NYU Center for Disability Studies (CDS)

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The NYU Center for Disability Studies (CDS) is a key DIA partner and shares its co- chairs, Faye Ginsburg and Mara Mills. Below are some their 2019 highlights:

    • Expanded public presence by launching the CDS website, new mail system, as well as CDS Facebook and CDS Twitter accounts. These resources promote the CDS’s many events and seminars, while modeling best practices in digital accessibility and serving as a hub for NYU resources related to disability (from public safety to event accessibility).
    • Expanded community partnerships in NYC. CDS hosted Alice Sheppard, a leading figure in the disability dance world, as a visiting artist/scholar this spring. CDS continued to partner with Disability Arts NYC (DAN) (working with the Mayor’s office and many groups throughout the city), run by Kevin Gotkin (MCC) and the well-known disability scholar/activist Simi Linton. CDS designated a space for them in its NYC office, enabling them to organize several “Boot Camps”—intensive trainings in advocacy and policy development for disability arts—funded by the New York Community Trust’s Cultural Agenda Fund, in order to prepare cultural workers, advocates and artists to serve on grant review boards, work in city agencies, non-profits, to advance disability arts in NYC. Their efforts contributed to the groundbreaking CreateNYC Disability Forward Fund, providing $640,000 to 22 NYC arts organizations for programs that deepen engagement in the arts for people with disabilities.
    • As a result of expanded community partnerships, online visibility and thus increased public presence CDS has attracted international attention, some of which has led to collaborations with similar groups in other countries. This year, CDS co-Chairs Ginsburg and Mills met with disability academics and activists from Japan (Prof. Alisa Sugiyama, Teikyo University School of Law) and Nadia Dib (Fundacion Jazmin, Uruguay) who requested to visit the NYU CDS office in New York. CDS has also continued its longstanding collaboration with Instituto 17 (Mexico City); this February, they conducted a Skype interview with Mills about the work of CDS as part of their “Diverse University” conference.
    • Participated in a workshop held on Disability, Bias, and Artificial Intelligence at the NYU AI Now Institute. The workshop included 20 people from engineering, design, arts and academia, including CDS directors Mara Mills (who gave a short opening talk), Faye Ginsburg and assistant Emily Rogers. CDS is now working on a collaborative white paper based on the workshop with AI Now director Kate Crawford.
    • Through space-sharing, CDS additionally supported the work of Positive Exposure. Director Rick Guidotti uses photography to present the humanity and dignity of individuals living with genetic, physical, behavioral and intellectual differences. Four short films—on autism, transgender, Familial Dysautonomia, and Down Syndrome—were shot in the CDS space.
    • Co-sponsored a disability-related art exhibit and panel on Collective Strategies for Reparative Care at EFA Project Space (Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts), with funding and moderation by Kevin Gotkin (MCC).
    • Helped fund and advertise Crip Imponderabilia, a Gallatin disability art exhibit curated by M.A. student and artist living with low vision, Bojana Coklyat.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A photograph from the CDS- supported exhibition “Crip Imponderabilia” at NYU’s Gallatin Gallery, April 2019. Facing the camera are curator Bojana Coklyat, standing with a cane, dressed in a Princess Leia costume. To her right are disability activists, performers and educators Visiting Professor in Performance Studies Danielle Peers, seated in a wheelchair-cycle, and Dr. Lindsay Eales who stands behind.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A photograph from the CDS- supported exhibition “Crip Imponderabilia” at NYU’s Gallatin Gallery, April 2019. Facing the camera are curator Bojana Coklyat, standing with a cane, dressed in a Princess Leia costume. To her right are disability activists, performers and educators Visiting Professor in Performance Studies Danielle Peers, seated in a wheelchair-cycle, and Dr. Lindsay Eales who stands behind.
 

NYU Global Inclusion, Diversity and Strategic Innovation (GIDI)

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The NYU Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity and Strategic Innovation (GIDI), under the leadership of Lisa Coleman, has worked with DIA to affect change in several areas:

  • Sponsoring a digital media project by Dr. Kristie Patten Koenig (Chair, NYU Dept. Occupational Therapy) entitled, “Short Films on Neurodiversity.”
  • Analyzing data from the Rankin & Associates-led Being@NYU project to understand current disability experience throughout NYU’s global campuses
  • Engaging Robyn Weiss (Director, Moses Center for Students with Disability) to present as part of the GIDI accelerator and incubation labs.

GIDI is currently conducting a search for Director of Disability Inclusive Services, to be completed Fall 2019.

NYU Tisch School of the Arts (TISCH)

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Tisch has been working with DIA to promote accessibility awareness throughout its scholarly and professional network. Their initiatives have included:

  • Redesigning the Tisch website and content to promote inclusion and accessibility.
  • Working with Center for Disability Studies co-chair Faye Ginsburg to provide audio-description support for blind or low-vision audience members attending film screenings held at TSOA.

Additionally, Tisch conducted a survey of faculty, staff and students to evaluate their confidence with accessibility best practice. The following areas were identified for attention in the coming year:

  • Training on general principles of accessibility in-person, in-classroom and in related training settings.
  • Training to make PDFs accessible.
  • Training on captioning video.
  • Training on making social media content accessible.

Tisch also seeks to promote greater access to ASL interpreters and CART services for their live public events in the coming year.

