Disability Services

Can we make accessibility ‘universal’?

lblouin — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:46:55 +0000

Can we make accessibility ‘universal’? lblouin Mon, 07/21/2025 - 09:46

The world of accessibility and disability accommodations seems to evolve continuously, as new technologies emerge, social attitudes toward disabilities shift and laws are updated. When we last wrote about disability accommodations in 2022, one of the major issues was how the university was meeting rising demand for accommodations, as the social isolation students experienced during the pandemic and the transition back to in-person life fueled an increase in accommodations requests for anxiety and depression. At that time, the approach to accommodations most often focused on the individual: A student with anxiety, for example, could meet with someone from Disability and Accessibility Services, who might recommend an accommodation like additional time to take tests. DAS would then send an email to that student’s instructors detailing the nature of the accommodations, and their professors would make the appropriate arrangements. DAS would also serve as a resource for faculty if they needed help, say, figuring out how to adjust the timed test option for an individual student in Canvas.

This is still how the process works today, and individual accommodations are still very much a thing (more on this below). But talk with those who work within this space and you’ll likely also hear about a push for “universal” accessibility, which may have the effect of reducing the need for one-off, individual accommodations. The thinking is that many of the most common accommodations for those with the disabilities — flexible deadlines, video captioning, making readings screen reader-friendly, providing options on assignments or assessments, or posting lecture slides ahead of time — actually benefit all students. Multiple studies have demonstrated, for example, that captions on video content increase understanding and retention for viewers. Digitize a reading in a screen reader-friendly format and anyone can listen to a reading while they’re commuting or cooking dinner. Providing slides before class gives students an opportunity to pre-digest material and engage at a deeper level. Getting to choose between a test and a project to demonstrate what they’ve learned grants students more autonomy and lets multiple learning styles shine. In other words, if we design the learning experience with accommodations in mind, we end up benefiting everyone — and ultimately reduce the time faculty invest in implementing accommodations for individual students.

Many instructors at ��-Dearborn have made these kinds of adjustments to their courses in the past few years, often with support from the Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources, which provides course design services, big and small. If faculty haven’t started moving in this direction already, though, it’s likely they’ll be thinking more about it very soon, at least when it comes to anything online, says ��-Dearborn’s Director of Digital Education Chris Casey. That’s because in 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a new rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act that requires public institutions, including colleges and universities, to ensure that all web content, mobile applications and other digital technologies are usable by people with disabilities. That means by April of next year — the compliance deadline for an institution of ��-Dearborn’s size — all websites, documents (such as PDFs), university communications (including emails) and digital tools have to meet the new federal guidelines for accessibility.

To meet this compliance deadline, U-M has created digital accessibility training for all faculty and staff, which provides practical guidance for creating and maintaining accessible digital content. For the past year, Casey’s team and other campus units, especially the Hub and the Provost’s office, have been busy helping faculty make the transition. Casey says it’s good that they’ve gotten a running start because they’ve unsurprisingly encountered some challenges. PDFs, for example, “are just a nightmare, in general,” Casey says. For years, PDFs were a popular choice for digitizing everything from journal articles to math worksheets. The problem is that screen readers, the technology blind and visually impaired people commonly use to listen to text, often lose a lot in translation. It’s not just the low-quality, 30-year-old scan of a journal article or a handwritten math worksheet that causes problems either. Take, for instance, a standard journal article that has images, charts, tables, subheadings and is formatted into two columns. Our eyes can generally make quick organizational sense of how the information is supposed to flow. But Casey says, left to its own devices, a screen reader often garbles that “reading order” that our eyes and brains find so intuitive.

Casey says his team does have some tools to help faculty with specific accessibility challenges. Some applications, like Yuja Panorama, a Canvas plugin that can peruse documents and identify accessibility issues and recommend fixes, work pretty well. But with those nightmarish PDFs, the solutions might not always be straightforward. If it’s a journal article, Casey recommends faculty check with a subject-matter librarian or the publisher to see if the source already exists in an accessible format or if the publisher has plans to have an accessible version available before the compliance deadline. If those options don’t work out, he says they do have some automated PDF remediation tools, but gives them a “50/50” effectiveness grade. If automatic remediation fails, Casey says faculty may have to try manually adding accessibility features to the PDF, though he warns that’s an adventure that can “get super in the weeds super fast.” He concedes that, when possible, sometimes the best option might be for faculty to retype a document (assuming that doesn’t violate copyright laws) or consider an alternative source that doesn’t have accessibility challenges. Other tools, like the custom generative AI alt-text generator created by ��-Flint Distance Learning Director Nick Gaspar, are working much better. Alt text is a way of describing visual elements, like images and charts, to make them accessible to people using screen readers. Casey said their team test drove the generator with everything from artwork used in an art history class to scatter plot graphs from the math department and got very good results. “With this alt-text generator, I finally feel like we have something that we can say to faculty, ‘This works,’” he says.

