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CUNY Unlimited 1st Meeting, Spring 2022
CUNY Unlimited 1st Meeting, Spring 2022
On 3/1/22 our FIG hosted special guest Peter Santiago, LMHC, who is Associate Director/Counselor for AAS services and coordinating the Disability Awareness Week (DAW) at KCC this year from April 4th – 7th. Twelve faculty, staff, and student alumni attended the meeting.
The FIG collectively discussed ideas for the DAW, some of which have been solidified and others that we further developed today. The theme of this year’s DAW, coined by Stella, is “the whole students” to indicate a wholistic focus on well being (social, emotional, and more) rather than just access to higher education or a narrow academic focus.
A few DAW sessions we discussed that are relatively firm are:
Mon. 4/4 – 11:30am – Inclusive international music outreach, with Sue and Margot
Mon. 4/4 – 12:40pm – Colleagues from the Education Department are doing a session on “First impressions of people with disabilities as portrayed in children’s books.”
Ben Hanon’s proposal, “Not Despite, Not Because: Exploring Attitudes about Excellence in People with Disabilities.”
Our main discussion focused on our FIG organizing and facilitating two conceptually linked events – a film screening and student stories event – for Tue. 4/5 (perhaps an 11:30am and 1:50pm slot), encouraging attendees to go to both if possible. The morning event would screen films on inspiring examples of inclusion in higher education and connect it to the work we are doing in the CUNY Unlimited FIG, encouraging other KCC community members to join us. Films to screen will be Dan Habib’s excellent “Opening Doors to College” and possibly “Look I’m in College,” an older documentary about one of the nation’s first inclusion programs at Pace University. People seemed to like the idea of screening a portion (e.g., 10 minutes) of the older film, followed by a look at how far inclusion has come with the newer “Opening Doors” film (35 minutes). This would then be linked by panelists to our activist work in the FIG promoting inclusion through Melissa Riggio and beyond. Lisa and Margot expressed interest in the panel, and Kensaku was open to the idea when asked, though we should iron out details. Jeremy and Sue were also interested in this panel.
Note: Peter has possession of these two films which we could use:
- “What does normal Mean?” (Tijeras Films 2006) A film about full inclusion program in New Mexico.
- “Look, I’m in College!” By Ken Browne. A film about 4 NYC Black Men that are chosen for a college inclusion pilot at Pace University. https://www.kbprods.com/portfolio/look-college/
The afternoon “student voices and stories” event is then envisioned as including student-teacher pairs (perhaps 3-4 given time constraints). Peter and Sue will reach out to students and/or teachers to create these pairs, and someone from our FIG will facilitate the overall event. We want to foreground student personal experiences and perspectives on inclusion at KCC. Possible faculty and students mentioned for this panel were Sue, Tommy M., Don H., Enid, Autumn H., and Ned B.
In summary, everyone in the FIG can play a role in publicizing, attending, inviting classes (if they have them), presenting, or being on a panel for this exciting week of the DAW. A lot of excitement was expressed that the FIG is joining forces with AAS on this, and Stella laid out a vision that DAW should belong to the whole community – very inspiring!
CUNY Unlimited 3rd Meeting (12/9/21)
CUNY Unlimited 3rd Meeting, Fall 2021
The third FIG of the Fall semester 2021 was held on Thursday, Dec. 9th at 10am via zoom. 5 faculty, 3 administrators and 1 undergraduate alum/ disability advocate, together with two Melissa Riggio (MRHEP) students one now an alumni also attended. (students with intellectual disabilities)
Gabrielle Dekki was unable to attend but wrote to update us that travel training for MRHEP students would be taking place on and around campus over the Winter session and that MRHEP were now able to register at the same time as undergrad. students as long as faculty gave permission for them to attend.
Carrie Shockley Director of the CUNY Central Disability office then updated us on the roll out of CUNY Unlimited. (CU) It was explained that CU was a funnel for all applications to go through whether students were applying via MRHEP or CU. Carrie also explained that Hostos was waiting for the Pell Grant to be accepted. (this has since gone through) And once this had been cemented that Kingsborough would hopefully follow suite.
