On March 30^th the Melissa Riggio FIG met in the Honors Lounge at 12.40.

Our guest speaker was Kristen Gillespie Lynch who runs Project Reach at CSI ( Project reach supports students on the spectrum.

We were pleased to include principals from District 75    who joined us for the meeting.

Sue Carpenter also gave an overview of the CUNY grant TPSID: Transitions for post secondary education for students with intellectual disabilities

For our next FIG, Stella Woodroffe Director of Accesibility will be presenting on Universal Design.

Please note our FIG is updating its name as faculty are not familiar with the Melissa Riggio Program name. In the future it will be entitled: How best to include students with intellectual disabilities in your classroom.

At today’s meeting Stella Woodroffe Director of Accesibility presented on Universal Design for Learning.

4 faculty attended together with a Melissa Riggio administrator.

An interesting discussion developed.

The main points that were raised were:

UDL is something that can be added and adapted to existing sound pedagogy.

Little steps and changes are important.

Give different types of assignments so all students can succeed

Give information visually, aurally and post on line.

Microsoft word has a check button to aid for example  accessible assignments and syllabi

This is sound practice that is for all learners not just those with disabilities.

A brief report was also given about an upcoming research project involving photovoice – which allows students to contribute in other ways than verbally or written word.

Thank you to all who participated.

Sue Carpenter facilitator will be attending the THINK COLLEGE conference in Orlando in July and will report back on this in the fall.