AccessERC is about capacity building.
[Music]
Sheryl Burgstahler: Access ERC is a project funded by the National Science Foundation.
It's actually a supplemental grant to the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering,
which is an engineering research center at the University of Washington,
also funded by the National Science Foundation.
And there are about 15 of these centers across the country.
And we were funded to help the other centers
recruit and employ and engage
individuals with disabilities in everything they do.
Rajesh Rao: We are helping other ERCs train their staff,
create accessible websites, collect demographic data,
and also ensure that the space and the labs that they have
are accessible to people with disabilities.
Pam McLeod: I think it's important for ERCs to include people with disabilities
because when we think about pretty much any problem
that any of us are trying to solve,
the research has shown that the more diverse group
that you have working on a problem,
the more interesting and probably robust solution sets you'll get.
Narrator: Develop strategic partnerships,
including those with disability and veteran service units.
Recruit people with disabilities, including veterans,
onto advisory boards and leadership teams.
Willi Savenye: We've reached out and have partnered with our Veterans Center on campus.
So that's a good start
because the director is very willing to share information about our activities,
to help us recruit students who might be very interested in being researchers
in the lab.
Alexis Campbell: It's easy to send out an email or a letter
that's saying, you know, we want to look at you.
We would like you to apply to our program.
Narrator: Promote disability awareness.
Highlight the achievements of people with disabilities.
Encourage faculty and staff to engage in disability-related conferences.
Delia Saenz: And so I think one key message
that cannot be underscored enough is the fact that an institution
is willing to create the environment that allows for that success.
And so how do we put out that message?
Well, I think in every brochure that is there to recruit students, employees,
in every message on the web that showcases your institution
and all that it has to offer,
in every message that is delivered by the president
we need to allow information.
We need to highlight information
that shows where to find connections about universal design,
about services to disabled students, about our commitment to inclusion.
Narrator: Apply universal design and provide reasonable accommodations.
Chien-fei Chen: We did mentor a blind student before.
And I think, luckily, we have a leader, director, and also our staff
are very supportive of a student coming to our lab
because our lab is dealing with high-voltage equipment.
We provided an opportunity for him to do modeling and really advanced analysis,
which was a very challenging research project.
And this student was just wonderful to work with
and he helped us to understand what he needs, what he wants.
Shaila Kotadia: When we are organizing events,
we try to make them accessible to all.
We ask people for their accessibility needs.
And I work really, really hard
to make sure everybody feels comfortable with whatever they do need.
And especially when we do diversity inclusion workshops,
because that's the whole point,
is that they should feel like they are welcome.
Narrator: Consult with individuals with disabilities in lab and facility design.
Review websites, documents, and videos for accessibility.
Roy Charles: Right now, we're in the information age.
We're, you know, disseminating information in a variety of ways,
and ensuring that your message is able to get out
and be accessible to everyone is absolutely critical.
Devdas Pai: And there's something I can do,
some things that I can implement myself as an instructor.
I learned about captioning processes, the use of headings.
Roxanne Zellin: The website is the first entrance into our program,
into what we do.
And if that population cannot access it, what good is it?
Chet Moritz: Given that we are a center that works on sensorimotor impairment,
it was important that the space be accessible to a broad audience,
and not only students with disabilities, but members of the community.
So we have members of the community come to our practitioner and user advisory boards,
attending our research seminars.
And so having this wide open space makes it much easier to negotiate,
whether the users are using an assistive device, a wheelchair or otherwise.
So another aspect of the space that we really enjoy
is the flexibility in the furniture.
We can set it up in many different configurations to engage users.
But we can also clear it out of the way if we have an event
where many people with assistive devices are present.
It's really an element of universal design.
Narrator: Consider disability as a diversity issue.
Provide mentoring opportunities for people with disabilities.
Roy: I've worked in diversity for quite some time
and sometimes the conversation about diversity can focus very much
on one or two particular groups, in part, racial minorities and women,
and not as much be discussed about persons with disabilities.
Roxanne: Engineers are problem solvers and many of these students
bring a different perspective based on their experiences.
One type of people will have one type of solution to the problem.
So with the different people bringing their different perspectives,
we'll have an opportunity to solve the problem
in a way that we hadn't thought about before.
Narrator: Collect disability status
with other demographic information
in application and evaluation forms.
Analyze data to determine effectiveness.
Sheryl: It is important in all of our evaluation instruments
to ask about disability,
when we're asking students to evaluate how well they've done in an activity,
or what they've learned, or how a lab is working for them,
it's important for us to ask if they have a disability
so we can see if their experience is different than other students.
But it's also important to ask access questions.
Rajesh: ERCs are designed to have huge impact in society
by solving some of the major challenges in engineering
that society is currently facing.
And in order to have that kind of impact
and to solve these important problems,
we need to include every section of society,
including people with disabilities, in all aspects of ERCs.