DO-IT News October 2018

The DO‑IT Trailblazer award highlights DO‑IT community members who forge new pathways that will benefit others. Through their work and accomplishments they have changed the way the world views people with disabilities and have increased the potential of people with disabilities to succeed in college, careers, and community life. Congratulations to this year’s honorees!

Dr. Shiri Azenkot is an assistant professor of information science at the Jacobs Technion‑Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, Cornell University. Her research interests are in accessibility and interaction on new platforms. Shiri earned her Ph.D. in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington (UW) in 2014. As a student, Shiri was an active participant in DO-IT programs, including the AccessComputing project, which is co-led by the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and the Information School. She has hosted research interns with a variety of disabilities, presented at a capacity building institute, and spoken in one of our videos. Shiri will be a featured speaker at the Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing in 2018.

Courtney Cole, DO-IT Ambassador and ‘13 Scholar, has been a powerful advocate for people with disabilities through her work and personal accomplishments. Courtney joined the Rooted in Rights (RiR) team in 2016 as a creative intern and in September 2017 accepted a position as a creative production assistant. She assists in the production of videos and other media content that cover topics such as the stigma of mental health, violence against people with disabilities, and the inequality that blind students face. The videos she has produced have reached thousands of people around the world. Currently, Courtney studies at Seattle Central College, pursuing an associate of arts degree. Courtney also writes for the RiR blog and other publications. Read Courtney’s RiR blog posts here.

Dr. Shaun Kane is an assistant professor in computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder. He directs the Superhuman Computing Lab, which conducts research on accessible user interfaces, mobile and wearable interactions, and tangible computing. Shaun earned his Ph.D. from UW’s iSchool in 2011. He was a participant in DO-IT programs as a student and is now an AccessComputing partner. In 2015, Shaun was a featured speaker at the Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing. He has hosted an AccessComputing intern in his lab, led computer science workshops at the National Federation for the Blind Youth Slam, and mentored other AccessComputing student participants.

John Kemp, a graduate of the Washburn University School of Law, is a renowned disability rights leader who co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities and has partnered with, worked for, and served as board member, chair and CEO of leading disability organizations. He is the President and Chief Executive of the Viscardi Center (formerly known as Abilities!), a network of non-profit organizations that educate, employ, and empower people with disabilities. For decades, Kemp has been a role model and an ally of DO-IT and other organizations that serve to create a more inclusive world. His many awards include the Dole Leadership Prize from the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, joining a group of international recipients that includes Nelson Mandela. He has mentored DO-IT Scholars and served as the featured speaker for Summer Study 2018.

To read about DO-IT Trailblazers from past years, visit our awards page.

This year, DO‑IT Phase I Scholars participated in a three-week Summer Study session. They learned about college life; explored online resources; interacted with peers, staff, and mentors; and had fun. The DO‑IT Scholars program started in 1993 as an experimental project for teens with disabilities nationwide. While it is usually held on campus at the University of Washington, this year it was held online. It is currently open to Washington State teens and is supported by the State of Washington. The DO-IT Scholars program is supported by all DO-IT staff and led by Tami Tidwell, Kayla Brown, and Andrea Mano.

Phase II Scholars return to the UW Seattle campus for their second Summer Study. They meet the Phase I Scholars, learn about college life and career preparation, and participate in a one-week workshop with postsecondary instructors.

Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) are at the cutting edge of new technology and scientific discoveries. Without a diverse range of people, ERCs can’t reach their full potential. DO-IT and the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) have teamed up in AccessERC to make sure the CNT is as diverse and inclusive as possible. Assistant Diversity Director Scott Bellman, Diversity Director Sheryl Burgstahler, and CNT leader Eric Chudler published an article to help promote inclusivity in other ERCs.

Their article, “Broadening Participation by Including More Individuals With Disabilities in STEM: Promising Practices From an Engineering Research Center” was published by American Behavioral Scientist. Read the full article and see more resources for creating an fully inclusive ERC.

