Melissa Helquist, Associate Professor, Salt Lake Community College
Candida Darling, Director, Salt Lake Community College
Disability Area: Topic Area:
Length of Session (in hours): 1-hr
Format: Lecture
Expertise Level: All Levels
Type of session: Not provided
Summary of Session
Crowdsourcing can be an innovative approach to engage students and the campus community in the process of creating accessible media. Presentation describes an ongoing project to crowdsource accessibility at an urban community college, and explain tools and practices used to facilitate the project.
Abstract
Accessibility is often viewed as someone else’s job, but the aim of crowdsourcing is to make accessible media part of the larger campus conversation, to engage a wide range of students, faculty, and administrators. Through crowdsourcing accessibility, we aim to challenge and change disability perspectives on our campus, to make accessibility a concern for everyone in the campus community.
Crowdsourcing accessibility has the dual benefit of providing more accessible content and providing learning opportunities for students in a range of courses such as computer science and communication. Participating students will learn about the technical basics of accessibility and gain insights into equality, access, and social justice in a digital age.
The presentation will describe practices and processes to help audience participants facilitate their own projects for crowdsourced accessibility. Finally, we will demonstrate several simple tools that can be used to enhance the accessibility of a range of media. This will be an update on an ongoing project; we will be presenting on the same topic at AHEAD in July.
Kepoints
• Strategies for creating a more equitable campus through crowdsourcing accessibility.
• Promoting principles of universal access and social justice through crowdsourcing.
Tools and resources for facilitating a crowdsourced accessibility project.
Speaker Bio(s)
Melissa Helquist
I have taught composition and technical writing since 2000, in a variety of higher ed contexts. I am currently completing a PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric, with a specific emphasis on accessibility and disability studies. My dissertation research focuses on digital literacy and blindness, with a specific focus on how individuals who are blind and low vision use sound to facilitate literacy practices. The research has been funded in part by a College Composition and Communication Research Initiative Grant ($8,090). I have taught a variety of workshops on creating accessible media for faculty and staff.
Candida Darling
I currently serve as the Director of the Disability Resource Center at Salt Lake Community College. I am the co-chair of the Universal Access Committee at SLCC, which is a standing committee charged with developing innovative ways to promote college-wide collaboration on creating accessible learning environments. I have over ten years of experience working in Disability Services and Vocational Rehabilitation. I am a Certified Social Worker in the State of Utah, and a Licensed Master Social Worker in the State of Idaho.
I have presented at multiple Tools for Life conferences throughout Idaho, the Idaho Council on Exceptional Children conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, the High Adventure Advising conference in Heber City, Utah, and the Salt Lake Community College Adjunct Faculty Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. Throughout my career, I have given multiple presentations to faculty, staff, administrators and community members related to strategies for working with students with disabilities and Universal Design.