From Accommodations to Inclusion: How to Build a Captioning Budget that Benefits All Students

Presented at 12:45pm in WB II on Friday, November 22, 2019.

#29631

Speaker(s)

  • Scott Ready, Senior Customer Success & Accessibility Strategist, Verbit

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Panel
  • Expertise Level: All Levels
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Many institutions are transitioning from the reactionary approach of accommodations for an individual student to a planned approach creating a better learning environment for all students. But this transition often requires a change in institutional mindset and budget. Come, hear how others are succeeding on this journey.

Abstract

While agreed, a multimodal approach in content engagement increases comprehension, many are unsure how to accomplish this. Captioning is often only thought of as an accommodation for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing. But the reality is, we all use captioning: sports scores in a restaurant, news in an airport, or, video snippets on our social media. Now imagine students associating terminology from a captioned lecture to an assessment, understanding by reading and hearing the content when English is a second language.

How do we establish an educational culture that provides our students with a multimodal approach to content engagement? It often begins and ends with the budget. In a resource constrained economy how can we move beyond just providing what is required to truly creating successful, engaging learning environments? Bottom line, we are talking about student success. Student success is demonstrated through retention, better grades and graduation. What steps bring us the

Keypoints

  1. One element that contributes to the creation of an inclusive learning environment
  2. Managing obstacles such as culture and budget
  3. Progress from Accommodation to Inclusion on the Maturity Model

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Accessible Educational Materials, Administrative/Campus Policy, Assistive Technology, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Scott Ready

Scott, with over 20 years of experience with global higher education and K-12, currently serves as the Senior Customer Success & Accessibility Strategist at Verbit. Previously he served for 14 years at Blackboard with his last role being the Director of Accessibility Strategy. Prior to Blackboard, he served as the Director of Online Education as well as Faculty and Department Chair of the first online Interpreter Training Program (ITP) in the nation. He also served in the K-12 environment enhancing the educational experience for students with varying abilities and as a Community Liaison for the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Prior to Blackboard and academia, Scott was the Assistant Director of the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and the Director of Community Relations at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company's Relay Center. Numerous projects enabled Scott to collaborate in achieving greater access for all individuals throughout life's events. Having Deaf parents who were teachers at the Missouri School for the Deaf and living on campus, provided an innate perspective that has been infused throughout his life.

Scott lives in the Hilton Head, South Carolina, area with his wife and enjoys photography, traveling and spending time with their children and 2 grandsons.