Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion, & Disability: "Access by Design"
April 15 & 16, 2003
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
9:00am-11:00am - ADAAG
Earlene Sesker, Accessibility Specialist, The Access Board; Bruce Growick, Public Member of the Access Board and Associate Professor of Rehabilitation, The Ohio State University
11:15am–12:30pm - Keynote
John Wodatch, Chief, Disability Rights Section, U.S. Department of Justice
12:45pm-2:00pm - LUNCH
2:15pm–3:45pm - CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Session A: Visitability
Shelley Papenfuse, Director of Strategic Planning and Grants, The Ability Center of Greater Toledo
Session B: Emergency Evacuations
Shawn Dunaway, Technical Specialist, ADA-OHIO; Sherry Kovach, Assistant Chief, Fire Prevention Bureau, Ohio Department of Commerce, Division State Fire Marshals
This presentation will explore the resources and techniques for evacuating people with disabilities. The discussion will also focus on considerations for designing an emergency evacuation plan that includes the needs of people with disabilities.
Session C: Developing Accessible Web Pages
David Sweeney, Program Coordinator, Adaptive Technology Service, Texas A & M University
As more and more institutional curriculum and information resources move into the electronic domain, web accessibility becomes more and more critical. Many states have passed administrative rules requiring accessibility of institutional websites, even as federal disability laws have been more broadly interpreted to cover electronic media. The matter is complicated by greater use of nontraditional user agents that require better formed information. This presentation will discuss the "why" of accessible web design including aspects of universal design, legal requirements, accessibility standards, tools, and institutional accessibility planning.
Session D: Disability Studies & Foreign Language Studies
Elizabeth Hamilton, Assistant Professor of German, Oberlin College; Tammy Berberi, Assistant Professor of French, University of Minnesota, Morris
Because disability is both universal and culturally conditioned, the foreign language classroom is an ideal space for exploring physical difference. Offering reflections on FL materials and the assumptions that underlie current pedagogical practices, panelists explore the role that transformed materials, pedagogies, and curricula might play in creating a more inclusive classroom and campus environment. Includes examples of disability-centered materials.
4:00pm–5:30pm - CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Session A: Communication Disorders & Linguistically Diverse Populations
Abdesalam Soudi, International Patient Center, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
This presentation is aimed primarily at analyzing how the ADA interacts with culturally and linguistically diverse populations with communications disorders. The most recent statistics indicate that 1 in 7 Americans do not speak English as their first language and that over 1 million of this group are living with aphasia. These figures demand that we examine the traditional paradigm for the delivery of speech and hearing services and accommodations to linguistically diverse patients with language and hearing impairments should be in their primary language.
Session B: Access to Health Care & the Federal Civil Rights Laws that Apply
Darlene Howard, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Region V Office for Civil Rights
Session C: Emerging Compliance: From 'Usable' to 'Accessible' at The University of Akron
Sally Gamauf, Director, Office of Accessibility; Jay Tarby, Sr. Multimedia Producer; Patrick Tabatcher, Graphics Instructional Designer; Evangeline Varonis, Multimedia Specialist; all from the University of Akron
Two University of Akron units are collaborating to move beyond usable design to accessible design. Before and after versions of materials, some used widely in general education courses, will demonstrate that what one person sees is not necessarily what another person gets. Specific software discussed will include WebCT and JAWS.
Session D: Disability Aesthetics and the Built Environment
Tobin Siebers, Director, Program in Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
Disability activists focus on how the desire to represent perfect, individual bodies excludes the experience of disability from the built environment. This paper argues that the fight against negative body images must extend beyond images of the individual body strictly speaking to their symbolic resonance in buildings and architectural forms.
5:45–7:00pm - RECEPTION READING BY GEORGINA KLEEGE
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
9:00am–10:30am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Session A: Work-Related Disability Harassment
Jerome J. Holzbauer, PhD, Adjunct Instructor, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Although work and school-related disability harassment is legally recognized as discrimination, this type of harassment is not widely recognized in case law. The presentation includes prevalence results of disability harassment with supportive data, an update on recent litigation, and a proposal for an innovative approach to the problem for employers.
Session B: The Americans with Disabilities Act: The First Decade of Enforcement
Ruth Colker, Heck-Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
Professor Colker will discuss her empirical data for the first decade of judicial enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Primarily examining appellate results from the federal courts, she will report that defendants have been disproportionately successful in ADA actions. She will compare these results to litigation results under other civil rights statutes and consider why the results are so pro-defendant.
Session C: Rights and Responsibilities: Transition to College
Maria Schloendorn, Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Cleveland Office; Robert Uvena, Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Cleveland Office
This presentation will provide an overview of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It will compare and contrast these statues as they apply to students with disabilities at high school and the postsecondary level. The obligations of postsecondary institutions and the rights and responsibilities of students with disabilities as well as best practices for providing/receiving academic adjustments will be discussed. This interactive presentation will help make transition from high school to college more successful for students with disabilities.
Session D: Introduction to Disability Studies – Project presentations from students
Session Moderator: Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Associate Professor, English, Co-Coordinator American Sign Language Program, Co-Coordinator Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Minor, The Ohio State University
Speakers/Participants: Sue Cohen, The Ohio State University; Lauren Kelley, The Ohio State University; Susan Nolan, The Ohio State University; Elizabeth Ryan, The Ohio State University; Tina VanMeter, The Ohio State University; Megan Kilgore, The Ohio State University; Kathy Merkle, The Ohio State University
Undergraduate students in Ohio State's first Introduction to Disability Studies course (as part of the new undergraduate interdisciplinary minor in Disability Studies) will share some of the completed work and still-ongoing projects from this Fall 2002 course. Work to be presented is from students majoring in English, Education, Speech & Hearing, Political Science, Dance, and Allied Medicine.
