Accessibility in OER Fall 2022

Hi everyone! I'm Kristin Herman the Online and Digital Learning Coordinator at Centennial School District just NE of Philadelphia. As our virtual learning pathway for students grows in enrollment, we are starting to look at issues of digital accessibility as a district and distinguish between a compliance and a service level. I'm really excited to be gain expertise to take back to our leadership team!

Hey fellow Kristin with an "i"!

My name is Annemarie Catalano, and I am an emotional support teacher at Log College Middle School in Centennial School District, which is located about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia.  I teach grades 6 & 8 this year, ELA and Math.   I am our building's Digital Liason, a new and exciting support position.

I'm excited about this process because as a special education teacher, access is so crucially important, especially as we continue to grow globally as a digital world.  I've had to cobble together things for students whose needs we just haven't been able to meet from a digital perspective, and I look forward to the day when there are resources available to provide meaningful - not 'just good enough' - access to all.

Hi; I'm Rebecca Dowgiert, the Scholary Communications librarian at the Whittemore Library at Framingham State University.  I'm excited to have the chance to increase my knowledge about accessibility in order to better support the authors currently creating new OER under the 3-year, 6-institution ROTEL grant.

HI! Susan Payne, Education Standards and Systems Specialist at the Oregon Department of Education. Looking forward to learning more about accessibility specific to OER, so our Oregon Open Learning team can provide professional learning and support to educators who are creating OER through our grants and/or partnerships. 

Hello everyone, my name is Ana Elisa and I'm a psychologist. I work in a very nice and inclusive school, and that's why I'm so excited to learn more and more about accessibility and OER. I would like to support the teachers to provide a very inclusive class and give the best quality of inclusion for students. 

Hello, friends! My name is Aujalee Moore and I am the Instructional Materials Coordinator at Oregon Department of Education (ODE). I am also a member of the Oregon Open Learning core team and a state-level leader for CAST's Accessible Educational Materials cohort. I am excited to learn more about how to leverage the accessibility features in OER Commons to create acessible content. I am also hoping to learn more about retrofitting OER that are not accessible. I look forward to meeting others and working together on this important learning. 

Hello!  My name is Andrea and I am a Trainer and Consultant in the area of Inclusive Practices and Assistive Technology at Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8.  I am passionate about inclusive and universal design (UDL) and in changing the mindset of educators and content creators.  I am excited to learn more about how to best coach teachers and educators proactively designing to allow all the ability to access their world!

Thanks, Joanna. I'm excited to learn along with all of you.

I'm Katie Garrett, Associate Director of Media Services from the Utah Education & Telehealth Network. As I've worked in various DEI initiatives, I've found the need for students with disabilities have access to digital resources and tools is often left out of the conversation. OER is the perfect fit to help make sure that resources are usable and adaptable by everyone!

Hi all! My name is Colleen McKnight. I am the Director of Library Services at Frederick Community College in Frederick, Maryland, and I am the Maryland Open Source Textbook (MOST) Librarian Fellow. I believe OERs are one of the best tools we have for removing barriers to student success in higher education. But in order for an OER to live up to that potential, it must be accessible. I am excited to learn more about how I can support accessbility in OERs!

Hello! My name is Dina McCaffery, and I am the Media Production teacher at William Tennent High School. I am the Communications Department coordinator and one of our building's Digital Liasons. 

Since my positions "live" in the digital world, I look forward to learning more about how I can provide and support others with accessibility and equity in resources for all students. 

Hi, My name is Barbara Ambos. I am working with the ROTEL Grant* based in Massachusetts.
Accessibility is so multi-faceted; I look forward to broadening my interpretation of it.

*Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens (ROTEL): Culturally Relevant Open Textbooks for High Enrollment General Education Courses and Career and Professional Courses at Six Public Massachusetts Colleges

Hello!

I'm Amy Connolly, Occupational Therapist and Assistive Technology Specialist, currently serving a school district in Bellingham, WA. I also enjoy collaborating with other folks in our statewide network of AT service providers, the lively QIAT listserv community, and more recently via the CITES community of practice. 

I am excited to be learning more about this topic as well as building capacity across our system, and possibly our State, for educators to provide accessible educational materials and OER in particular. It's very encouraging to imagine the increased availability of eductaional materials (the Open part) combined with improved understanding about accessibility requirements, and the impact this can have on people's lives.

Hi! This is Charisse Berner, Director of Teaching and Learning | Curriculum and Professiona Learning for Bellingham Public Schools in Bellingham, WA.  I am excited to learn more about accessibility for OERs (and other instructional resources) as more and more of our curricula are OERs. This academy is part of my learning journey around inclusionary practices. 

