Disability Pride Month every July commemorates the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. In its spirit of assuring all individuals equality of opportunity and full participation, an interdisciplinary committee charged with identifying accessibility goals for the College is launching a series of workshops to help members of the campus community overcome obstacles together.
The Accessibility Committee, chaired by Samantha Hughes, senior director of presidential operations, is calling its “Access for All” series a year-long journey into accessibility for faculty, staff and students.
“The ultimate goal is to bring awareness,” Hughes said. “It’s bringing awareness to folks so that we all are teaching and learning and putting out products and information that reach everyone.”
Sessions will focus on practical tips, including simple steps that anyone can take to make sure that their digital resources — everything from online flyers to social media posts to PDFs of course materials — can be used by everyone on campus.
Participants will learn about free software available through the College, such as Sensus Access and Read&Write, that can help make materials more accessible. These resources, for example, can transform a normal PDF into a document that different users can adjust to meet their differing needs — enlarging text, highlighting or annotating on screen, translating into another language, even listening to it as audio.
“A lot of the tools we’re going to feature allow people to interact with your information in the way that works best for them,” said Emily Wise, associate director of housing operations and a member of the Accessibility Committee. “Creating accessible content is not often time-consuming and easily becomes an automatic part of your process.”
Participants also will learn about retrofits and accommodations that are available to employees and students, from specialized furniture to requesting peer notes.
The first session, highlighting accessible communications, will take place Sept. 9. A full schedule of the events, including times and locations, is available on the campus calendar.
Access for All is part of an ongoing effort by the Accessibility Committee to monitor and promote accessibility progress in the areas of facilities and environment, digital access, programs and events, and academic policies and pedagogy.
It includes representatives from Student Accessibility and Support Services; the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; design and construction; campus events; communications; student affairs; human resources; library and information services; and DISCO, Kenyon’s Disabled/Chronically Ill Student Community Organization.
“Accessibility as a topic is so big — it’s so broad and so deep — that it’s easy to become overwhelmed. So we’re trying to raise awareness,” Hughes said. “We are providing spaces to collaborate with our community to remove barriers, many of which are low-hanging fruit.”