Adaptive Technology Professional Development Overview: From Inventory to Intake to Implementation

Scheduled at 10:30am in Denver 1-3 on Monday, November 11.

Speaker(s)

• Wink Harner, Assistive Technology Consultant, The Foreign Type

Session Details

• Length of Session: 5-6-hr
• Format: Lab
• Expertise Level: Beginner
• Type of session: Pre-conference

Summary

The field of adaptive technology is an ever-changing, rapidly developing one. The changes, innovations and updates happen quickly and unexpectedly, often making it challenging for colleges, their respective disability services offices, and particularly their adaptive technology staff to research and evaluate the technology, make recommendations for adoption, upgrade, or purchase, then to be able to train and support students in learning and adapting to the recommended AT.

Abstract

This workshop training is based on an 8-module course in professional development created for AHEAD in 2023. It is designed to provide professionals in the field of disability resources in higher education, specifically those professionals who deal with evaluation, selection, training, & support of adaptive technology for students with disabilities on college campuses, with an overview of their role from campus inventory, to intake evaluations of students, to implementation of the technology on campus(es).

This workshop is divided into 8 modules which include readings, discussion, and mini-quiz evaluation.

To achieve the principal goal of identifying & reducing and/or eliminating barriers regarding access to campus programs, services, educational materials, campus facilities & buildings, disability resource personnel must: - Provide leadership and collaboration in framing a commitment to disability access and equity as an interval aspect of their institution’s culture; - Advise and educate the campus community about disability and inclusive practices; - Provide services, strategies, and accommodations to mitigate the barriers faced by individual disabled people; - and [...] Enhance their professional knowledge and skills.

Citation excerpted from performance indicators from AHEAD: Association on Higher Education and Disability (2021). The AHEAD program domains, standards, and performance indicators. SOURCE: https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/information-services-portal/data-collection-and-management/performance-indicators

By the end of the course students will have a clear understanding of the intake process, evaluation process, training process, data collection, campus involvement, learn about various laws involved, understand how to evaluate adaptive technology, develop evaluation criteria for student & campus use. An extensive reading list will be provided in advance to registered students in the workshop.

Keypoints

1. Learn different types of adaptive technology and how the technology is linked to specific disabilities.
2. Link educational needs of neurodiverse students for AT.
3. Develop strategies for advising faculty and campus staff on campus-wide use of AT.

Disability Areas

Other

Topic Areas

Assistive Technology, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Wink Harner

Wink Harner - Has been an active member of ATHEN for 25 years and served for nearly a decade on the ATHEN Executive Board as Member-At-Large. Wink was invited as the keynote speaker for the 2019 Texas AHEAD conference. She is the former director of disability services at Mesa Community College in Arizona, the Adaptive Technology Specialist for the DR office at Southern Oregon University. She currently works in freelance adaptive technology consulting and provides specialized alternative text conversions in math, sciences and foreign languages. She has been a professor of multiple languages for more than 25 years having completed her doctoral studies in Spanish, Portuguese, & French. Since August 2016, Wink developed and taught the adaptive technology in higher education core course for CUNY's Masters of Science in Disability Studies Program. In 2023 she developed a course in professional development for AHEAD in adaptive technology in higher education. She has presented at adaptive technology conferences for decades. For fun, Wink plays trombone in 2 symphonic wind bands and a jazz band, as well as performing as a professional storyteller with the Portland Storytellers Guild.