The Latest 👋 ✈️ 🥋 🦛
👋 Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Latest! Since this is my first venture into the email newsletter sphere, I’m very much in a place of curiosity about what to share. Reach out if there is something you want to read, know more about, or to subscribe!
This newsletter is 593 words — a 2-3 minute read.
👉 The Main Takeaway: Your Disabled Colleagues Are Tired
Advocating for our access to meetings, conferences, and every aspect of our workplace is like another full-time job — on top of the jobs we’re already doing.
Yes, accommodations help “level the playing field.” But the steps to gaining full access also add to our to-do and to-think-about lists.
How can abled colleagues help? Be proactive in making sure access is part of your community’s responsibility and culture. Even small steps — turning on auto-captions, adding image descriptions, understanding how to dismantle barriers on campus — make a big difference.
When you take on the advocacy role and expend that energy, we won’t always have to. And that will help truly level the playing field. 🤟
✈️ Conference Season: AERA Edition
Like many of you, for the first time in over two years, I’m getting reacquainted with in-person conference season. At the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting on April 21-26, I’ll be engaging with people with three different hats.
Research. Giving a presentation on longitudinal data related to academic achievement and deaf students.
Service. Supporting my colleagues as a discussant for one of the Inclusion and Accessibility in Educational Assessment paper sessions.
Mentorship. Learning from both colleagues and students on how we can best connect research to practice to promote systems change.
👉 Check out this blog post to get more details (and I hope to see some of you in San Diego)!
🥋 What I’m Watching: Cobra Kai
Those of you who know me personally may be surprised I’m a fan of Cobra Kai, a martial arts comedy-drama series on Netflix, especially since I only recently even saw the original Karate Kid movies!
What strikes me about this series is that it depicts Gen Xers — my cohort — growing old enough to be mentoring the Gen Z generation. Gen Zers in this series both challenge and are challenged by their Gen X parents, coaches, teachers, and community members.
I very much appreciate learning from Gen Z — balancing the experience and wisdom of our years with their energy and willingness to rethink the status quo — whether that’s in a campus classroom or in a dojo onscreen.
🌀 The Wrap-Up
🦸♀ From a deaf superhero in a recent Marvel movie to the success of CODA at the Oscars, a must-read op-ed on my blog is more timely than ever. Check out Hollywood is Starting to Understand Deaf People. When Will Our Schools? by Cassie Franklin.
💻 So you want to write about deaf people. Excellent! Here are my tips for students and researchers who want to learn, explore, and research the deaf experience.
✨ “Everything in life is impossible until it’s not.” - Emmanuel Acho. A former pro football player and author of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, Acho is always thought-provoking and bridge-building — something I’m excited he’ll bring as UT Austin’s commencement speaker on May 21.
🦛 And Finally…
I took a little springtime field trip to the nearby town of Hutto, Texas, to visit the hippos. According to legend, a circus train stopped in 1915 and a hippo escaped to a nearby creek. Today, there are hippos everywhere in town, including Henrietta Hippo in a downtown park.
Where are the little gems that brighten your day?
[Image description: Stephanie, a white woman wearing sunglasses, stands behind Henrietta — a large hippo sculpture — and rests her chin on her hand while leaning jauntily on the open-mouthed hippo. It is a gloriously sunny day in a park-like setting with a wooden sign at left that reads HUTTO, TX.]