10:45am–12:15pm - CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Session A: The ADA & Psychiatric Disabilities
John D. Sargent, Supervisory Trial Attorney, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Session B: Assuring an Accessible Environment
Jan Sokolnicki, Senior Staff, Ohio Board of Building Standards
A condensed overview program of the 6-1 hour training segments being developed to educate designers and code enforcement professionals in what the federal and state accessibility requirements are that apply to buildings and facilities covered by the Ohio Building Code.
Session C: Year in Review
Catherine Anderle, Chief Attorney, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education; Karla Ussery, Attorney, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
An overview of recent OCR resolution letters and agreements regarding issues affecting students with disabilities in postsecondary education settings, as well as provide a general question and answer session on the rights of students with disabilities and the responsibilities of colleges and universities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991.
Session D: Disability Studies: A Work in Progress
Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Associate Professor, English, Co-Coordinator American Sign Language Program, Co-Coordinator Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Minor, The Ohio State University; Jim Ferris, Faculty Associate in Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Patricia Murphy, Director and Visiting Professor, Disability Studies Program, University of Toledo; Shelley Papenfuse, Director of Strategic Planning and Grants, The Ability Center of Greater Toledo; Susan Schweik, Associate Professor, English, University of California Berkeley
Maps and models of four new Disability Studies Programs will be shared in this session. The four new program models that will be featured are from Berkeley, The Ohio State University, University of Toledo, and University of Wisconsin. Questions and discussion with the audience will be invited.
12:30pm–1:45pm - Lunch
2:00pm–3:30pm - CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Session A: Accommodations in the Workplace: 20 Years of Experience
Mayda Larosse, MA, Human Factors Consultant, Job Accommodation Network (JAN)
A brief summary on JAN and the service it offers callers. The consultant will also share the process that JAN follows to determine accommodation ideas. Accommodation examples will be shared for a variety of disabilities, including hidden disabilities.
Session B: It's Me But Not All of Me
Derek Mortland, Independent Living Advocate for Mobile Center for Independent Living, Independent Musician and Board Member of Artists with Disabilities Network of Ohio, Board of Directors for The Adaptive Adventure Sports Coalition, Public Speaker and Consultant
Bring your spirit of adventure as we set off to explore societal beliefs and concepts towards disability and personal beliefs towards our own strengths and limitations. Find out who the two types of people are in the world, which one you are, and if this is really all of you.
Session C: College Students with Psychiatric Disabilities: Supports, Services & Strategies
Christy Willis, Director, Disability Support Services, The George Washington University; Zachary Hedrington, Coordinator, Bi-Polar Support Group, The George Washington University
The Office of Disability Support Services is serving a growing number of students with psychiatric disabilities. Mental illness, by itself or co-existing with other disability conditions, presents a major challenge in the educational setting, especially for the student in late adolescence and early adulthood. A comprehensive support program -- from referral and diagnosis to disability management and peer support -- can improve retention and promote the full participation of students with psychiatric disabilities in campus life.
Session D: Disability and the Ministry
Albert Herzog, Jr., PhD, Lecturer, Sociology, The Ohio State University, Newark Campus
The presentation's goal is to provide an overview of organized religion's response to disability in American society and culture. First, it will provide a broad overview of organized religion's response to disability in the past. Second, it will outline a number of forms of ministry which have been developed in response to persons with disabilities. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of how organized religion's response to disability can inform how we relate to people with disabilities in various secular settings.
3:45pm–5:15pm - CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Session A: Developing a Written Procedure for Providing Reasonable Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities: How the EEOC Does It
John D. Sargent, Supervisory Trial Attorney, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Session B: Walt Whitman and the Body Politic: Disability and American Vision
Stephen Kuusisto, Assistant Professor, English, The Ohio State University
Poet Stephen Kuusisto explores the later poetry and prose of Walt Whitman as it relates to Whitman's own progressive disability. Kuusisto argues that the discrepancy between the mythic "Body Electric" of Whitman's early work and the poet's later progressive disability is intentionally positioned in the poet's philosophical dualism. The inciting principle behind all of Whitman's work is in essence the "broken" body.
Session C: Transition from Secondary to Postsecondary Education: Key Factors for Students
Rich Torres, Visually Impaired/Adaptive Technology Specialist, Lansing Community College; Margo Vreeburg Izzo, Principal Investigator, Nisonger Center, The Ohio State University
Panelists will discuss some of the common difficulties experienced by students with disabilities when transitioning from the high school to college environment. They will explore some of the strategies being implemented at Lansing Community College to address these issues including an overview of a collaborative project between LCC and a local high school. Finally, what happens to students after college graduation in terms of employment outcomes will be described. The benefits of entering and completing a postsecondary education will be highlighted.
Session D: Comparing an American and Canadian MS Virtual Support Community
Gerald Gold, York University
In a comparison of virtual support communities for MS, only American narratives focus on the availability of health services and emphasize access to medical knowledge. In comparison, the Canadian group is characterized by strong ties including marriage. Common to both communities are "tales of the clinic," and an unseen medical presence or "gaze."