Stella Woodroffe, Director of Accessibility Services then spoke about the history of Disability Awareness Week (DAW) and a discussion followed as to how best we as a FIG could contribute to the D AW in Spring 2022 It was suggested that a panel of FIG members together with Students Unlimited members could lead a discussion after the showing of the film “Opening Doors to College” by Dan Habib, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0BFL9DLk-Q
The short documentary (for faculty) on including students with intellectual disabilities that is being generously worked on by Margot Cole and Carol Carrieli was shared and discussed. The idea of making the film partly on zoom was decided upon which would enable it to be made more economically and quicker as a way to promote CUNY Unlimited at KCC.
The FIG ran overtime towards the end of it an interesting and frank exchange was had between the 2 Melissa Riggio students. One asking of the other whether they had a stutter. It was made clear in the reply that they were fine with this being asked of them, and that they had in fact a speech impairment. This modelled an honest and direct exchange regarding disability for ‘neurotypicals!
The FIG was informative and supportive of members projects. Members were excited at the opportunity to be able to contribute to the Disability Services Disability Week together with Students Unlimited. The FIG has now cemented core members and new members should now be encouraged to join.
CUNY Unlimited 2nd Meeting (11/4/21)
CUNY Unlimited 2nd Meeting, Fall 2021
On 11/4/21 our FIG hosted a very special guest – Piers Wilkinson, a disability advocate from England to our virtual meeting. Twelve faculty, staff, student alumni, and we were honored to have Carrie Shockley and Jenna Lamm – CUNY Disability Program administrators attend the meeting.
Piers Wilkinson is the former National Union of Students Disabled Students’ Officer before the role was defunded in 2020, and now supports D&A’s work as their Higher Education Policy and Partnerships Lead. Piers has been deeply involved in disabled student representation at all levels for over 6 years, culminating in their election to national representative positions during the last 4 years, and in March 2020 was appointed to the Disabled Students’ Commission as a Student Voice Commissioner.
https://diversityandability.com/team/piers-wilkinson/
Piers has a great sense of humor, and he inquired about our favorite brand of tea along with our intros. Piers then treated us to an amazingly comprehensive history of disability law in England, and where it overlaps and rhymes with U.S. disability history. Although a recurring theme was the U.K. lagging 20 years behind the U.S. in terms of various protections for individuals and especially students with intellectual disabilities. For example there are no programs similar to CUNY Unlimited at Universities in the UK for students with intellectual disabilities to be included. We also saw the English disability law is far older.
Our minds were boggled to learn the first English law relating to disability was passed in 1339! Interestingly, this law protected disabled lords (known as “impotent”) from having their lands stolen while they were temporarily (or perhaps permanently) not able to see to their business. While I cannot do the whole of Piers’ fantastic presentation justice, below are a few notes on some of the older laws that he covered.
1535 – Poor Law Act (only 3 years of protection for “impotent”) non-able-bodied beggars
1774 – Enshrined the medical model, in that now a doctor must certify lunacy for a madhouse (e.g., Bedlam, where we get the adjective today).
1834 – Poor Law Amendment: workhouse conditions for disabled individuals must be worse than the working conditions for other workers.
1845 – Lunacy Act – removed disabled children at young ages from the home, and this could not be challenged by the family or the children themselves.
Idiots, Imbeciles, Lunatics: this disgusting terminology was coded language for late the 19th century. The U.S. equivalent of these were the “Ugly Laws” which prohibited certain disabled children or individuals from being seen in public.
There was a lively discussion following Piers’ presentation, and this included some discussion of employment statistics and support comparing the U.S. and England. We saw that employment rates for disabled people in the US (17%) are far worse than in England (in the 80% range generally), and a lot of this has to do with the fact that England provides money for employers (at least partial payment) for employing people with disabilities while the U.S. does not. In the end, we could agree that both countries have a long way to go in ensuring equitable access to both higher education and employment, and Piers and the others in attendance intend to continue advocating for this in any way we can. We thank Piers for coming and hope to see him again in the future!