1) Taylor Guido

2) Science Teacher at Greensburg Salem High School

3) Learning about opportunities to support all learners in a variety of ways

Hello my name is Darin Nolan and I am in my 29th year teaching secondary Health and Physical Education in Bellingham, WA. I'm excited to learn some new accessibility tools which can enhance the learning process for my students. 

Hi everyone!

My name is Sue Soltis and I am an Instructional Design Specialist at the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit in Greensburg, PA. I have been supporting our online K-12 students and teachers for the past 5 years. To make sure we aren't discriminating against any of our students, our content needs to be accessible. We need to eliminate barriers and make sure we are providing equal access to all students. I am looking forward to learning more ideas and suggestions to make our online content accessible.

Hello all! I am Tanya Dynda and I work at Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU) as the CARES Instructional Technology and STEM Specialist.  In my work, it's important to set the model for K-12 educators to embrace OER and equitable access to all learning, so I'm passionate about universal design for learning as well as providing quality OER for my clients to utilize.  I'm here to learn a lot!! 

Hello! My name is Brianne Lolar. I am the team leader for Wabanaki History & Culture MOOSE team. I'm excited about all of the possibilities and learning more about accessibility! 

Greetings All!

My name is Jaime Halbmaier-Stuart and I am a Team Leader for the Maine DOE MOOSE Program. Something I am looking forward to is learning more about how to "change the barriers" of Maine's  education environment in order to make our MOOSE modules more accessible for students and teachers. 

Hello! 

My name is Andrew Doak, I am part of the MOOSE Project working for the Maine DOE creating online resources and learning modules for teachers and students. 

I am really excited to take my classroom experience, seeing all of the accessability challenges, and being able to better think about how to create these learning experiences with OER in mind, as well as model for teachers to enhance their practice. 

Hello Everyone! I am Kim Bowen and I am an Assistive Technology Specialist for the Assistive Technology Partnership in Nebraska. In my position, I support school educators and therapists in Nebraska who are working with students birth to age 21. I am excited to be here to learn more about OER and to use what I learn to help increase accessibility across all of our Nebraska learning environments.

Hi everyone! My name is Christine Hagstrom (she/her), and I'm a Program Director at Cardea working on the WA PREP program. I support school districts across Washington State with their sexual health education curriculum adoption and implementation, and I'm excited to learn more about how I can help teachers create inclusive classrooms.

Hello. My name is Katie Blunt. I work at the Utah Education Network as a professional learning trainer and the product manager for eMedia (Utah's OER Commons microsite). I have been studying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) recently as I earned my educator Instructional Coaching endorsement, and I am excited to learn how accessibility and UDL work together to provide more opportunities for all learners.

Hi everyone! My name is Jeri Johnson and I am an Assistive Technology Specialist for the Assistive Technology Partnership in Nebraska and am contracted through Educational Service Unit 10. I work to support special education teams in the area of assistive technology am excited to learn more about OER so I can share my knowledge with educators across Nebraska.

Hi everyone, my name is Nancy O'Neill, and I'm the Acting Director of the University System of Maryland's Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, which is a lead for our statewide OER initiative across 2-year, 4-year, public and private higher education institutions in Maryland. I'm excited to join my team in thinking about how we can better advocate for accessibility to be built in to the development of OER from the very beginning.

Hello all! My name is Jenn Page (she/her) and I am the Project Manager for a program with the Maine Department of Education called MOOSE (Maine Online Opportunities for Sustained Education). I get to work with a team of amazing educators from across the state to create online educational resources for students PreK-12. 

What excites me about approaching accessibility from a UDL lens is that it is a lever for systems change that can help drive equity and inclusion not only in our schools but ultimately in our society as a whole (not too much to ask, right?)! Looking forward to diving into all of this with this amazing cohort of folks!

Hi everyone!

I'm Lyssa Prince, and I manage the digital accessibility program at Oklahoma ABLE Tech. We are working with several groups to help ensure accessibility is at the forefront of their OER initiatives. The whole idea of OER is to be open to everyone, so everything should be accessible! I'm excited to learn more about OER and how we can help our partners with their endeavors.

Hey everyone, my name is Jefferson. 

I work at an international school that also works with inclusive practices towards providing different kinds of acessibility services to students. 

Accessibility excites me because it opens room for everyone, as its practices ignite teachers and students into thinking outside the box, and more towards a more universal design for learning. I really believe in focusing on teaching the students and not the content. Seeing inclusion taking place in the classroom and school places (cafeteria, court, playground etc.) amazes me and I would like to learn more about how to increase that reach.

Hello everyone!  My name is Stacey Hauser and I am an Assistive Technology Specialist for the Education program through ATP Nebraska.  We serve educators across the entire State working with students who may need or are usingAT.  I am looking forward to learning more about both topics to support those I am working with in our school districts!  

Hello All,

I'm Kirstin Copeland. I am the librarian at Columbia Elementary in Bellingham, Washington. I'm looking forward to learning about resources I can share with my teachers and students to make learning more accessible. 

