Welcome to Episode 135 of the Think UDL podcast: Nothing Without Us with Amy Lomellini. Dr. Amy Lomellini is the Product Accessibility Lead at Anthology. She leverages her personal and professional experiences to help bring clarity, consistency, and confidence to the accessibility of Anthology’s array of educational technology products and solutions. She has experience as an instructional designer and an associate director of online learning. She teaches related courses and chairs several accessibility committees, including Anthology’s Accessibility Workstream. She holds a doctorate in educational technology and her research and publications focus on accessible and inclusive online course design strategies. In today’s episode, Amy and I talk about her experience as an online learner, educator and as an advocate for accessible and inclusive education. We discuss how disability culture has impacted and might shape online education and visions for the future of online education.

A side note, I was able to record this interview in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in September of 2024 which devastated Western North Carolina where I live. I did not have power, water or internet access at my home podcast studio, but was able to go somewhere that did. If the audio quality is not up to the same standard as previous episodes, it is because I was not using my usual podcasting equipment. However, having this conversation was an immediate balm to my soul and helped mend a bit of a broken heart over the recent destruction all around me. I hope you find it as hopeful and mending as I did.

Welcome to Episode 134 of the Think UDL podcast: Ask Me and Believe Me with Mickey Rowe. Mickey Rowe is an award winning best selling author and speaker. As an autistic and legally blind person, he believes that when we design for accessibility, we help others to perform at their best, and, as he says, that’s not just for disabled folks. He is a Broadway actor, director, consultant and public speaker and was the first autistic actor to play Christopher Boone, the lead role in the Tony Award-winning play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He is a disability and accessibility advocate and his most recent speaking engagement is with TextHelp’s open access conference Back to School Blockbuster: Lights, Camera, Educate! on September 18-19, from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST. This is a free virtual conference designed just for educators. If you are listening to this episode after the synchronous online conference, all of the content is available on demand until the end of November and you can find a link to the Back to School Blockbuster conference on the ThinkUDL.org webpage under the resources section of this episode, and in the episode description. In today’s conversation with Mickey, we talk about his experiences as a disabled student at the university level and what he and his professors did to manage the barriers that persisted while he completed his undergraduate degree. Mickey gives us all, students, instructors, administrators, and everyone else, some sound advice on how to reduce the friction but not the rigor of a college education. There are some easy choices and forward thinking designs that can help all of us along the way. I was able to catch Mickey at 6:30am his time in Seattle, Washington, and by the end of our interview his young school-aged children had joined us in the recording and made a brief appearance. You’ll hear them, too!

Welcome to Episode 133 of the Think UDL podcast: Online Graduate Education with Tracy Balduzzi. Tracy Balduzzi is the Associate Director of Strategic initiatives for the graduate school at Syracuse University and an adjunct Lecturer at Utica University in upstate New York. Tracy recently wrote an article about how she has implemented UDL strategies in the graduate online course she teaches and I was able to catch up with her to talk about what interventions she used to increase engagement, and added multiple ways to assess students along with providing multiple options for representation. We will also talk about student feedback and where to go from here!

Welcome to Episode 132 of the Think UDL podcast: Design Cycle and Research with Kavita Rao. Dr. Kavita Rao is a Professor in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the current director of the Research Institute there in the College of Education. In today’s conversation we discuss her published article on the UDL design cycle and then move into the current state of UDL research in Higher Education. We start this discussion with an understanding of the UDL design cycle and why it was codified. Then we move into taking stock of the state of UDL research in higher education, what we have, and what we need as we move forward as well as what to do if you want to start your research in UDL in higher education! I hope you will be inspired to add to our research base in UDL in higher ed, and thank you for listening to the Think UDL podcast.

Welcome to Episode 131 of the Think UDL podcast: Easing Academic Stress with Elizabeth Hitches. Elizabeth Hitches teaches across various universities in Australia in inclusive education and research methods, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland. Her current research is exploring students' academic stress through the lens of UDL and considering how stressors in the higher education environment might differ between students with and without accessibility requirements or disability. Her broader research explores inclusive education both nationally and internationally, drawing on students' voices and lived experiences. All of her research is available on google scholar. Elizabeth also works to support professional development to empower higher education staff to take accessible and inclusive approaches. She is grateful to be a member of CAST's national faculty, and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In today’s conversation, we talk about Elizabeth’s research on academic stress and what it looks like in the higher education environment, what it does to students, and how UDL can alleviate some of its effects. You might find a new way to consider your approach to your teaching and reconsider the learning environment we create.

Welcome to Episode 130 of the Think UDL podcast: Virtual Gathering, Real Inclusion with Cait Kirby and Liz Norell. Cait Kirby is the founding Associate Director of the Williams College Center for Teaching, where she primarily engages with faculty around exploring and celebrating teaching practices and opportunities. Cait spends her time tweeting about disability, pedagogy, and games. She enjoys knitting, reading, and making good trouble. Liz Norell is an associate director of instructional support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, where she supports faculty who want to improve their teaching. Liz is also dedicated to spreading greater awareness of neurodivergence in and out of the classroom, reads voraciously, and loves a good road trip.

Drs. Cait Kirby and Liz Norell were two of the organizers of the June 2024 virtual conference Making Change,Taking Space: A Call to Gather (virtually). The first time conference was organized entirely by volunteers primarily in the North American higher education space as a FREE professional development opportunity for anyone around the world who would like to participate in three days of workshops, lighting talks, and structured social gatherings. I was lucky enough to be able to attend this virtual conference and was really impressed with the thoughtful design that the organizers collectively created, so I asked Cait and Liz to join me to discuss those decisions and how it all came about. You’ll also be able to see a lot more information about this virtual gathering in the resources section of the ThinkUDL.org website for this episode and find contact information for the group as well as Cait and Liz, who are only two of the many volunteers who put together this exceptionally well-designed, inclusive, thoughtfully paced and incredibly generative space. In today’s conversation, we will discuss how and why this virtual conference came into being, how and why accessibility was baked into every design and planning choice, what lessons were learned after this inaugural and hopefully annual conference and what is on the horizon for any folks who may have missed out and want to join along in this community. Perhaps you will find some new ideas to put into practice in your spaces that will radically include your learners and/or participants, too.

Welcome to Episode 129 of the Think UDL podcast: UDL Toolkit with James D’Annibale. James D’Annibale is the Director of Academic Technologies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and has created a UDL Toolkit for his faculty at the small liberal arts college to help faculty integrate UDL into their teaching in no tech, low tech, and high tech ways, and with low lift to high lift options. This instructor-focussed toolkit systematically sorts some teaching responsibilities into UDL categories and may be a helpful way to engage your campus without having to reinvent the wheel yourself! Stay tuned as we talk about the UDL Toolkit for college instructors and thank you for listening to the Think UDL podcast.

Welcome to Episode 128 of the Think UDL podcast: HyFlex Love Affair with Kenyada McLeod. Kenyada McLeod is Associate Professor of Web Design at Brightpoint Community College in the central Virginia region. I first came in contact with her work when she helped me through the QM certification process years ago when I had my First Year Seminar course QM certified. It was then we struck up a friendship around UDL and kept in touch over social media. Just recently, we crossed paths again when I saw she had written about her HyFLex model in practice and I decided it was time to interview her for the podcast to learn about how she has integrated UDL into her HyFlex world. Her teaching in the HyFlex model has been exemplary and is something I think we have needed to revisit on the podcast so I have invited her to talk about how she has been able to remove barriers to learning for her students and for faculty as well. Tune into this conversation to learn more about how to help today’s faculty and students who have varied demands on their time survive and thrive in a HyFlex learning environment.