reminder that diversity is the essence of humanity. Every individual, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, brings a distinct perspective, talent, and voice to the world. By embracing diversity and fostering an inclusive mindset, we enrich our communities and unleash the full potential of each person, creating an environment where everyone can thrive and contribute positively to society.

One of the fundamental aspects of Disability Pride Month is amplifying the voices of people with disabilities. It’s an opportunity to listen, learn, and understand the challenges they face daily, as well as the triumphs they achieve. By empowering their voices, we not only build empathy and compassion but also advocate for the removal of societal barriers and the establishment of accessible infrastructure, ensuring equal opportunities for all.

So what can we do? We can learn about Disability Pride Month and the Disability Rights Movement, follow and learn from disability advocates on LinkedIn , read Emily Ladau’s book Demystifying Disability online free from Fondren, watch Crip Camp or How the ADA Changed the Built World and prioritize including understanding disability as part of our individual DEI journeys.

Disability Pride Month is a time to reflect on the strides we’ve made towards inclusion and acknowledge the work that still lies ahead. By embracing diversity and amplifying the voices of people with disabilities, we pave the way for a more equitable and compassionate world—a world where everyone can take pride in their uniqueness and make meaningful contributions to society.

One of my Teaching and Scholarly Learning (TSL) teammates was kind enough to invite me to be March’s First Friday speaker. Friday Fridays are monthly synchronous TSL events that feature instructor successes and is also a place for anyone who is teaching to ask questions, give feedback, share success stories, get advice etc. Of course I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to talk about disability and accessibility with colleagues!

Disability first

In my conversations with Rice community members and beyond, I find that one of the best ways to help people understand why accessibility is important is to talk about disability first. For some reason, a few of which I discuss in the recording below, our society by and large regards disability as a bad word or thing. Many people in the disability community accept disabled/disability but there are plenty of other words or phrases that we do need to stop using. Want to learn more about how to be inclusive in speech and writing? The ADA National Network has a great page on guidelines for writing about people with disabilities and Erk Gunce’s article on communicating with disabled people is a solid read too. I’m still learning how to be a supportive a11y too, one of the areas I’m working on currently is trying to use both person first and disability first language to include all ways someone might identify.

The word disability as it describes fellow humans, friends, family members can invoke thinking or feeling of deficiency, something wrong or something to be fixed. This is in fact a societal norm, where disability is viewed medically as a result of an individual’s difference. The social model of disability frames the conversation that society must adapt to be accessible for people with disabilities so they are not excluded, othered and unable to fully participate in society. There have been many models discussed by disability researchers, but I love talking about and centering the social model because it gets to the heart of DEI initiatives where our attitudes, beliefs and structures as a society need to change.

Once we understand disability as a social construct, that disability belongs within our DEI work and that accessibility is the bridge for people with disabilities to fully participate in our offerings, the pieces all start to fall into place. Working to fix an inaccessible PDF or endeavoring to ensure that a new technology that we bring onboard at the University will function for all community members is bolstered by this understanding.

Want to hear more? Check out the video recording of the First Friday conversation.

Until next time my friends!

New year, new thoughts

Happy new year Owls! Many of us use the freshness of the changing year to reflect back and think about new ways of operating in our personal and professional lives; myself included. Any time we can take moments to practice self-efficacy and reflect, we can make room to give ourselves grace and some perspective. As I enter my third month at Rice and given the time of the year, it seems like a good time to share my thoughts on how we as a community can future plan for accessibility in the coming year.

One of the frequent questions I’ve been getting as I meet more colleagues across campus is how we are doing on the accessibility front. We have a strong foundation from the University’s commitment to accessibility and DEI, and there have been some good investments in technologies that can help people learn more about how to design accessible websites and learning experiences. As I have been having these conversations, one of the stories I’ve been sharing on how we can plan for the future is the importance of looking at how we can shift accessibility “left” in our departments, teams and individual workflows.

Shift left 

The concept or principle of shifting left is a business and IT concept that centers around performing certain tasks earlier in a lifecycle to hopefully decrease errors that cause rework and extra costs that could have been avoided (Gadda, 2016; Cognizant, 2014). Anyone that has had to edit an inaccessible document, media or web content knows how much additional time and effort it takes, over starting with creating an accessible content item in the first place. The same applies to choosing a technology program or application.

For people with disabilities, engaging with that inaccessible content or program means they don’t have equal access the same way an able-bodied person would. The barrier can lead to frustration, feelings of otherness and can even leave the person unable to carry out their task whether it be for an assignment or for a work project/responsibility.

Putting shift left to use 

Utilizing the shift left principle, we can all work toward understanding the experience of our students and colleagues with disabilities and include accessibility as we begin a new project, when we review existing workflows or procedures or evaluate new technologies. Here are some ideas on how we can shift left in our work:

•  Keep people with disabilities in mind when we think about how our end users (students, other faculty and staff) will engage with content, service or product. Unsure? Review the W3C’s How People with Disabilities use the Web or ask your friendly neighborhood Digital Accessibility Coordinator (that’s me!)
•  Include accessibility within the requirements gathering phase of your project planning. For projects that include digital components, we must adhere to the WCAG 2.1 AA standards per Rice policy 851. Check out the A11Y Project’s tool Check Your WCAG Compliance, it’s an easy to understand checklist
•  Knowledge is power. Include accessibility training opportunities in your yearly goals or encourage your team to spend time getting to learn about accessibility and disability. Join the Accessibility @ Rice Slack channel to see updates from me on training and learning! 

I hope you will all join me this year in shifting left and putting accessibility as a priority in your work. Accessibility is everyone’s responsibility and it takes all of us to move the needle forward. When we utilize accessibility best practices, our products, services and teaching benefit everyone.  

References

Cognizant. (2014). Driving Business Excellence Through Innovative IT Service Management. 

Gadda, K. R. (2016). Shift-Left Strategy Practices in Business Intelligence System of the European Materials Technology. Journal of IT and Economic Development, 7(1), 34-43.

Introduction

Hello Owls! I’d like to introduce myself: my name is Trisha, I use she/her pronouns and I am the new Digital Information Accessibility Coordinator.

I started at Rice in late October and am excited to be here. I joined the Learning Environments team within OIT, working remotely from New Hampshire, and am coming from Southern New Hampshire University where I was a librarian and faculty member for eight years. Prior to SNHU I was at Nova Southeastern University for several years as a teaching and research librarian.

I’ve been working with digital accessibility since 2016 and this past spring earned a credential as an IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competency. Last year I completed a sabbatical research project on ableism & disability microaggressions experienced by SNHU’s disabled community, and am an active presenter on accessibility topics.

My Role

Currently, I am working to get to know the Rice community and beginning to branch out as I am getting up to speed with all things accessibility at the University. I know I am not the only new face on campus, it sounds like I am joining the team at an exciting time of change and renewal across the organization. For anyone else that is new or has not engaged with digital accessibility for a while at Rice, here’s a quick overview of some of the ways I’m here to support you and our community:

• Developing & executing best practices for accessible public and learner facing content
• Assessing & evaluating technologies
• Delivering training & development opportunities
• Assisting to foster social initiatives for accessibility as part of DEI

Support

As I get going into more activities within my role, there are many ways you can get support now for any accessibility work you are currently engaged in. There are lots of great posts within this blog, recorded webinars and guides on the Access @ Rice website from my predecessor, John. Schedule some time with me or invite me to a department or committee meeting. Join the Accessibility @ Rice Slack channel to connect with me and other a11ies as we share work, questions, news and development opportunities.  I look forward to working with you all and building on the strong accessibility foundations that exist and expanding our a11y network here at Rice!