While provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 continue to guarantee equal voting rights (Dreiband 2017), a fundamental question remains: To what extent do all voters share an equitable experience at the polls? Anecdotally, not everyone has equal access, yet where do these differences exist spatially, are there trends, and how can…

This report contains the proceedings of a forum held on June 28, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to discuss issues surrounding meaningful accessibility of assessments. The forum was a post-session to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA) and was a collaboration of the "Assessment,…

Despite laws in the United States (e.g., Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its 2008 Amendments), students with various disabilities continue to experience access barriers to instructional content and inclusion in course activities. Online learning environments can present especially…

When unified status was granted to numerous school districts, school boards developed redistricting plans to implement neighborhood schools. Social justice advocates decried these plans as they reversed over 40 years of progress, as many of these efforts resulted in resegregating schools homogenously grouped by race and wealth. Using piecewise and…

In November of 2019, the National Association of the Deaf and Harvard University entered into a landmark settlement ending four years of legal battles regarding captioning in online content. In that settlement, Harvard agreed to caption new video files consistent with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA and to provide text-only…

Interest in accessibility has grown recently. Despite this, we have found that most people focus too much on compliance and often on the fundamental elements of creating compliant online courses. Instructional designers and online educators often turn to popular quality assurance frameworks to help them design and develop quality online courses.…

As postsecondary online programs increase, the accessibility of online course content becomes a serious issue in higher education. There is currently little information about how postsecondary institutions address online course accessibility. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the degree to which university online course checklists…

The process of providing students with disabilities access to an education that is of appropriate quality is still a relatively new endeavor. Students with disabilities benefit from the support of family, educators, and many other professionals addressing the inequality that is faced in school. Ultimately, progress has been achieved from…

This survey study investigated understanding and use of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), self-advocacy, self-determination, and campus resources by college students with disabilities. Thirty-one students registered with a student disability office at a Midwestern state university completed an anonymous survey. Thirty-two percent of…

Several states have invested in 1915(c) Home and Community Based Service (HCBS) Medicaid policies to improve outcomes and reduce costs for children and youth with significant behavioral health needs, or Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED). However, little is known about these programs and the children they serve. Through a retrospective…

This study employs legal research methods to explore how federal protections for individuals with disabilities apply in the context of postsecondary extended reality (XR) learning, such as for classes taught in virtual reality. Other examples include the use of 360 degree, interactive videos in online courses and activities that leverage digital,…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the limitations of law interpretations and policy regulations as they pertain to inclusion and exclusion of people with physical disabilities in physical education. We believe interpretation of the law has professional implications that must be addressed. Specifically, the ideal and the reality of the laws…

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to describe the faculty's knowledge, beliefs, and willingness to provide ADA accommodations to students with disabilities at a Southern HBCU. The sample used in this study was 70 full-time and part-time instructors who taught during the Spring of 2023 at a Southern HBCU. The study utilized a…

This project aims to gain a new understanding of redlining and the nature of how human beings occupy their time. Redlining was/is government sanctioned discriminatory race-based exclusionary tactics in real estate. Occupational science and adult learning tenets support the idea that how we occupy our time matters; Black Americans could not buy…

Reflecting on a previous article, I evaluate changes encountered around teaching sexuality over the past 22 years in different geo-political settings. This article examines the ways in which my teaching practices, as an academic committed to equality, have developed in relation to different academic and political contexts. This personal pathway…