MAGE DESCRIPTION: On the left, Dr. Simi Linton, a white woman in a wheelchair with curly hair adjusts her glasses, smiling. On the right, Dr. Kevin Gotkin, a bearded white man laughs, mid-finger- snap. Simi and Kevin are co-directors of the Disability Arts/NYC, affiliated with the NYU Center for Disability Studies, which sponsored this 2018 event where they discussed their work developing disability arts in the city, co-sponsored by the Departments of Performance Studies, Art and Public Policy and the Hemispheric Institute of Politics and Performance.
MAGE DESCRIPTION: On the left, Dr. Simi Linton, a white woman in a wheelchair with curly hair adjusts her glasses, smiling. On the right, Dr. Kevin Gotkin, a bearded white man laughs, mid-finger- snap. Simi and Kevin are co-directors of the Disability Arts/NYC, affiliated with the NYU Center for Disability Studies, which sponsored this 2018 event where they discussed their work developing disability arts in the city, co-sponsored by the Departments of Performance Studies, Art and Public Policy and the Hemispheric Institute of Politics and Performance.

NYU Public Safety

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NYU’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) has been collaborating with DIA to enhance professional standards, public safety operations and communications. Their initiatives have included:

  • Disability Awareness Training for Annual In-Service Training candidates (Protective Services, Technical Sergeants, and Special Events Sergeants, Lieutenants, and Captains), New-Hire Security Officers and the Community Response Unit. Some training sessions include information on Bias Based Profiling.
  • Redesigning the DPS Emergency Management website text and Public Safety website to ensure all pages were in compliance with digital accessibility requirements.
  • Adding accessibility information and contacts for planning assistance to the Resilient NYU folder system to improve functionality.
  • Design and implementation of inclusive “active threat” exercises, conducted with the Moses Center and Student Health Center.
  • Collaborative projects with Environmental Health and Safety, and Facilities and Construction Management to identify inclusive signage needs for areas of refuge/areas of rescue assistance. This will be a priority project for 2019-20.
  • Filming a disability, access and functional needs-inclusive “active threat” civilian response training video (planned Summer 2019).
  • Publishing the first DPS annual report online, both in e-book and digitally accessible formats. The digitally accessible version includes all information located in the electronic book, allowing all members of the NYU community to access it.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A classroom with seated NYU Department of Public Safety Officers listening to a man offering a lecture, part of Annual In-Service Training sessions to promote greater awareness of disability issues on campus.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A classroom with seated NYU Department of Public Safety Officers listening to a man offering a lecture, part of Annual In-Service Training sessions to promote greater awareness of disability issues on campus.

NYU Campus Media

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Following recommendations from DIA, Campus Media installed adjustable height instructor’s tables in three classrooms to assist faculty who use wheelchairs or for other reasons cannot access the standard podiums. These features provide the faculty with a table from which they can use a computer and control the AV media in the classroom from one location while remaining seated or standing during class. All controls for technology are controlled from the computer monitor.

The accessible table design was based on instructor tables adopted by the University of Pennsylvania for their classrooms and was endorsed by the working group. We surveyed faculty who used the tables after the fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters and feedback was very positive. We received feedback from disabled faculty and other faculty who appreciated the option of standing or sitting while teaching. The Registrar was able to assign these classrooms to faculty who identified as physically challenged.

NYU Campus Media thank Facilities Management for their assistance and involvement in getting power and data installed for these tables, and aims to add adjustable instructor’s tables to several more classrooms in the future.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The photo shows an electrically powered adjustable height table set up for use in an NYU lecture hall. The set up includes a computer, wireless and wired keyboard, microphone, large computer monitor on an adjustable arm which also serves as the interface to an integrated Crestron media control system which is incorporated in the computer/monitor.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The photo shows an electrically powered adjustable height table set up for use in an NYU lecture hall. The set up includes a computer, wireless and wired keyboard, microphone, large computer monitor on an adjustable arm which also serves as the interface to an integrated Crestron media control system which is incorporated in the computer/monitor.

NYU IT

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NYU IT’s Digital Accessibility Program, under the leadership of Chief Services Officer Kitty Bridges, has actively engaged community members across NYU in the remediation of their websites, web content and web applications to make them accessible for all. Major milestones have been met in terms of policy and procedures, with the design of a master NYU Accessibility Website, a Corrective Action Plan and ongoing training reports.

Two features of the NYU Accessibility website will prove particularly helpful in day-to-day operations around the university:

  • The Faculty FAQ page on the digital accessibility website provides examples of accessible syllabi in several formats. There are also syllabus templates which can be easily filled in by Faculty and saved to an accessible PDF format.
  • The Documents How-To Guide section provides an overview of how to create and save files in a variety of formats to make them accessible (e.g. for Word, PowerPoint, Acrobat, Excel, etc.). It also alerts writers to other potential resources available in frequently used software.

With the ambition of sharing its progress and raising awareness of developments, NYU IT has also begun producing a monthly newsletter on the topic of Digital Accessibility (beg. Jan 2019). More generally, NYU IT and the Digital Accessibility Program staff have been key partners in the project of raising awareness of digital accessibility issues. Kitty Bridges, in particular, has actively met with NYU departments to help them better understand the simple technical and practical steps that can be taken to enhance inclusion for all.