2021 Pre-Recorded Sessions
Assistive Technology to Combat Social Isolation and Support Independence
James A. Whitney (he/him)
Bio
James was born and raised in Salisbury, Maryland where he completed his bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in sociology. James worked as a social work counselor under the guidance of an LCSW while applying to graduate schools. He attended the Virginia Commonwealth Universities Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program where he graduated in Mary of 2020. SInce then James has immersed himself in the world of assistive technology volunteering at reuse centers in Virginia leading up to his employment at the Maryland Assistive Technology Program where he works as an AT Clinician. James provides customized AT demonstrations, short-term device loans, and hosts AT training and public awareness sessions to a range of consumers across the state. James currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland where the MDTAP office and AT library are located.
Abstract
The Maryland Department of Disabilities, Assistive Technology Program proposes to present a workshop on Assistive Technology to Combat Social Isolation and Support Independence. This training will provide examples of various technologies that are aimed to counteract and prevent social isolation among older adults and individuals with disabilities; the presentation will provide examples of AT that can be utilized to encourage and enable individuals to be/remain independent at home or as they transition to another type of living facility. With an emphasis on the empowering features of technology to participate in society, even through virtual means, this session will highlight the ways in which technology can bolster integration, connection, and independence.
Audio Description: If Your Eyes Could Speak
Dr. Joel Snyder (he/him)
Bio
A member of Actors’ Equity Association, the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, and the Screen Actors Guild, and a 20-year veteran of work as an arts specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Joel Snyder is best known internationally as one of the first “audio describers” (c. 1981) working with theater events and media at the world’s first ongoing audio description service. Beginning in the early 1970s, he recorded “talking books” for the Library of Congress and read privately for individuals who are blind – but his abilities as a describer have made hundreds of live theater productions accessible to audience members who are blind; in media, Dr. Snyder has used the same technique to enhance PBS’ American Playhouse productions, Sesame Street, a wide range of network broadcasts, feature films, educational videos, the IMAX film Blue Planet and the Planetarium show And A Star To Steer Her By at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Abstract
In his introduction to the second edition of The Mastery of Movement, Rudolph Laban suggests that performers form the “active pole of this magnetic circuit” [and form the] “exciting current between stage and audience.” But what if the exchange is interrupted, not by lack of clarity on stage, but rather by an audience member’s lack of access to that full perception. How, for example, can a blind person “see” a dance performance? This paper/presentation will demonstrate how audio description provides access to the arts for people who are blind. Describers observe, select, and then succinctly and vividly use language to convey the visual image that is not fully accessible to a segment of the population—new estimates by the American Foundation for the Blind note that over 32 million Americans are blind or have difficulty seeing even with correction. In the United States, the principal constituency for audio description has an unemployment rate of about 70%. With greater access to our culture and its resources, people become more informed, more engaged with society and more engaging individuals—thus, more employable.
Literacy Access among Students with Disabilities during a Global Pandemic
Dr. Alexandra Shelton (she/her)
Bio
Alexandra Shelton is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher and Faculty Specialist in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland. Her work focuses on improving literacy outcomes for secondary students with mild disabilities, including mild intellectual disability and learning disabilities, via intensive intervention and teacher professional development and coaching. Dr. Shelton is currently the Project Director of three federally funded grants that aim to provide professional development and systematic coaching to middle school teachers to promote their use of evidence-based literacy practices. As a former high school special education teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools, she served students with disabilities in the general and special education settings in English language arts, reading, math, and science.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the inequities many students with disabilities face in schools across the country. For example, 68% of principal and teacher respondents on a nationally representative survey reported that achievement among students with disabilities (SWDs) in their schools was somewhat lower or much lower in fall 2020 than in fall 2019 (Kaufman et al., 2020). In this new normal, it is especially important that SWDs have access to high-quality remote learning opportunities, particularly in the area of literacy. Therefore, the purpose of this proposed pre-recorded presentation is to discuss innovative ways to support SWDs’ access to literacy in virtual inclusive K-12 environments. This presentation will provide guidance on leveraging technology to promote inclusion and access among K-12 SWDs. The presentation will begin with a discussion of the unique challenges SWDs face within inaccessible, restrictive virtual instructional settings. The presentation will also include resources and strategies that educators and family members can use to foster literacy access among SWDs during at-home learning. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of how these resources and strategies can be extended to increase inclusion and access among SWDs in a post-pandemic world.