Not all accessibility hurdles will be cleared with a quick technological fix, however, which is why Casey’s team is trying to get in front of faculty as much as possible so he can give them a more detailed picture of what it might take to bring their online course materials into compliance. “Faculty are very busy, and some, understandably, want sort of the five-minute version of this,” he says. “But every course has its own needs. So it’s not like there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for every course,” he says. As a starting point, he recommends faculty take a two-hour Canvas course that his team has created, which provides a detailed overview of the major compliance issues and recommended fixes. His team is even offering a $200 incentive for the first 250 instructors who complete the course. In addition, every Tuesday throughout the summer, his office is hosting Zoom sessions focused on specific digital accessibility issues, like how to deal with tables, using Yuja Panorama or how color choices impact readability. Over the past four months, Casey’s team has also held in-person sessions with every department, and they plan to keep that going through the fall and winter semesters.

Of course, much of the labor of updating course materials ultimately falls to faculty, who already have a lot of demands on their time. Understandably, many faculty are feeling a little stressed about the work that’s required to bring their online course materials into compliance, says Maggie Rathouz, an associate professor of mathematics education who also volunteers as an accessibility liaison for her department through DAS. “To be honest, the mood isn’t great,” she says. “It’s not at all that we don’t want to help our students. I think basically everyone gets why this is important. It’s more that we aren’t experts in this stuff, and yet it’s going to fall to faculty to become experts and make these changes, which takes time. I mean, it would be great if this was something AI could help with even more, because then faculty could spend their time on the implementation of these changes and how to teach with these changes.”

Casey says he totally gets that, which is why his office is trying to lighten that burden by providing efficient training sessions, compensating faculty for at least some of their time, and regularly evaluating new technologies that can help with the transition. His office is also providing 250 small grants for instructors to hire a student in their discipline to assist with accessibility work. Rathouz says things like that are helpful — to a point. Personally, the $200 incentive nudged her to sign up for the Canvas course, though she says she actually hasn’t taken it yet and has been “dragging her feet” when it comes to making some accessibility updates to her courses. Similarly, she says it would be helpful to have a student do some of the work but notes that student workers will still require a fair bit of guidance from a faculty member.

Overall, Casey says he feels good about where ��-Dearborn is at as it approaches the April 2026 compliance deadline. Paradigm shifts, even little ones, take time, and a little foot dragging is only human nature, especially when faculty have a lot of other obligations. But he’s hopeful that this new culture around digital accessibility will end up being one of those things that feels like a bit of a lift up front, but then becomes second nature as faculty move forward with creating new courses and materials. It should also be noted that even as this culture of universal accessibility grows some roots in the digital space, individual accommodations will absolutely still be available to students. Knowing faculty are already feeling a little stretched by accessibility-related issues, DAS Coordinator of Case Management and Support Hillary Degner-Miller says their team recently created a new faculty guide that provides the most essential information about the individual accommodations process, including examples of situations faculty are most likely to encounter. Since 2023, DAS has also been utilizing department-level volunteer faculty liaisons, who both serve as a resource for their colleagues about accommodations and help DAS staff better understand where faculty are coming from. Moreover, Degner-Miller says that her slice of the accessibility domain, which tends to focus more on accommodations for individuals, is also experimenting with a more universal approach. The next addition to the faculty accommodations guide will be a section on universal design principles, which can help faculty create course materials that are usable by everyone, regardless of disability. In the end, everyone’s hoping what feels like a time burden at the moment will feel like a big time saver in just a few years.

