The book includes insights from the following experts:
- Kara Zirkle, Miami University, Accessible Technology Specialist, Accessibility Starts in Procurement >>
- Sheryl Burgstahler, Director of Accessible Technology Services, University of Washington, Apply Universal Design to Increase Accessibility >>
- Kevin Dalin, Tech4Impact, Consultant & Rehabilitation Technology Specialist, Open, Meaningful Conversations With Assistive Technologies >>
- Devrim Ozdemir, Des Moines University, Instructional Design Coordinator, Accessible Curriculum Begins With The Instructor But Requires A Team Effort >>
- Michael Lampe, South Carolina Upstate, Instructional Design Specialist at University, Active Learning Classrooms Increase Student Engagement >>
Expanding Educational Opportunity was generously sponsored by Blackboard.
We’ve spoken with 20 educational leaders to learn more about how institutions tap technology to improve education and make it available for all students, including those with differing abilities. We asked them the following question:
Please share a specific story (or perspective) about how you or your institution used technology to provide greater access to students with specific needs (e.g., physical disability, location, or inability to get to campus.) What key piece of advice can you offer to someone else trying to implement your approach?
A generous partnership with Blackboard makes it possible for us to share with you experiences that institutions have had implementing these technologies, how they’ve worked to overcome problems, and the outcomes they’ve seen from those efforts.
These experts offer their perspectives on challenges, successes, and lessons learned. They discuss everything from design and development strategies to the changing role of higher education and educators. Most of these professionals agree that when you expand availability to education by using accessible technology, whether it is video captioning, text to speech, or more advanced technologies, even students who don’t identify as having disabilities use these services and that they increase student success rates and improve learning overall.
I trust you’ll find these experts’ successes and advice useful and that after reading this, you’ll have solid strategies to help advance your use of technology to broaden access to education for all students.