Pre-recorded presentation captioning embedded
Twitter: @AlexLizShelton
Producing Accessible National ID Cards in Bangladesh
Badiul Alam (he/him)
Bio
Badiul Alam is the founder and executive director of Bangladesh Protibandhi Unnayan Sangstha (BPUS). Badiul Alam, who is blind, did not let his disability deter him from being active in the community as a university student where he experienced firsthand the difficulties persons with disabilities face in accessing essential services in rural areas which inspired him to establish BPUS in Barisal, a remote district 150 km south of the capital. Badiul Alam has a Master’s degree from the Bangladesh Open University and has participated in several disability inclusion trainings in Bangladesh and Europe. As a national advocate on disability rights, Badiul Alam plays a significant role in promoting and bringing disability to the forefront of the national development agenda in Bangladesh and serves as the Secretary General of the National Alliance of Disabled Persons Organizations in his country. He represented Bangladesh at the Global Disability Summit in London in 2018 and was nationally recognized and awarded for his achievements by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in 2017.
Abstract
Democracy is more likely to develop and endure when all segments of society are able to participate without suffering discrimination or reprisal. Recognizing the fundamental rights of all citizens, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) through its Equal Rights in Action Fund provides support to organizations representing marginalized populations including persons with disabilities under three key objectives of safe and secure environment; political participation and empowered and inclusive movements and organizations. Under the topic of “Disability Activism and Justice”, NDI proposes, in partnership with Bangladesh Protibandhi Unnayan Sangstha (BPUS), a recorded lightning talk exploring a key aspect of BPUS’s project: producing accessible national ID cards to ensure PWDs are able to vote. Bangladesh is estimated to have 15 to 20 million PWDs and according to the government, 52 percent are unable to exercise their right to vote because the voting process and voting itself are inaccessible. Over sixty percent of the disability population live in rural areas where the opportunities to participate in public life are even more scarce. The lightning talk will briefly explore BPUS’s project and identify how they are working to eliminate the disenfranchisement of over 15 million citizens and holding the government of Bangladesh accountable to its commitments when ratifying the CRPD.
Pre-recorded presentation captioning embedded
Facebook: @BADIUL2016
Website: http://www.bpusbd.org/
Race, Gender and Disability Intersections in Gendered Occupations
Dr. Jenny Dick-Mosher (she/her)
Bio
Jenny Dick-Mosher is currently a postdoctoral Research Associate with The Collaborative on Health Reform and Independent Living at Washington State University. While completing her Ph.D. in sociology from Virginia Tech she worked as a Disability Rights Advocate at the disAbility Law Center of Virginia. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her spouse, baby and 3 cats.
Abstract
The disadvantages faced by people with disabilities in the labor market have been well documented. However, there has been very little research on the impact of occupational segregation on the employment outcomes of people with disabilities. Previous research has demonstrated that disabled men and racial/ethnic minority men are more likely than non-disabled white men to work in female-dominated occupations, while at the same time not reaping the same privileges in those occupations as non-disabled white men do. In addition, while there have been qualitative studies on how men of minority status are sorted into female dominated occupations, no other research has tested this quantitatively, using a nationally representative data set. Using an intersectional approach, I ran logistic regression models in order to examine the likelihood of people working in female dominated occupations, male-dominated occupations or mixed gender occupations. I found that disability has an impact on how people are sorted into occupations; however, that impact varies by race as well as by gender. These findings point to an intersectional effect wherein disabled people experience gender differently depending on their race.