CUNY Unlimited 1st Meeting (9/21/21)
CUNY Unlimited FIG No. 1 Fall 2021
The meeting took place on Sept. 21st at 12.00 pm. 12 members attended including 5 faculty, 3 students, two of which were alumni, (one of whom is a Melissa Riggio alumnus who we are delighted to stay in touch with) together with for 4 staff/ admin. He is the only person to sensibly stretch and move during the hour plus long meeting!
During introductions the Melissa Riggio student mentioned that the program had a new coordinator Frank Laskowitz. This was good to know for future collaborations and communications. We wish Jason Lau former coordinator all the best in his new administrative (promotion) role!
The group then watched a new 35 min. documentary by Dan Habib: Opening doors to college. Habib directed Intelligent lives which the FIG had watched and discussed in the Spring of 2020. A lively discussion followed as there were obvious parallels with the Temple and Millersville University programs to CUNY Unlimited programs and the Melissa Riggio program at KCC.
One of the criticisms of Habib’s documentary was that he did not interview or involve under graduates in the film, nor did he involve mentors. It has been researched (and spoken of many times in the FIG) that inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities benefits both undergraduates and Melissa Riggio students as well as the college community as a whole. Undergraduate mentors too have been seen to benefit greatly from their interactions, mentoring and indeed friendships with the Melissa Riggio students and these important elements were missing in Opening doors to college.
A number of the FIG members have been working diligently on a story board and costing for a film to be made at KCC to introduce and encourage faculty to include students with intellectual disabilities in their classrooms. With this in mind our own forthcoming short documentary will include all stake holders!
As is often the case the FIG meeting ran way over the hour as members enjoyed discussing the film at length!
CUNY Unlimited 3rd Meeting (5/12/21)
CUNY Unlimited FIG No. 3 Spring 2021 minutes May 12th 2021
Sue Carpenter welcomed members to the last FIG of the semester. Those who attended included: 5 faculty, 3 staff, 2 Melissa Riggio staff, I MRHEP student and one alumnus, and 3 members of the Students Unlimited advocacy group.
1)The meeting began with brief reports back from Jason Lau re. how some MRHEP students had liked and done well learning on line. Michael Lettman however current MRHEP student expressed his frustration at not being on campus and taking classes on line.
Sue expressed again how Michael enriched her EDC3000 class by his honesty and engagement in the class. Michael also contributes to the Sheiling College UK on line music outreach.
2) Sue spoke of her long-time mentor Dr. John Diamond’s passing in April and showed a video of him speaking about altruism, and the benefits of music outreach. Sue’s first experience of including students with ID was through his work in Canberra Australia in 2003.
3) Jeremy introduced Students Unlimited members who spoke about their group and showed a colorful power point which included many photographs of their members including with President Schrader The CU FIG would like to form an ongoing partnership with the student group- a natural fit.
4) Lisa Esposito gave a presentation on UDL following her attendance at training. She explained it clearly and in a UDL friendly way through an excellent power point. Members have encouraged her to share this in the Brown Bag session in the EDC program.
5) Carol Carielli shared her Storyboard for a film to advertise the MRHEP to faculty and encourage them to included students in their courses. An excellent story line was shared! Discussion around funding made for a meeting that went over time but was much appreciated by all. Mention was also made of the of the recent Ovations feature. Thoughts and requests for next semester’s meetings were briefly mentioned by Jeremy in concluding the meeting.
CUNY Unlimited 2nd Meeting (3/22/21)
Summary of CUNY Unlimited 2nd Meeting
On 3/22/21 our FIG met for a virtual film screening of “Intelligent Lives,” directed by Dan Habib. The free screening was hosted by the Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education (http://www.csie.org.uk) in Bristol, England, and our own Sue Carpenter was one of the panelists who discussed the film after it was show. Twelve of our FIG members attended, including other KCC students who are not part of the FIG.
Below is a description of the film and here is a link to the film’s trailer:
https://intelligentlives.org/trailer
From award-winning filmmaker Dan Habib comes INTELLIGENT LIVES, a catalyst to transform the label of intellectual disability from a life sentence of isolation into a life of possibility for the most systematically segregated people in America.
