Fall 2020, First Meeting (9/8/20)

Our first CUNY Unlimited FIG meeting took place (over Zoom) before the start of the semester so that we could discuss and then disseminate tips to faculty regarding teaching students with intellectual/ learning disabilities online. (Learning disabilities is the UK terminology for intellectual disabilities)

The FIG was attended by 12 people: faculty, staff, administrators, and student alumni. Departments and programs represented included English (Enid Stubin), Education (Sue Carpenter, Carole Carielli), Psychology/Education (Jeremy Sawyer), Communications and Performing Arts (Melisa Jn Pierre), and Art (Tommy Mintz). Also attending were Nick Giampetruzzi – Director of CUNY Leads, Stella Woodroffe – Director of the Accessibility Office, Kenaskua Matsuda – Program Director of the Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program (Including KCC and BMCC sites), and Gabriela Dekki from Academic Affairs.

We were delighted to welcome two alumni – Margot Cole, a film director (cripvideoproductions.com) who also teaches acting online, and Andrea Morales-Salinas, who is continuing her 4-year degree in the Education Program at Brooklyn College. Both alumni’s contributions to the meeting were invaluable.

The agenda began with Jeremy’s summary of the FIG’s activity in Spring 2020, which included work around employment for students with disabilities and a lively discussion of two fantastic documentaries (“Summer in the Forest” and “Crip Camp”) about international alternatives to institutionalization of people with intellectual disability, and the U.S. disability rights movement of the 1970s and beyond. Jeremy and Sue shared that they will now use Crip Camp in their Psychology 2400 courses. Margot also showed everyone her copy of the book Being Heumann by Judy Heumann, which accompanies the film.

We continued with personal introductions and updates from all attendees. Stella updated us on an upcoming meeting about CUNY Unlimited with administration. Kensaku let us know that issues regarding technology and access to Blackboard for the MRHEP were presently being sorted, and that Jason Lau was still heading up the KCC MRHEP program. Gabriela shared how various faculty had volunteered to have MRHEP students audit their classes, and how the pairing process was proceeding. Sue was warmly welcomed back from her fellowship leave in the UK – she will be presenting on her findings later in the semester.

Sue gave a summary of CUNY Central news, including the big news of Barbara Bookman, Director of Disability retiring. (See enclosed info.) Also, an announcement about the NJ Neurodiversity Summit on the 25th Sept. was made (as of now Lisa, Jeremy, and Sue will be attending). Enid also spoke eloquently about the stress that she felt in a student role while taking the CUNY online teaching certificate this past summer, and how much she empathized with our students! This point really set the stage nicely for our later discussion elaborating on Sue’s Ten Tips for teaching students online.

The main section of the meeting (which went beyond our allocated time given the enthusiasm for the topic!) was “Best practices for teaching students with intellectual disabilities online.” Sue shared her ten tips that she developed and circulated before the meeting to give our discussion a helpful framing from which to elaborate and brainstorm. It is important to point out that all tips discussed in our meeting are relevant to working with all students (with or without disabilities) online, illustrating the value to all students of universal design.

The following are Sue and Jeremy’s notes on the topics and tips discussed at the meeting. Please add your own notes that we may have missed, and feel free to elaborate on points that you made during the meeting here in written form. We didn’t always catch who made which contribution in our notes, so feel free to add that if you would like to. Please add directly to this Google Doc below:

• Everyone is stressed (including faculty) during this time of the pandemic. Issues related to economic and racial injustice (Black Lives matter), and other environmental and political concerns add to a sense of urgency and stress as well. Transferring to online teaching is just the icing on the cake. Margot commented on how many of her professors had been unwell health-wise and stressed in the past.
• Although we have been encouraged to go asynchronous for some legitimate reasons, Andrea shared that she really desires to check in at least once a week via videoconferencing with her instructors, for instance to correct misinterpretations of lessons or written material.
• Professors: let students know they can ask for any help they need and that you are there to support them! Be welcoming and warmly present.
• Don’t be afraid to use the power of the accessibility office for support, critical information for students OR faculty, or to even visit your class for presentations (Enid).
• Online videoconferencing office hours are a good support for students (Carol).
• Take care of yourself! Self-care is paramount during these challenging times.
• Don’t require students to download huge files (Margot). Compress files or provide links to the cloud that don’t require downloads.
• Be aware of ableist language (Stella), for instance phrases we say and don’t think about, such as ‘It makes you go crazy,’ ‘that’s insane,’ or ‘how depressing.’
• Being aware of microaggressions (Sue), which are subtle forms of generally unintentional discrimination (generally statements or actions) against marginalized groups. One example would be someone finding out that you have a disability and saying “I’ll pray for you” as if they want to find a cure and imagine your life must be terrible with this disability.
• Beware of pushing ‘help’ onto someone when help is not desired. Ask once only if they need help, and if so what kind (Margot).
• Beware of automatic assumptions we may make about help needed by the way someone appears to us (Margot/Stella)
• Everyone is stressed – and students who are given inflexible deadlines for assignments and exams will feel even more stress (Melissa and Enid).
• Time frames for assignments should be clear, but also FLEXIBLE to accommodate all the turmoil everyone is experiencing (Melisa). Melisa has a “coffee meets bagel” section of her course shell where students can talk to her or each other about any life challenges they are facing, and they can find resources and support to handle them (this is great!)
• Availability of faculty should be made clear to students. We are of course not available 24/7 and clarifying these boundaries will help both teacher and student (Stella).
• Clearly define what an ‘Emergency’ is, in relation to students being able to contact faculty in an ‘emergency.’ A student not understanding and trying to do an assignment that they do not understand at 11.30 pm is an emergency to them but not necessarily to a faculty member. (Stella)
• Blackboard Collaborate has better screen reader accessibility than Zoom (thanks Andrea!) 
• Pre recorded Blackboard Collaborate videos can be accessible and accessed even when not signed in to your Blackboard account. (Margot) 
• Zoom group chat can be used as a tool for social interaction among students.
• Inform students of the services of the counseling office that can support them.
• How’s your week?’ and ‘How are you coping?’ are good open-ended questions at the beginning of an online class (Melisa)
• How to overcome the stress of teaching online was also mentioned, for instance using a standing desk, taking breaks, stretching, and keeping meetings short (Sue).

*Our next meeting will be via Blackboard Collaborate in late September or early October to see how the inclusion of students from MRHP program is going.

Thoughts from cofacilitators Jeremy and Sue inspired by the meeting:

Jeremy: The mention of language and microaggressions during our brainstorming was great and got me thinking. We could organize an event or seminar about ableism, microaggressions, etc. at some point even for the school at large. Last year during the annual diversity conference Keisha Thompson and HURFS ran a session on racial microaggressions where they had students role play what to do in situations with microaggressions, and used clips from the show “Blackish” to illustrate racial microaggressions and kick off a discussion of them. It was very well received by students who attended, and I think we could do something similar. Maybe could be a long-term goal of ours to have a session as part of diversity week (and disability awareness week too).

Sue: Sue has written a number of Ten Tips booklets and is thinking of writing another with the above tips – are members OK with being contributors, who will of course be acknowledged? There is still time to add to the list of tips.

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