1) Sarah Gracey

2) K-12 Business Teacher through the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit and Kiski Area High School

3) I'm excited about learning how to provide a more accessible education

Greeting. I am Tim Leister, an Instructional Technology Specialist at Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 in Central Pennsylvania.  I am looking forward to promoting and modeling accesibility in online and blended learning environments. 

1) Sarah Kinsella

2) Speech-Language Pathologist and AT Specialist

3) Excited to learn more about OER for sharing resources with schools in WA state and particularly for our new literacy grant that will be creating materials housed in OER. 

Hey, my name is Millie Gonzalez and I am the Dean of the Library at Framingham State University. I love the idea of breaking down walls so that students can learn and thrive. Through a commitment to accessibility, openness and equity, we can do this. Si se puede!

Hi everyone, 

I'm Rhiannon Kemp, the Head of Inclusion at a small secondary school in Queensland, Australia. We are a brand new school and constantly growing and changing! I also teach Year 8 Science and Art. One of my big projects is improving students access and participation so I am excited to learn new things and gain some ideas to take back to our leadership team.

Hi everyone, My name is Theresa Becker. I am the professional development coordinator for the OERColorado project. We are just starting our Hub and Microsite. I am working on curating collections and interested in the accesibility piece for making sure collection materials are accesible and that we have a variety of useful materials for teachers looking for accessibility resources. 

Hi everyone - I am Mallorie Klemm and I work in the Colorado Department of Education's Office of Online and Blended Learning. As a former Special Education teacher, all things accessibility excite me as well as providing our statewide PreK-12 educators materials and resources through OER.

1) Tracy Rains

2) Virtual Learning Specialist

3) Accessibility needs to start being automatic, not something "extra" that we do.  I think this will help us to get to that spot!!  I am excited to start integrating it into my daily routine and OER.

Tiffany Jenkins

I am an Certified Academic Language Therapist working in public and private schools.  

I work with students with dyslexia, I look forward to a time when students don't need to wait to have materials that work for them learn efficeintly along side their peers. 

Hello everyone! My name is Vanessa Clark and I am a Program Analyst for Digital Learning at the Oregon Department of Education. Part of my work is leading the Oregon Open Learning Hub, Oregon's K-12 OER repository on the OER Commons. I think that OER and accessibility are an exciting pair because together, it gives us an opportunity to think about how we're really meeting the needs of all students. Thinking about digital accessibility means that we're really trying to uncover any barriers that might limit student access, and OER gives us permission to change and adapt resources to eliminate those barriers. I'm excited to learn more about how to do that work through this series! 

Hi, I'm Stephanie Connors.  I'm Team Leader for the Maine Department of Education's Learn with MOOSE Project.  My team has been involved with a group from American University about OER and Fair Use to assist us with our work.  I am looking forward to learning more about how OER can support accessibility for all students. 

Hi all,
My apologies for being late to the posts.  My name is Kristin Conlin and I am officially a Reference and Instruction Librarian, and unoffically the OER Coordinator for The University of Baltimore.  There are a lot of pieces of OER that excite me, but I do love the community of OER.  To have so many contributers who actively seek to create and share materials is exciting!

Hello!  My name is Rose Racicot and I am an Occupational Therapist and Assistive Technology Specialist for the Special Education Technology Center in Washington State.  In addition to this position, I have worked for 2 different school districts as an OT and AT specialist over 35 years.  My passion is UDL and accessibility!  

Something about Accessibility that excites me is the progress that I've made when I've collaborated closely with curriculum departments and Information Technology/Digital Learning departments to address accessibility systems wide in a school district.  Currently, I am creating and teaching a 4 part AEM webinar series called, "Accessible Content for All".  I'm excited to collaborate with professionals from around the country and learn more from CAST about how to make our accessibility dream come alive.  

My name is Debra Fitzgibbons, or Deb. I am the coordinator for OTAP, Oregon Technology Access Program. This grant through the Oregon Department of Education focuses on professional development around accessibility. The OER space is all about accessibility, making it the ideal place for us to share resources.

Davina Sauthoff

Library Media Specialist - Utah State Board of Education

I want to be more aware and intentional in making sure the resources I use and share are accessible to all my learners.

Hi,

My name is Danielle (Dany) Macias, and I am a Virtual Support Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education. I love that when educators design resources that are accessible, it can benefit everyone--not just individuals with disabilities. 

1) Hello, my name is Mariana Leijoto Pinto Oliveira Menezes. I currently work as a support teacher in an inclusive school. Something about accessibility that excites me is knowing that all the work with adaptations and accomodations that are personalized for the student's needs pay off after the progress made by the end of some months. It can be a lot of work, but is very rewarding to see how much students can achieve  when we meet the things they need.