INTELLIGENT LIVES stars three pioneering young American adults with intellectual disabilities – Micah, Naieer, and Naomie – who challenge perceptions of intelligence as they navigate high school, college, and the workforce. Academy Award-winning actor and narrator Chris Cooper contextualizes the lives of these central characters through the emotional personal story of his son Jesse, as the film unpacks the shameful and ongoing track record of intelligence testing in the U.S.
INTELLIGENT LIVES challenges what it means to be intelligent, and points to a future in which people of all abilities can fully participate in higher education, meaningful employment, and intimate relationships.
Film length: 70 minutes
The film took up IQ testing and showed how its development was based on racist eugenics. The film also addressed institutionalization and other forms of oppression and exclusion of people with disabilities from schools and society. Our FIG found these intersections of issues of equity, IQ, and race to be very powerful. It was a nice compliment to watching “Crip Camp” last semester and made us think we should do more film screenings and discussions and FIG.
Spring 2021, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 1st meeting (3/1/21)
CUNY Unlimited FIG
Spring 2021 meeting no. 1 (March 1st) minutes
Those in attendance:
Gabriela D., Carol C., Lisa E., Don H., Kensaku M., Anna K., Jeremy S., Sue C., Michael L., Jason L., Stella W., Nick G., Frank L., Cecelia N., Margot C.
The first FIG meeting of the semester was scheduled before the beginning of the semester to be able to give support to fellow faculty and to find out information that would be helpful ahead of classes starting.
After introductions, Gabriela gave a brief explanation of her role as the liaison between the MRHEP program and Department heads and faculty. Kensaku and Jason also added in information about their roles in registering students and reaching out to department heads. Concerns were raised about some department heads perhaps not knowing or understanding what the MRHEP program was and what faculty would be involved in, and not forwarding adequate information to faculty.
Anna K., a new member, raised questions about how to identify MRHEP students and their mentors. The mechanics of access to Blackboard and CUNY First was also raised. Out of this discussion came the idea of the FIG members making a film that explained and advocated for faculty to include students from the MRHEP in their courses that could be distributed to faculty and heads of departments. With Margot Cole’s expertise and Carol’s willingness to be involved this was and exciting idea and initiative. To be continued!
The last part of the FIG included Frank Laskowitz speaking of his role as internship coordinator for the MRHEP including finding internships, helping students with their CV etc. Michael Lettman spoke about his recent internship tutoring a young child online.
Reminders were given by Stella about the upcoming Disability Awareness week in April and the upcoming CUNY Neurodiversity conference later in the week in which Jeremy and Sue were to present on Advocating for students in higher education from CUNY to the UK, which was to highlight the work of our FIG! Members were invited to lead the presentation breakout sessions.
The next meeting was announced: March 22nd at 12.00 EST for a free screening of Intelligent Lives hosted by the Centre for Studies in Inclusion in Education UK charity.
Fall 2020, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 3rd meeting (11/30/20)
November 30th, 2020
CUNY Unlimited FIG
3rd meeting, Fall semester 2020
Attendees: Cecelia Nunziato, Margot Cole ( alum) Carrie Shockley, Sue Carpenter, Lisa Esposito, Jason Lau ( MRHEP) Michael Lettman (MRHEP student), Don Hume, Jenna Lamm, Gabriela Dekki, Dr. Tameka Battle (Director of Recreation Therapy at LaGuardia), Melisa Jn Pierre, Stella Woodroffe, MaryLou Fierle (HPER), Nicholas Skirka (HPER), Nick G, Carol Carielli and Jeremy Sawyer
- Welcome to all
Introduction of alumni, MRHEP students faculty and staff to guest speakers Jenna Lamm- co Ordinator of CUNY Central disability programs and Carrie Shockley- Director of the JFK Junior Institute and co-ordinator of TPSID grant
FIG started in 2016 and now has a wide range of stake holders/ members. Starting with a few attendees which is now up to 18 attendees !
Presentation by Carrie and Jenna (with PPt slides)
Notes from Jenna’s power point (power point in separate file attached)
4 pillars based on Federal requirements for CTP designation: Academic Access (full registration, etc), Campus Integration (join clubs, other campus groups, civic engagement), Career Preparation (internships, work study, soft skill learning on campus, work-based learning), Self-Determination (independent living, self-advocacy skills).