AccessCSforAll held its first professional development workshop for teachers of blind and visually impaired students at the University of Texas, Austin, for one week in July 2018. The workshop was led by AccessCSforAll principal investigators Richard Ladner and Andreas Stefik and assisted by William Allee, Quorum programming language developer, and Sean Mealin, Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University and AccessComputing Team member. Eleven teachers from ten different states and Puerto Rico participated in the workshop that focused on the accessible Computer Science Principles (CSP), which is based on the Code.org CSP curriculum and the Quorum Language lessons. Activities in the workshop were modeled after the activities at Code.org’s TeacherCon professional development workshop held in Atlanta in June 2018 that Ladner attended. Activities at the AccessCSforAll workshop included an overview of CSP, lesson preparation and teaching by participants, Quorum programming language overview and lessons, and critiques of the latest accessible CSP curriculum draft developed by the AccessCSforAll team at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The critique included suggestions to make the curriculum, both plugged and unplugged activities, more accessible for blind and visually impaired students.

Three of the teachers who came from mainstream schools did not have experience with blind students, but were expecting them in their classes this coming year. One session included advice by the experienced teachers of blind students on proper etiquette when interacting with blind people. There will be additional professional development, done remotely, with these teachers during the academic year. In 2019, AccessCSforAll will hold additional professional development workshops for teachers of deaf students and teachers of learning disabled students.

I studied abroad in Italy during fall of 2017 for ten weeks. Being a medical anthropology and global health major, I participated in the UW Study Abroad program “Anthropology Rome: The Culture and Politics of Food in Italy.” I was initially interested in the program because food was a topic I had not studied much in my classes at UW, and I was interested in learning how culture, politics, and food were intersected and in what ways food affects population health.

Being a Deaf person, I use accommodations such as sign language interpreters, note takers, and captions on videos. Travelling to a foreign country can be difficult when having accommodations. I had to work with the Disability Resources for Students (DRS) center on campus starting six months before I left the States. We decided it would be best if an interpreter met me in Rome and stayed with the group for the duration of the program. I also got note taking and captioned videos. For my apartment, I had strobe lights to alert me if there was a fire in the building. It was not difficult to get accommodations; it just took a lot of communication and coordination between several people to make it all happen.

I stayed in an apartment with four roommates in Trastevere, a part of Rome that is known to be very lively and busy. There would be bands, fire breathers, circus acts, dancers, magicians, and other one-of-a-kind acts. I would often stop and watch because the acts were always complex and creative, as well as easy to follow along. There wasn’t any language barrier to overcome; it was universal communication.

While in Rome, we had classes every day for the first four weeks about Italian gastronomy, global food politics, and alternative food economies. We had an intensive language course where we learned conversational Italian. We also visited a lot of markets such as Campo de Fiori, San Cosimato, Zolle, Testaccio, and so many more. Visiting these markets was essential in our application of concepts learned in class. For example, we learned that food has become much more industrialized and built to create quantity over quality. This has caused widespread hunger, malnutrition, and the loss of food democracy. Italian farmers are working together to promote change in the food industry by reverting to older, more healthy and cheaper farming practices.

For the next four weeks we travelled to different farms around Italy, learning farm operations and how having smaller farms improves population health. We stayed on Suzie’s Yard in Cetona for 10 days picking olives and learning how to make olive oil. We also cooked a lot, learning a lot of traditional Italian recipes such as Minestrone soup and pasta sauces, as well as how to make fresh pasta. We then stayed at Casa Caponetti in Tuscania. At this farm, we learned about planting crops, animal husbandry, and Olive Oil gastronomy. We picked olives, planted garlic, and learned new recipes such as Tuscan bean soup, pumpkin soup, and focaccia. Both of these farms taught the importance of producing pesticide- and chemical-free crops.

One of the best parts about studying abroad in Italy was, of course, the food! I ate pizza, pasta, bread, soup, cheese, salami, gelato, tiramisu, etc. One might think that all of this food is really heavy and unhealthy, but in actuality, pretty much all food in Italy is produced with fresh ingredients. Most food is not processed and is made with the freshest ingredients possible, which means people are not ingesting unnecessary chemicals. This makes it so that even the big bowl of pasta with greasy red sauce is likely healthier than the same dish found in the U.S.

