UC Accessibility (A11Y) Newsletter

Official Kickoff!

Our first Canvas module launches in October and examines why adding “A” for Accessibility to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts is crucial.

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)

First Zoom Meeting: Tuesday, October 8 @ 3 PM

Please join us for a Zoom conversation with William Carter, who chairs the UC Berkeley Neurodiversity Initiative and identifies as neurodiverse.

Register here

ASL interpretation provided

Suggested reading: With newly digitized slave ship logs, Berkeley Ph.D. student examines race, power — and literacy

October is:

• National Disability Employment Awareness Month

• Learning Disabilities Awareness Month

• Invisible Disabilities Week, October 20-26

National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)

Official recognition of folks with disabilities in the workplace began during the Truman administration with National Employ The Physically Handicapped Week, which ran one month after the end of World War Two from October 7-13, 1945. This initiative has since expanded to run the entire month of October, recognizes all types of disabilities, and revolves around an annual theme. This year’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month theme is “Access to Jobs for All.”

Did You Know?

The sunflower is an international symbol for hidden disabilities. Some folks with invisible disabilities wear lanyards with sunflowers to indicate their need for extra time or support, especially while traveling.

Disability Hero: Haben Girma

Haben Girma is an Eritrean-American disability rights advocate, speaker, and attorney from Oakland, California known for her work in promoting accessibility and inclusivity for people with disabilities. She is recognized as the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree. She uses her education and legal background to advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities, focusing on issues such as digital accessibility, equal access to information, and inclusive education.

Girma was discouraged from pursuing a STEM major. As she explained in an interview at OCALICONLINE 2022, “Many disabled designers and engineers are not being invited to help create accessible tech, from websites to autonomous vehicles. And we would have such an amazing world if there were more disabled scientists and engineers. And part of the problem is that schools and universities are discouraging disabled people from going into the sciences. When I was in college, I really wanted to go into computer science, and I was strongly discouraged. And I eventually had to switch majors and ended up going into anthropology and sociology because of the hostility in the STEM field.”

Learn More:

Watch: Why I work to remove access barriers for students with disabilities, Haben Girma, TEDxBaltimore [15 minutes]

Read: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law

Follow: Haben Girma’s Facebook 

Universal Design for Learning: The Curb-Cut Effect

The flexibility, multimodal representation, and attention to accessibility that’s fundamental to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) reduces barriers to learning.

Just as curb cuts in sidewalks allow folks using wheelchairs–but also people pushing strollers, wheeling suitcases, or riding bicycles–to safely navigate curbs, UDL helps all students, including those with disabilities. This is known as the curb-cut effect.

Think of captions for a moment. We know that Deaf and hard of hearing folks benefit from captioning. But second language learners or folks watching course videos in quiet spaces like libraries, or people who struggle to understand accents different from their own also benefit from captions.

Did You Know?

Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue at UC Berkeley is home to the nation’s first curb cut.

According to Ed Roberts, whom we featured in September’s newsletter, "We secured the first curb cut in the country, at the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph Avenue. When we first talked to legislators about the issue, they told us, 'Curb cuts, why do you need curb cuts? We never see people with disabilities out on the streets. Who is going to use them?' They didn't understand that their reasoning was circular. When curb cuts were put in, they discovered that access for disabled people benefit many others as well. For instance, people pushing strollers use curb cuts, as do people on bikes and elderly people who can't lift their legs so high. So many people benefit from this accommodation. This is what the concept of Universal Design is all about." 

A11Y tip: Descriptive Links

October’s Accessibility Tip is simple!

When sharing links digitally (i.e., not on printed handouts), we want to keep assistive technology like screen readers in mind.

Screen readers are software programs that read screen text aloud. Users often listen to a list of links to navigate a webpage. Ensure that hyperlink text you write is descriptive enough to make sense when removed from its context.

When we just include a URL, the screen reader will announce the long jumble of letters and numbers that make up this link. This is time consuming and doesn’t clearly communicate where the link will lead.

We also want to avoid using link text that only says "click here" or "more." Out of context, this is not helpful when trying to determine which sites you want to visit. Similarly, when listing multiple links, be sure that each link has its own unique text.

Use short phrases like "View the syllabus" or “Change your password” so users can differentiate links, decide whether to click a link, and determine what to expect once they do so.

Check out the UC A11Y Canvas course to learn how to change link text in Canvas and other programs.

Access Hero:

This month, we’d like to highlight Dr. Miriam Markum’s commitment to accessible teaching. Markum is Associate Professor of Teaching in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Department at UC Davis. She serves on the Disability Issues Administrative Advisory Committee and is actively involved with units across campus to advocate for students with disabilities. She also supports instructors in implementing accessibility best practices and recently co-presented a talk at UC Davis’ Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology called Accessibility in Action: Practical Strategies for Inclusive Teaching. Thank you, Miriam!

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:

Four UC athletes represented the United States in the recent 2024 Paralympics in Paris. 

UC Davis alumna and paracyclist Hannah Chadwick competed in tandem events with sighted pilot Skyler Espinoza. 

UC Irvine alum and paracyclist Bryan Larsen, whose right arm was paralyzed in 2019, placed sixth in the Men's C4 4000m Individual Pursuit. 

UC Berkeley swimmer (2025) Noah Jaffe earned silver in the Men’s 100-meter Freestyle S8 and bronze in the Mixed 4 x 100-meter Freestyle Relay 34 Points. He has spastic, quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

UC Santa Cruz alum, track and field athlete, and dental student Leo Merle finished 4th in the 1500-meter race. He hopes to become the first American with cerebral palsy to run the 1500-meter race in less than four minutes in future competitions. 

And the UC Office of the President recently interviewed Michael Garafola, an athlete himself who runs UCLA's adaptive athletics program.

Congratulations, athletes!