30th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference

Tami Tidwell, Terrill Thompson, and Sheryl Burgstahler standing in front of the CSUN banner.

By Tami Tidwell, DO-IT Staff, and Terrill Thompson, DO‑IT Technology Specialist

This year marked the 30th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference hosted in San Diego by California State University at Northridge (CSUN). DO-IT has had a long-term presence at the CSUN Conference. DO‑IT Director Sheryl Burgstahler has been attending since the conference started in 1985, Dan Comden and Terrill Thompson started attending in the early 1990’s, and DO-IT has had a booth in the Exhibit Hall for longer than anyone can remember. The CSUN Conference occurs in February/March each year and is the top assistive technology (AT) conference in North America, featuring exhibits by major AT vendors, hundreds of breakout sessions, and countless opportunities to network with colleagues and friends worldwide.

This year Sheryl, Terrill, and Hadi Rangin represented DO-IT and AccessComputing by presenting workshops on “Accessibility Training for Online Educators,” “Canvas LMS: A Case Study in Client-Vendor Collaboration for Accessibility,” and “Able Player: Building a Fully Accessible Open Source Media Player.” Tami Tidwell, Anna Marie Golden, Cynthia Bennett, and Catie Baker staffed the DO-IT booth and networked with worldwide AT professionals.

Currently, you can view accessible video sessions from the conference such as “Screen Readers: Limitations and Possible Improvements” and “Copyrights and Third Party Captioning: Challenges and Solutions” at www.csun.edu/cod/conference/2015/sessions under the heading “Webcasts.”