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Want to learn more about digital accessibility at ��-Dearborn? Check out the university’s new Digital Accessibility website. Staff should also read the July 23 email from Chancellor Gabriella Scarlatta and Vice Chancellor for Information Management Carrie Shumaker regarding accessibility training for staff. Story by Lou Blouin

Accessibility or Affordability

Faculty and Staff

Inclusion or Diversity

Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources

Mon, 07/28/2025 - 13:45

A spring 2026 federal digital accessibility deadline is ushering in a new paradigm for disability accommodations.

A two-hour Canvas course is helping faculty study up on new federal accessibility guidelines for online content. There's currently a $200 incentive to take the course.

News

The power of support

stuxbury — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:34:12 +0000

The power of support stuxbury Wed, 10/25/2023 - 15:34

Narmin Jarrous is a Crain’s Detroit Business “40 under 40” winner, a ��-Dearborn graduate and a business leader.

But before Jarrous could become these, she had to embrace another part of her identity: a person with a disability. She credits ��-Dearborn’s Disability and Accessibility Services office for helping her do that.

“My time at ��-Dearborn changed my life,” she says. “They set me up for success. College is the first time someone with the power to help listened to me, explained that disabilities aren’t always visible, and said that it’s OK to ask for and receive help.”

Prior to this, Jarrous, who was diagnosed with endometriosis in her early teens and experiences excessive pain due to the disease, says a high school staff member told her she’d never attend college due to her absences, which were medically approved. She had a teacher refuse to let her take an exam she missed due to surgery. She even had friends question if her pain was really bad enough to skip social events.

“I was so drained physically from the pain. And I felt like I always had to defend myself or fight to convince people that my pain is real, which drained me mentally too,” Jarrous says.

A ��-Dearborn department chair — who heard about Jarrous’ health-related absences from professors — reached out to Jarrous and referred her to the university’s Disability and Accessibility Services office. At the DAS office, DAS Coordinator Judy Walker spoke with Jarrous about her successes and challenges, collected documentation, advised her on available accommodations, and reached out to Jarrous’ professors. Jarrous’ accommodations included excusing her absences and allowing her to make up missed classwork, which is what she needed to be successful.

“I learned that disability is not a bad word and to accept myself as I am. I learned about equity and how empowering it is. Judy helped renew my excitement for my education,” she says. “My health is always a worry, but I no longer had to worry about how it would impact my education.”

Jarrous graduated with honors and is now the chief development officer at Exclusive Brands, a cannabis company with locations across Michigan, where she focuses on social equity efforts.

DAS Director Sara Byczek

DAS Director Sara Byczek, who works with Walker, says Jarrous’ story shows the power of support. But, to give the best support, education is crucial. Byczek says most people are well-intentioned, but often don’t realize the challenges people with disabilities face unless they know someone or are someone.

“You don’t know what you don’t know. Advocacy and education helps us all develop lenses on how to see things from different points of view,” says Byczek, who also serves as ��-Dearborn’s Counseling and Psychological Services director. The DAS office offers educational events and training multiple times a year, she says.

Here are a few DAS offerings and tips the campus community may find helpful.

Simple steps can make classes more inclusive.

Upload materials to Canvas before class so students can preview the content, consider larger fonts and contrasting colors for PowerPoint slides, and turn on the caption tools available in Zoom or Canvas for recordings and remote sessions. Check out DAS faculty resources.

DAS has a space for DAS-registered students who need additional time for testing.

If a testing accommodation can’t be made in the classroom, the DAS office offers test proctoring and alternative formatting options.

In addition to academic accommodations, DAS offers support coaching.

If you notice a DAS-registered student who’s struggling with class-related tasks, let them know DAS offers support coaching. The 30-minute sessions are tailored to a student’s needs and may include mindfulness techniques for testing anxiety, note-taking strategies, time management tools, email assistance and more.

Byczek says events and awareness months — October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month — promote education, but she hopes that society gets to a point where disability awareness and inclusion happens every day.

DAS Coordinator Judy Walker

“It’s something we should talk about year round because a disability could affect any of us at any time and there are easy-to-adjust things we can do to make life better for everyone,” she says.

To help people discover what they can do, DAS is co-hosting a "Re-imagining Access as a Relational Process" remote workshop from 1 to 2 p.m. Nov. 1. Ohio State University Associate Professor and the Director of Disability Studies Margaret Price will lead interactive activities aimed at discussing — and ultimately finding concrete takeaways for — access questions in work environments. In addition, Price will lead a faculty-focused “Cultivating Communities of Access in Teaching Spaces” in-person workshop from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Nov. 9 in Fairlane Center North Quad E. Lunch is provided. Register here. This is a partnership effort with the Hub for Teaching and Learning.

