March 2022 Edition of Inside Equal Access
A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS
Welcome to the first edition of Inside Equal Access, designed for both Â鶹ÊÓƵ employees and students! We, Alison and Amanda, hope that you find this newsletter to be informative, inspirational and a catalyst for change.
The two of us manage different areas on campus. Alison leads the Digital Accessibility Team in the Division of Information Technology and can guide you on the accessibility of anything technological. Amanda directs Student Accessibility Services in Student Affairs and works to support students with disabilities.
Together, we chair Â鶹ÊÓƵ's Accessibility Committee and have founded the Equal Access Cooperative, which exists to bring departments and divisions together to create a fully accessible Â鶹ÊÓƵ. You can contact us at EqualAccess@kent.edu.
Each month in Inside Equal Access, we'll share some of our passion through real-world stories, tips for increasing the accessibility of the world around you, and proven solutions that create equity. Our dream is that this information creates passion, that passion becomes energy, and that energy fuels CHANGE which results in truly Equal Access for all.
You can learn more about our passion for Equal Access at both 1) Accessibility Awareness 101 Training, Thursday, March 3, 2022, or Tuesday, March 29, 2022, and 2) the Thursday, March 10, 2022, session of the Valuing the Strength of Diversity Town Hall Series: Disability and Accessibility for Equity.
19%
the percentage of high school graduates nationally who state they have one or more disabilities
25,000
the approximate number of Â鶹ÊÓƵ students
4750
the number of students who would likely qualify for disability services
2263
the number of students who are receiving disability services in the Spring 2022 semester
What can YOU do about these numbers?
Work to invest in students' and peers' lives; ask about their struggles, their victories, their routines.
Then if they self-disclose a disability, you'll already be in a position of trust and can provide assistance.
*Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). Digest of Education Statistics, 2019 (2021-009), Chapter 3