The Latest: Things Are Heating Up đź«
👋 Welcome to the June edition of The Latest, where we’re looking forward to a summer breather — which means we’ll be off for July and back in your inboxes in August.
This month’s newsletter is just 456 words — a quick 2-3 minute read.
đź“Ł The Main Takeaway: Going Viral
My most viral LinkedIn post so far — 540 likes, 91 reposts, reaching 33,076 people and counting! — was this message:
Disability is human.
It is not the exception. Access is not a "special need.”
Disability is all of us.
Ableism denies disabled people their humanity. If you want a more inclusive world, see the humanity in disability.
🤩 Student Spotlight: Gayathri Ramesh
My first-ever information sciences mentee is Gayathri Ramesh, a shining star pursuing her Master of Science in Information Studies at the School of Information at UT Austin, with a specialization in User Experience (UX) Research and Design.
Get to know Gayathri and her award-winning work on online accessibility, her passion for conversations, and how she makes things possible.
🇺🇸 Flagged for Effective Leaders
July is Disability Pride Month. And, with unexpectedly perfect timing, it’s also the month I am teaching an intensive version of my UT Austin course, Culture of Disability in Education.
Enriched and effective. I’m proud the course is approved for the university’s Cultural Diversity Flag, which denotes courses that provide enriched education that UT Austin students can explore to become effective leaders in a constantly evolving workplace.
A hybrid course for undergraduate and graduate students, Culture of Disability was also highlighted by the Office of Instructional Innovation for its instructional design.
Spoiler alert: It’s about my individualized approach.
🌀 The Wrap-Up
Striving to hire a diverse workforce? I explain how inaccessible assessments could be hurting your efforts (and your company’s bottom line).
It took me decades to say “I am a deaf person.” Like many people, I am living the umbrella deaf-inition, no matter which term or identity — deaf, capital “D” Deaf, late-deafened, deaf with disability, hard-of-hearing — we choose to use.
Summertime is course-prep time. I can help. Check out the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Teaching spotlight on how our Collaborative can help improve access and equity in the classroom.
🙋🏻‍♀️ And Finally…
My journey out of COVID has been a slow crawl.
When I presented to the amazing people at the Health Communications Leadership Institute earlier this month, our signal to come back to the full group was a full-body response.
This pic is worth a thousand words.
It feels very strange feeling to be back in body, mind, and spirit. Take your time, friends. We’ll get there.
[Image description: A tall woman in a yellow blazer, light top, and black pants is in full profile in a classroom in front of a screen. The screen is blank with one phrase “Disability is…” in the top left corner. Her right hand is raised high in the air. Her left hand’s pointer finger is pressed to her lips. She is smiling. Photo by Amanda Katz.]