UC Accessibility (A11Y) Newsletter

December Module and News

Our third Canvas module launches in mid-December and examines disability laws and web accessibility guidelines as well as audio description.

Dr. Joel Snyder’s fantastic talk on audio description is now professionally captioned and available on our Canvas site under Recordings (link on home page).

Sign up to be added to the UC A11Y Canvas course!

Suggest content or nominate an Access Hero at your campus here!

(Note: as an accessibility best practice, links will open in the same tab)

Zoom Meeting: Tuesday, December 3rd @ 3 PM

Please join us for a Zoom conversation with Dr. Karen Nakamura, who leads the UC Berkeley Disability Lab!

What is the RadMad Lab at UC Berkeley?

The RadMad Lab combines the functions of a purposefully-accessible and cross-disability inclusive makerspace, research lab, and teaching space to make lives better for disabled people, especially through the development of assistive technology.

ASL interpretation provided (tips for working with ASL interpreters on Zoom)

➡️ Register ⬅️

Suggested reading: 

Making a Makerspace? Guidelines for Accessibility and Universal Design | DO-IT

UC Accessibility (A11Y) Project Planning Meeting:

Please indicate your availability for a UC-wide A11Y Project planning meeting to discuss additional ideas for 2025!

On the agenda already:

• creation and implementation of small audio description projects at each campus

• PDF and document remediation trainings and drop-in review of your materials by accessibility specialists

• a disability and accessibility reading group

If interested, please fill out this When 2 Meet poll now to select an early-to-mid-December meeting.

All are welcome — please invite any and all who might be interested to fill out the survey and include their name. 🙂 

If you request ASL interpretation or other access needs, please let me know as soon as possible and at least 72 hours before the meeting, once scheduled.

December Disability and Accessibility Dates:

International Day of Persons with Disabilities – December 3 

The United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3 in 1992 proclaimed December 3 "International Day of Persons with Disabilities." According to the U.N., this day "aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life."

This year’s theme: Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future.

The United Nations will hold an online panel; I’ll share the video in the next newsletter.

Read the concept note for the virtual panel, which will discuss:

• The upcoming Second World Summit for Social Development;

• Five-year anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2475;

• The current climate crisis affecting people and planet as a whole.

Disability Hero: Dr. Tilly Edinger

Dr. Tilly Edinger was a Deaf German-American paleontologist who founded the field of paleoneurology through her pioneering use of endocasts (internal casts of the skull) to examine the brain case's interior. She fled Nazi Germany and taught comparative anatomy at Wellesley College. 

Watch this brief video for more information.

For the signing impaired: select the CC icon along the bottom of the YouTube video to see English closed captions.

This video is silent; you can listen to the captions read aloud here.

The signer in this video is Dr. Alicia Wooten of Atomic Hands. We’ll meet her and her colleague, Dr. Barbara Spiecker (a former postdoc at UC Santa Barbara!), in Spring 2025 for our UC A11Y programming on making STEM spaces more Deaf-inclusive.

A11Y Tip:

Insufficient color contrast—the visual difference between two colors—can make it difficult for folks to read text (and controls like forward and back buttons) in our documents or on our sites. Our UC A11Y Canvas course discusses the built-in color contrast support within Canvas as well as the ANDI Tool for the web, but here’s another method that works outside a browser as well:

When checking color contrast in a Word document or PDF, you can use an eyedropper tool like ColorZilla to grab a color's hex values. Each color has a unique 6-symbol code of letters, numbers, or a mix of both. Black, for instance, is #000000, while white is #FFFFFF.

 Then, simply visit the WebAIM Contrast Checker and paste the hex values of both the foreground and background of text, and the Checker will determine whether the contrast is sufficient.

 Here's a 30-second demonstration of this method using a PDF; there is no sound:

After clicking the ColorZilla extension and selecting "Pick color outside browser," I move my mouse and the color dropper tool over the text color to automatically copy the color hex value. Next, I paste that value into the Foreground box in the WebAIM Contrast Checker. I then repeat this process to copy the value of the color behind the text (Background) to check for sufficient contrast:

Check out the UC A11Y Canvas course for more on this topic, for practice, and for other accessibility best practices.

Access Hero:

December’s Access Hero—with multiple nominations— is Dr. Olga Faccani at UC Santa Barbara!

Here’s what several of her fellow UC Santa Barbara colleagues have to say:

“Olga is a true Access Hero for the UCSB campus, tirelessly championing inclusivity and accessibility for Neurodivergent students. Through her remarkable work, she has created a transformative impact on the university community. As a leader, Olga has successfully organized and coordinated pivotal workshops on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accessibility, fostering a culture of inclusivity and equity. Alongside her team of expert pedagogical advisors, she has empowered faculty and staff to adapt teaching methods and campus resources to better support students of all abilities. Her dedication, expertise, and collaborative spirit make Olga an exemplary Access Hero, deserving of recognition for her unwavering commitment to creating a more accessible and inclusive learning environment at UCSB.”

“Through her outstanding work as the TA Development Program Manager at UCSB, Olga has significantly increased access to vital resources for graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates across campus. One of Olga’s most impactful achievements is the creation of the Certificate in Inclusive Teaching, a program she built from the ground up. This certificate brings together a wide range of campus partners committed to equity and accessibility, offering initiatives and workshops that empower educators to create inclusive learning environments. Additionally, Olga has spearheaded a new partnership with the Neurodiversity Taskforce, giving greater visibility to this important resource and expanding support for neurodivergent students at UCSB. Olga’s dedication to collaboration, inclusion, and student success makes her a gem for UC Santa Barbara.”

 Thank you, Olga, for your important work!

Nominate an Access Hero who works to make your campus more accessible!

Nominees can be anyone on campus -- staff members, students, or instructors.

We’ll give them a shout-out in a future newsletter.

News:

The results of the 2024 presidential election raise questions about the future of disability inclusion and care in the United States — questions that impact as many as 1 in 4 adults in the United States. From disability insurance to student accommodations, there’s a lot up in the air right now.

Project 2025, for instance, promises to defund crucial educational institutions like Gallaudet University, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and the American Printing House for the Blind.

And conservative ridicule of Tim Walz’s son, who has a non-verbal learning disorder, was reminiscent of Trump’s mocking in 2016 of Serge F. Kovaleski, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for the New York Times with arthrogryposis (stiffness and curvature) in his right arm and hand. Trump similarly mimicked and hurled ableist slurs at Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, who is Deaf. 

Trump’s estranged nephew, Fred Trump III, even claims that the president-elect told him last year that he should let his disabled son William die rather than continue paying for his care.

Disabled Americans are deeply concerned about the implications of policies proposed under initiatives like Project 2025, which could lead to reduced funding for essential disability programs and undermine their rights. Combined with past instances of ableist rhetoric and policy, the recent election has heightened fears within the disability community about their inclusion and access to necessary services. Now more than ever, Americans must stand in solidarity with individuals with disabilities, advocating for policies that protect their rights, dignity, and access to equitable opportunities.

Read more:

Election 2024 Policy Brief: Project 2025, People with Disabilities, and Other Marginalized Communities - AAPD

Donald Trump's nephew reveals President-elect refused to pay for his child's disability costs | LBC

Sudden attention for Tim Walz’s son brings focus to challenges of people with learning disabilities (PBS)