Jarrous, who recently spoke at a ��-Dearborn event, says her time on campus with Walker and the DAS staff helped her see the importance of supportive communities. Jarrous now serves as an advocate for others. Her advocacy work, business success and leadership roles have been featured in Forbes, Detroit Metro Times, Medium and more. “I had someone speak up for me when I felt I didn’t have a voice,” she says. “Now I can speak up and give a voice to those who need it.”

Jarrous wants Dearborn Wolverines with disabilities to know there’s a caring place to go if they need a voice, advice or accommodations.

“The Disability and Accessibility Services office will support you. Judy advocated for me and took a weight off my shoulders. She gave me a sense of dignity that I didn’t have before,” Jarrous says. “That experience shaped who I am today, what I do today and where I am today.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

Accessibility or Affordability

Disability Services

Off

Wed, 10/25/2023 - 19:32

Narmin Jarrous, Class of 2018, says the ��-Dearborn Disability and Accessibility Services office changed her life by giving her the tools she needed to embrace her disability and become a successful business leader and social justice advocate.

Narmin Jarrous is a 2018 ��-Dearborn graduate, business leader and equity advocate.

News

Why learning your style can maximize success

stuxbury — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 19:51:22 +0000

Why learning your style can maximize success stuxbury Mon, 10/19/2020 - 15:51

The different abilities, talents and motivations people have play a key role in learning. To help members of the campus community make the most of theirs, Tutoring Services Coordinator Sharon Lobdell assess individual learning styles.

Lobdell says there are a variety of learning styles — this is the phrase often used to describe how learners gather, interpret, organize and remember information — which she’s studied for more than a decade.

Lobdell’s Disability Awareness Month presentation Managing Your Learning Style During COVID-19 will share tips and tricks for maximizing learning with the campus community.

“I want to help people get a better grasp of critical learning skills by looking at their different learning styles. We all have a variety of abilities,” she says. “Some of us have struggled with the transition to the remote environment and that’s to be expected. My goal is to use learning styles to give suggestions for creating a successful remote learning environment. Individuals can then take these tips and modify them to best fit their needs.”

Speaking with Lobdell recently, she shared five takeaways on learning styles and maximizing success.

People often associate themselves with auditory, kinesthetic and visual learning styles.

People have a mix of several learning preferences and styles, but they typically lean toward three main categories: Auditory, kinesthetic and visual.

Lobdell says the majority of people identify as visual learners. This means they do best in meetings or classes where there is a lot of information written on the whiteboard or handouts are provided. It’s also why infographics and pie charts can be helpful in displaying information.

If someone talks to themselves or moves their lips when accomplishing tasks, they may have a stronger auditory ability. She says learners who prefer this style use sounds or voice-oriented information to help them learn and thrive in lecture-style classes. To help prepare for a presentation, they may read their notes out loud. Or they solve problems by talking them through.

Students with stronger kinesthetic — meaning hands-on — abilities often prefer labs, flash cards and group projects. Clues to knowing if someone falls into this group: Rewriting critical information several times to deepen the learning process or connecting information with a physical act.

Want to know more about the individual styles, but can’t attend Lobdell’s presentation? Lobdell says to contact her about giving an office or class presentation, which includes an individual assessment tool.

It’s about looking for ways to make the most of your abilities.

Lobdell says auditory learners often flourish in foreign language learning. Chemists and engineers are often kinesthetic learners. And visual learners do well in design, composition or business.

But that doesn't mean someone needs to limit her or himself — there’s always room for growth.

“Once you learn what kind of learner you are, lean into it. For example, I’m an auditory learner. I might not always get visual slides, but I can make recordings and re-listen. Use your strengths to turn a challenge into an opportunity.”

Consider incorporating different activities into the learning environment.

Research shows there’s some debate on whether the learning styles model is helpful or a neuromyth — but having a variety (visual, hands-on, auditory, etc.) of activities in a learning environment is scientifically supported. “Mixing things up is an attention booster. When you pay closer attention, you learn better,” Lobdell says.

Here are some ideas:
• To help visual learners, incorporate videos and written work assignments.
• Auditory learners do best when there’s a voiceover with notes or when there is an online recording that they can revisit.
• Give an experience to the kinesthetic learners by incorporating hands-on activities into your lessons. Share simulation scenarios, have them make a video or create a project.

