Think UDL

Welcome to Episode 137 of the Think UDL podcast: Deconstructing "College Material" with Cate Weir. Cate Weir is the Program Director for Think College for the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. She has written and managed grants to create programs for students with intellectual disabilities to attend college and continues to work with, improve and grow these programs nationwide. In today’s conversation, we talk about the history of and need for college programs for students with intellectual disabilities, what the benefits are to the students enrolled in these programs as well as the benefits to professors who teach and the general enrollment students who take classes in which students with intellectual disabilities are co-enrolled. Throughout the conversation we deconstruct what “college material” has been and how it has changed over the years and we end with thoughts on how instructors, students and universities can design environments where all students, including those with intellectual disabilities, are included.

Welcome to Episode 136 of the Think UDL podcast: Centering Disability with Katie Grennell. Dr. Katie Grennell completed her PhD in American Studies from the University at Buffalo in 2016. Her dissertation, entitled The Making of the ‘Fame Monster’: Disability Aesthetics, Bodily Deviance and Celebrity Culture delved into the distinctions between deviance and normativity by analyzing representations of disability, bodily difference, and deviance in American popular music and popular culture of the late 20th and early 21st century. She has worked as an adjunct in the disciplines of history, American Studies, American popular music, and disability studies for 17 years at multiple institutions throughout Western New York. She currently works as an Accessibility Strategist at Anthology, supporting institutions using Ally. Her first book, Disability and Accessibility in the Music Classroom: An Instructor’s Guide (Routledge) was published September 1, 2022. In this conversation, I ask her about UDL in performance-based classrooms and how disability access has shaped her teaching. In addition, we discuss what disability culture teaches all of us and what her vision is for the future of inclusive education. 

Welcome to Episode 135 of the Think UDL podcast: Nothing Without Us with Amy Lomellini. Dr. Amy Lomellini is the Product Accessibility Lead at Anthology. She leverages her personal and professional experiences to help bring clarity, consistency, and confidence to the accessibility of Anthology’s array of educational technology products and solutions. She has experience as an instructional designer and an associate director of online learning. She teaches related courses and chairs several accessibility committees, including Anthology’s Accessibility Workstream. She holds a doctorate in educational technology and her research and publications focus on accessible and inclusive online course design strategies. In today’s episode, Amy and I talk about her experience as an online learner, educator and as an advocate for accessible and inclusive education. We discuss how disability culture has impacted and might shape online education and visions for the future of online education. A side note, I was able to record this interview in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in September of 2024 which devastated Western North Carolina where I live. I did not have power, water or internet access at my home podcast studio, but was able to go somewhere that did. If the audio quality is not up to the same standard as previous episodes, it is because I was not using my usual podcasting equipment. However, having this conversation was an immediate balm to my soul and helped mend a bit of a broken heart over the recent destruction all around me. I hope you find it as hopeful and mending as I did.

Welcome to Episode 134 of the Think UDL podcast: Ask Me and Believe Me with Mickey Rowe. Mickey Rowe is an award winning best selling author and speaker. As an autistic and legally blind person, he believes that when we design for accessibility, we help others to perform at their best, and, as he says, that’s not just for disabled folks. He is a Broadway actor, director, consultant and public speaker and was the first autistic actor to play Christopher Boone, the lead role in the Tony Award-winning play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He is a disability and accessibility advocate and his most recent speaking engagement is with TextHelp’s open access conference Back to School Blockbuster: Lights, Camera, Educate! on September 18-19, from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST. This is a free virtual conference designed just for educators. If you are listening to this episode after the synchronous online conference, all of the content is available on demand until the end of November and you can find a link to the Back to School Blockbuster conference on the ThinkUDL.org webpage under the resources section of this episode, and in the episode description. In today’s conversation with Mickey, we talk about his experiences as a disabled student at the university level and what he and his professors did to manage the barriers that persisted while he completed his undergraduate degree. Mickey gives us all, students, instructors, administrators, and everyone else, some sound advice on how to reduce the friction but not the rigor of a college education. There are some easy choices and forward thinking designs that can help all of us along the way. I was able to catch Mickey at 6:30am his time in Seattle, Washington, and by the end of our interview his young school-aged children had joined us in the recording and made a brief appearance. You’ll hear them, too!