In this webinar, Dr. Melissa L. Salazar, CEO of ESCALA Educational Services, will familiarize faculty and administrators with the concept of culturally responsive instruction as applied to the specific context of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Dr. Salazar will draw on her organization’s work with more than 300 HSI faculty and staff over the past 7 years to show how culturally responsive instruction can close achievement gaps for Latinx students. Dr. Salazar will outline the principles that underlie culturally responsive instruction, and use these principles to explain why certain instructional strategies are more important than others in HSIs.  Dr. Salazar will also provide attending faculty with a student survey tool that can help faculty hone in on what students need, and help them to create a learning environment that is both academically rigorous and culturally balanced. The seminar will provide concrete examples of how STEM faculty in ESCALA’s programs have used results of their student surveys to adapt their course to be more culturally responsive. Additionally, Dr. Elena Ortiz, Biology faculty from Phoenix College will share how she has implemented an ESCALA-based practice and the impacts to her classroom. Bobby Alvarado, Welding Instructor from Arizona Western College (AWC), will present practices he uses at AWC to help his students feel welcome, respectful of each other's culture and backgrounds, engaged with STEM, and/or prepared for the cultures they may encounter as they transition to the workforce.

Sooner or later, students will want to study or intern abroad through one of college's many international exchange offerings. It is possible and affordable to make study abroad experiences accessible for students with disabilities abroad with preparation. In this webinar, staff from MIUSA's National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange will equip one with the tools to be an advocate for access to all of the institution's programs by understanding the legal nuances and acting as the campus go-to expert on all things disability and exchange.

With the plethora of assistive technology tools on the market today and the fact that each student is unique, finding the most effective assistive technology can be challenging. However, it is also the essential part of using technology to achieve access. Finding a tool that best fits a student can lead to increased student use and better support for students both in and outside of the classroom. Through discussion of the assistive technology implementation process, as well as methods and strategies, participants will learn effective means of assistive technology tool discovery, integration, and follow-up.

Using the syllabus as our template we'll begin to explore how to put the components of universal design and the four core principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust or POUR) discussed in more detail in our March webinar into practice.  Brought to you by the NSF funded ATE Central project and the National AEM Center at CAST, we'll explore how you can shape your class syllabus to provide a welcoming environment for all students, including those with disabilities.  There will be time to get answers to your accessibility questions, and examples of how others in the community college sector are putting universal design for learning into practice in their classrooms and labs.

A tradition begun just last year, AHEAD is excited to host its second Legal Year webinar with Paul Grossman, retired OCR Chief Regional Attorney, again this spring. Bringing his extensive knowledge, unique perspective, and ability to present legal concepts in easily understandable terms, Paul will highlight current and upcoming issues that inform higher education disability services, including judicial decisions and settlements concerning self-injurious students, alternative media production, website access, and campus transit. He will also share insights concerning ESAs on campus.

Students with mental health conditions face unique challenges which may require support through skill-building, resource acquisition, accommodations and assistive technology. Assistive technology (AT) is any device, software, or equipment that supports a student to work with specific barriers. Schools are more adept at offering AT to students with disabilities in recent years but may find supporting students with mental health conditions challenging. AT and other accommodations may not be advertised to students with mental health conditions due to a lack of perceived legitimacy of functional implications associated with psychiatric conditions in higher education. In addition, students with mental health conditions may not believe that they deserve to receive or use AT. This webinar will explore the potential functional implications of mental health conditions in the post-secondary learning environment and detail the assistive technologies that can support student persistence and success.