*Students Unlimited, Student World Assembly.
*Kristin and Sue helped to develop this vision (2 years with option of 3rd, D75 model; or 3 years with optional 4th, as in Melissa Riggio).
4-year CUNY Unlimited Plan (presented here)
*36 academic credits (12 in a major, 9 electives)
*12 Employment credits (4 work-based internships)
*3 Social credits (CE, Club Leadership, Advocacy) – Stella raised a point about this
Funding
*Applied for TPSID, but wasn’t renewed; previous grant had an employment developer
*Neidler – trying for this community living grant, and building employment opportunities
Q & A
-Michael Lettman: looking for internships-
Follow up: Eric Conte of NYC Men Teach setting up an online field experience with Sue’s assistance with the support of MRHEP
-Don: HPER (Recreation) looking to create a career path. Carrie – it would be great to identify students at KCC who would be interested in such career paths. Students can get Federal Aid and work study, but they are auditing (straddle the line between matriculation and non-matriculation). MRHEP has email and Blackboard, but KCC is not getting paid for this!
Don: Will students be counted as FTE’s? Carrie: probably not. Don: for designing a program, would we design a program for a MRHEP student, or create a more general model? Carrie: some combination – recommend a cluster of classes (track) that could apply to a certain job goal, but then have some flexibility for students to tailor it to their needs.
Follow up : Don organized a meeting with MRHEP and HPER faculty to discuss options with MRHEP – to be contd. Re. pilot program. Sue to look into Education ‘strand’ too.
-Stella: Every campus has to be approved initially (Carrie: and 3 different models per school). Clock hours need to be counted for Financial Aid dollars. KCC is a good place to start because of the high campus support.
-Sue: Are there models where many more students can be served? Carrie: 20 students per campus seems to be the sweet spot for the number of students served. Eventually we would like to offer this on every campus, but we need sufficient support for this.
Follow up : Think College stated that there are some colleges with 50-60 students in a program inc. Houston Texas Community College
-Margot: Would RCIL pay for courses like this?
-Nicholas Skirka (HPER): What is the assessment/selection process like for this program? Jenna: We work closely with AHRC, who are the experts on student evaluation (including medical, etc.) It’s definitely a partnership from the CUNY side with AHRC for admission.
-Jenna: Other projects: Project REACH had an autism and universal design training (two autistic researchers training faculty and staff), trying to start CUNY Autism Network for such trainings. For CUNY Leads we’ve been having online training events (this month virtual interviewing).
-Stella: One student has matriculated from MRHEP to KCC officially.
-Carrie: We’re talking about the next campus that we’re targeting. Kingsborough is putting together an application now, with central guidance.
-Don: can there be a coordinated effort across campuses? Carrie:
-Carrie: Students tell your story as an advocate; think about opening up spaces to work-study program students; spaces for
Questions on CUNY Unlimited Rollout:
- How long will they wait for the roll out, given the ongoing pandemic? -Fall 2021
- Can faculty at least be credited for ‘service to the community’ (if not financially) for working with MRHEP students? To be followed up
Announcements / Wrap-Up
Since Margot and her cast (along with Jermaine Greaves) just did the Living with a Disability in 2020 event. Here is a link to the recorded video of the meeting via the chat and email. https://youtu.be/_QdLVQ3myTk
Here is a link to Sue’s talk at University of Kent. https://youtu.be/ut10WLATFvk
on opportunities for inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities in Universities in the UK, Europe and the USA.
First meeting of Spring will be before the start of the semester again.
Follow up questions for Jenna (with her answers italicized below): Sue: Would it be possible for us to know the admin. folks at KCC who are working on financial side of the credential? It would be good to be contact with them to keep them informed of the FIG etc. Jenna We are working with the Director of Financial Aid, but I do think that these are somewhat separate parts of the program development, and it may be best since they are already so overwhelmed for us to provide updates while we are working on getting the credential approved.
