What is the Purpose of CBIs Conducted by AccessCollege?

The overall goal of DO-IT's AccessCollege project is to ensure that students with disabilities receive a quality postsecondary education with the same opportunities for college and career success as those for students without disabilities. AccessCollege team members, representing a diverse set of twenty-two postsecondary schools, host CBIs on their campuses to identify, implement, and institutionalize policies, practices, and procedures that lead to more accessible courses and services.

AccessCollege and other DO-IT projects have hosted CBIs to solve problems related to accessibility and the application of universal design for many years. Topics of CBIs have included making:

A characteristic of the CBI style is to honor participants as the experts. For example, in panel presentations the panelists are typically CBI participants. This way, they share their knowledge as experts on a topic and continue to participate in follow-up activities as other participant experts share perspectives in other presentations. Typically, CBIs last from four hours to three days.

This guide outlines common ways to organize CBIs and shares sample agendas and visual aides that can help you shape a CBI on your campus. It also shares lessons learned from the AccessCollege team. It can be found online at www.washington.edu/doit/building-capacity-welcoming-and-accessible-postsecondary-institution. This publication and its associated videos and handouts complement the following comprehensive resources for making instruction and student services, respectively, accessible to all students.