In summary, I learned a lot about food, culture, farming, natural eating, and travelling. It was a trip of a lifetime. I loved having the chance to travel independently, meet new friends, learn how to speak some Italian, meeting Italians, and so much more. One thing I learned about myself was that I would love to be a farmer. I’ve always had a garden in my backyard and every summer my family and I grow tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, and other various vegetables. I’ve decided that one day I want to own a bigger piece of property somewhere, raise animals, grow crops, and farm. I encourage anyone to participate in urban farming and produce fruits and vegetables. After all, farming is simple, all it takes is some soil, seeds, and water.

Each summer, the DO-IT Scholars program hosts 45 high school and college students with disabilities on the UW campus, where they learn about technology, self-advocacy, college-preparation, and disability culture. During the 2018 Summer Study, third-year students offered advice to incoming Scholars. Some highlights include the following:

• “We are all in the same boat. My visual impairment is different from a mobility impairment, but there’s a reason that we are in this program together. We all have a disability, and we should stick together to build a better community.”
• “Always ask questions. There’s no such thing as a dumb question. And if you’re not sure about something, give it a try.”
• “I struggled a lot and I wouldn’t ask for help, because I was determined to do it myself. I thought asking for help would be embarrassing, but it wasn’t. Feel comfortable asking for help.”
• 

  “Try the different types of technology that you received from DO-IT and those you will see during Summer Study. Before Summer Study two years ago, I had no idea about Audio Notetaker or the PDF-to-Word converter service, both of which make things more accessible for me.”

• “It’s normal to miss home. At first, I missed home a lot, and there were moments where I would be sad. But there were also points where I was thinking ‘I can’t wait to show them this! This is so cool.’ So, I learned to look at the positive and look at your glass as half full.”
• “Be kind. Nobody is just like you, so be open to getting to know new people and try new perspectives, because you might learn something new or find a more efficient method.”

Visit our site for more information about the Scholars program.

Through the Ed-ICT International Network we are exploring the ways that information and communication technologies (ICT) affect students with disabilities in postsecondary education experience.

In its first two years of operation, the Network has begun

• synthesizing and comparing the research evidence across the five countries regarding the relationship between students with disabilities, ICTs and post-compulsory education;
• constructing theoretical explanations for why ICTs have not yet brought about the reductions in discrimination, disadvantage, and exclusion that were predicted when equality and discrimination related laws were published; and
• providing new perspectives about potential future solutions regarding how post-compulsory education institutions can better use ICTs to remove the ongoing problems of disadvantage and exclusion of students with disabilities.

For more information, consult the project website.

We are excited to announce the Excellence, Diversity, and Inclusion: Individuals with Disabilities Engaging for Academic Success (IDEAS) project. The IDEAS project will be coordinated by the DO-IT Center at the University of Washington (UW). Funding for this project was won through UW’s Diversity and Inclusion Seed Grants program. These grants support projects for institutional transformation across the UW’s tri-campus community that align with the goals of the 2017-2021 UW Diversity Blueprint.

The DO-IT IDEAS project will create a peer‑mentoring cohort of students with disabilities from all three UW campuses. It will host monthly workshops, facilitate online activities, provide mentoring, and generate/disseminate ideas for faculty and staff about supporting and welcoming students with disabilities, realizing that many of these students also represent other underrepresented groups. The project will also engage UW stakeholders such as faculty and staff, the Career and Internships Center, Disability Resources for Students, student groups, and the D Center.

The monthly networking events will allow students to talk with each other about successes and struggles, as well as to share advice about disability-specific issues and resources on campus. Students in the cohort will be added to an electronic community where they can stay connected throughout the school year by asking questions, accessing resources, and sharing relevant information. IDEAS project staff will facilitate discussions within the community and promote networking and leadership events.

This project will help achieve the UW Diversity Blueprint through its engagement with students with disabilities, who are sometimes excluded from diversity initiatives. It will foster a welcoming environment to retain these students. The project will facilitate a tri-campus cohort of students to explore and share the diversity needs of students with disabilities at the UW. This will create an impact that extends to the entire campus community.

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) serves to increase the successful participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers, such as those in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. Primary funding for DO-IT is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education.

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