Sue I was really sorry to hear that the second TPSID grant was not successful. I know how much time and energy grant applications take! Did the grant giving body give feedback? I hope the funding comes through from other perhaps private funding sources. I know this was the case with Trinity College, Dublin’s program and indeed the MRHEP originally. This is something I am aware of and looking into re. starting a program up in the UK! I have not seen feedback, but we did hear it was very close! There were very few TPSIDS funded in the Northeast this round, most were Midwest and out West.
A few more questions coming out of the meeting!
Has the first TPSID credential now being approved? Not yet, that is what we are working with KCC admin on getting submitted to the US DOE
Is the roll out of Fall 2021 dependent on whether we are back to face to face teaching etc.? Right now it is dependent on getting CTP approval
Fall 2020, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 1st meeting (9/8/20)
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.
Fall 2020, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 2nd meeting
CUNY Unlimited 2nd Fall 2020 FIG Meeting (10/26/20)
Our second FIG meeting of Fall 2020 was attended by 18 people! This included a diverse mix of students, Melissa Riggio mentors and staff, faculty, and staff/administrators from KCC. It was very powerful to share perspectives and make links across our various positions and relations to inclusive education at KCC.
In this meeting the CUNY Unlimited FIG “returned to its roots” by focusing directly on our Melissa Riggio students, which was a focus of the FIG when it was founded by Sue and others some years ago. We had some fantastic guests at this meeting – current Melissa Riggio students and their peer mentors, as well as Kensaku, a director of the Melissa Riggio program.
We discussed their fantastic contributions in general to our learning environments, as well as specific experiences (highlights and/or challenges) with the inclusion process as it is currently unfolding. Below we will fill in notes from the meeting within each section of our agenda:
Agenda
- Updates from FIG members (including Margot’s upcoming event) [10 min]
We had some new faculty as well as students and mentors who were attending for the first time, so we did a round of introductions, which highlighted our diverse positions and experiences with disability, but also our common dedication to inclusive education. Margot mentioned her upcoming event “Living with a Disability in 2020” that will take place on November 19th at 10:15am, in which her castmates and she will discuss making art, connecting with others, and living with a disability during the pandemic.
- Contributions made by Melissa Riggio students, the theme of Sue’s upcoming University of Kent talk (Sue will kick off this section) [20min]
Sue kicked off this section by discussing her upcoming talk “The contribution of students with intellectual disabilities in higher education: an international perspective” that she will give on Wed. 10/28 at 1p EST (she will give the talk from the UK at this event sponsored by University of Kent). This theme of contribution framed the discussion in this section…
- Our experiences with inclusion this semester (Tommy M., Melissa Riggio mentors, Sue’s student and others welcome to share) [25 min]
This was a lively discussion where we heard from multiple people. A common denominator seemed to be that Melissa Riggio students bring “enthusiasm” for learning and connecting with their peers that seems unrivaled among their classmates. As people reported, this can help to crack the ice and raise the engagement level, even in a fully online course.
Melissa Riggio students reported the value of feeling that their peer mentors were interested in them as people, beyond their mere academic success, and how much this meant to them. Michael talked about adjusting to college, and wanting to just survive it at first, and saying his mentor has been key in getting accustomed to higher education. Melisa shared that having MRHEP students only officially enter her class 3 weeks into the semester was unfortunate because this is not ideal for students or teachers, and it does not conform with best practices as discussed in our last FIG of wanting to make contact with students and their mentors even before class begins to create an optimal inclusion experience. Melisa also shared that group members of her MRHEP student have been extremely supportive during collaborative group work, and have seemed to raise their level of conscious, respectful, and flexible cooperation in response to this inclusion experience.
- Next meeting plans [5 min]
Sue reached out to Jenna Lamm, Coordinator of Disability Programs at CUNY, and Carrie Shockley who is also deeply involved in this work, and we are excited to report that they have agreed to attend our next FIG meeting to give updates on the CUNY Unlimited rollout, as well as to hear our feedback on specific priorities within that rollout. We will send out a doodle poll for the best time and date, but we are looking at the first week of December (week beginning 11/30) for this final FIG meeting of the semester.
Since our FIG is growing, we talked about how to build our network among various departments on campus, make contact with more chairs and peer mentors, and create more connections between the Students Unlimited Club, which aims to raise awareness of disability on campus, and the FIG.
