March 2025 - Inclusive Events: Addressing Administrative and Systemic Barriers
Administrative barriers represent a lack of support from leadership or resources to train staff. These barriers are complicated by institutional resources and power structures. Here are some ways you can help break down administrative barriers:
- Clearly and regularly explain the resources you need and your rationale to your supervisors and other administrative personnel.
- Invite leadership to inclusive events and use the events as an opportunity to discuss inclusivity.
- Send positive feedback to administrators to show the impact of inclusive practices.
Systemic barriers include traditions, norms, rules and processes that prevent people with disabilities from participating in events. Taking down these barriers can have a long-lasting impact. Here are some ways to get started:
- Consider the event itself: What activities are you planning? How are you encouraging people to learn and socialize? Are these methods inclusive and varied? Are you providing the opportunity to participate meaningfully in a variety of activities that require a wide range of abilities? Identify who your event "naturally" leaves out and consider correcting that.
- Take a hard look at the rules for entry and participation in an event, and consider what role these rules play. Eliminate arbitrary rules, or rules that seem to keep only people with disabilities from participating.
- Put people with disabilities in leadership and planning positions, both paid and volunteer. If you foster a collaborative environment for the planning and execution of the event, then working alongside people with disabilities will produce a more equitable and inclusive event.
Feb. 2025 - Inclusive Events: Addressing Attitudinal and Physical Barriers
Students who participate in campus activities perform better and feel more satisfied with their university experiences. Inclusive campus activities improve the lives of students with disabilities by fostering cross-ability relationships that reduce isolation, improve social skills and build community. Professor Linda Heyne of Ithaca College claims that addressing attitudinal and physical barriers is essential for hosting inclusive events.
Attitudinal barriers include bias, assumption, stereotyping and resistance to change. These barriers can lead people to assume that people with disabilities cannot or will not want to participate. These barriers can be difficult to combat, but here are some ideas to get you started:
- Train your staff and volunteers in inclusive practices and accommodations.
- Encourage an open mindset and seek input/collaboration from people with disabilities.
- Proactively communicate your commitment to inclusion. State in your marketing that accommodation is available. Include an accessibility statement on your event’s webpage and make sure the website itself is accessible for people using assistive technology. Make accessibility information easy to find.
- Use inclusive language and imagery in your marketing. Feature positive representations of people with disabilities and avoid ableist language or assumptions about participation.
Physical barriers can be the most vexing for people with disabilities, and yet also the simplest to address. Here are some creative and considerate ways to address physical barriers:
- Ensure that building entrances, doorways and space between tables are at least 36 inches wide so wheelchairs can move about easily. Also, provide places for people to rest, avoid locations with steep climbs or excessive stairs, remove tripping hazards from traffic areas, and provide extra transition time between activities. Provide non-physical ways to participate in activities.
- Signage should be large and visible for all participants. Provide visual cues with oral directions and vice versa. Ensure that speakers use microphones, even if they think they speak loud enough for everyone to hear and always include closed captions on videos
- Provide spaces that are free from loud noises, bright lights and strong scents. Consider eliminating these items from university-wide events and/or providing advanced notification to guests that they will be present.
- While planning an event, identify where and who will provide specialized services, such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and CART captioning services. Leave sufficient lead time – ASL interpreters, for example, need materials well in advance to prepare their translations.
Jan. 2025 - Broken elevators? Broken doors?
This month's tip is short and sweet, but oh so important!
Have you noticed an automatic door not working as it should or an elevator not functioning properly? Broken items like these should be reported quickly so that students, faculty and staff with disabilities can continue to access all parts of campus.
During normal business hours, report broken equipment to Physical Plant.
If you need to request equipment to meet an accommodation, contact Auxiliary Services.
Dec. 2024
Happy Holidays! Check back in the New Year for another accessiblity tip from the Accessibility Advisory Council.
Nov. 2024
One major step toward a fully accessible campus is ensuring all community members can access information. Small changes can have a tremendous impact on students, faculty and staff who use screen readers and other text-to-talk technologies. These technologies benefit people with vision and audio impairments, non-native speakers or those with lower literacy, people with learning disabilities, and those with temporary impairments like concussions and migraines.
Creating Accessible Emails
Checking the accessibility of emails before sending them is extremely easy:
- Click the three dots at the top-right of your new message.
- Select “Check Accessibility.”
- You’ll see a list of errors, warnings and tips on how to fix them.
If images are part of an email, such as the Regis University logo, alternative text (alt text) must be added. Follow these steps:
- Right-click on the image.
- Select "Add alternate text."
- Type 1-2 sentences to describe the image and its context to someone who cannot see it. For the Regis logo, simply add "Regis University logo" to the alt text box.
Practice these tips today and work to incorporate them regularly into your daily routine!
Oct. 2024 - Spirit of ADA
You might know that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination and promotes equity, access and the civil rights of people with disabilities. Regis fully supports this law, but we also emphasize the spirit of ADA. This phrase means that we don't limit ourselves to what we are required to do based on ADA legal guidelines for "minimum standards of accessibility," rather, we aim to promote inclusive and disability-friendly practices across our community.
In other words, we consider how we create a welcoming environment for all our students, faculty and staff, that celebrates differences and uses our varied experiences as opportunities to expand what we know and do in this world. Oftentimes, invalidating attitudes toward disability increase the stress and uncertainty of people with disabilities. Adopting the spirit of ADA means approaching people with disabilities with respect, openness to conversation, and willingness to change.
We invite you to join us in reflecting on how we can embrace the spirit of ADA on our campus, at events, in our interactions with our peers and students, and in our classrooms.