Lobdell says many faculty members are already doing these things. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share, please let her know. She’s looking to compile tips to share online and during future presentations.

Build in checkpoints for studying, teaching or running a meeting.

Whether you are remote or in person, Lobdell suggests incremental learning “speedbumps.” She says this helps both the teacher and learner because it gives a moment to stop, ask questions and evaluate how everyone is doing with the new information. “If 10 minutes goes by and you haven’t heard anything, ask if there is anything that needs clarified. Or before you move onto the next idea, ask if there is something you should go back over. When you ask, actually stop to see if people are getting it.” She says if presenting information via Google Meet or Zoom, look to see if people clicked to “put their hand up” or added comments.

This tip works for solo learning efforts too. She says while studying or conducting research, add in breaks. She said all minds wander no matter the learning style and these checkpoints also serve as a way to re-focus.

Ask for help when it is needed.

Lobdell says this is the most important step — let people know when you are struggling.

She says professors are understanding and can help if students clue them into what’s happening behind the scenes and campus has many success resources that include tutoring options, counseling services and academic advising.

In addition, Lobdell says ��-Dearborn’s Disability Services staff knows the learning diversity across campus and — when resources are needed — want to create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment for all.

Learn more about Disability Services resources or Disability Awareness Month by contacting Cathy Sidor.

Off

Mon, 10/19/2020 - 19:44

Tutoring Services Coordinator Sharon Lobdell shares five takeaways about using learning styles and creating a successful educational environment.

Graphic showing various learning styles

News

Sara Byczek takes over as new director of Counseling and Disability Services

nlerma — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 17:30:27 +0000

Sara Byczek takes over as new director of Counseling and Disability Services nlerma Mon, 01/22/2018 - 12:30

Sara Byczek

The first thing Sara Byczek wants students to know about therapy is that it’s not what you see on TV.

“I don’t even have a couch in my office,” Byczek said, smiling, pointing out the two-seat loveseat that’s definitely not long enough to lay down on. “This is not Dr. Phil. It’s not about me telling you it’s your mother’s fault, your father’s fault. I’m not an advice giver. I am here to empower you to make decisions, but you’re the expert on you.”

Breaking down the persistent stigmas around mental health that keep students from reaching out is a top priority for Byczek as she takes over as director of Counseling and Disability Services. A key part of her approach will be expanding the counseling center’s reach beyond the office itself—connecting with student organizations, coaching faculty and staff on how to be good mental health “first responders,” and integrating services into other parts of university life. One big idea for that: Down the road, she’d love to install pop-up counseling offices in academic buildings or the University Center for drop-in, paperwork-free appointments.

Byczek said expanding services is crucial on university campuses, where nationwide, more students are both seeking counseling and coming in with more serious challenges, like depression or anxiety. Because of increased demand, students often face wait lists for counseling services; at ��-Dearborn, the wait time currently is about two weeks. She hopes to keep up with students’ needs this year by expanding group counseling programs, which provide access to an unlimited number of sessions. Byzeck, who is a psychologist herself, also is making it part of her job description to see students weekly.

At ��-Dearborn, the counseling center shares space with disability services, which connects students with accommodations that ensure a level academic playing field. That includes things like providing audio textbooks, note-taking services and exam rooms for those who struggle with taking tests in traditional classroom environments.

“I can’t even tell you all the services we offer, because there could be something that comes up tomorrow that we’ve never done before,” Byczek said. “If a student comes in and says, ‘I have this problem,’ we work with them to come up with solutions. So it requires a lot of creativity. No one should feel left behind because of a disability.”

Byczek, who started in December, comes to the director’s position with nearly a decade of experience in university counseling offices. Her most recent post was at Wayne State University, where she worked as a psychologist and case manager, and served on the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

It’s also a homecoming for the Downriver native, who did her undergraduate work at ��-Dearborn—graduating in four years, while holding down a full-time day job.

“I was definitely a non-traditional student. Because I was working, I think all my classes except two were evening classes,” she said. “But I’m getting a different view now. It’s going to be really great to see what goes on at ��-Dearborn during the day.”

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Mon, 01/22/2018 - 17:25

The ��-Dearborn alumna aims to embed mental health services in more parts of university life.

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