ORAHEAD Fall 2023
Interconnectedness: Living, Working, and Learning in Community
Conference Schedule
Wednesday, November 1st, through Friday, November 3rd
Hallmark Resort — 744 SW Elizabeth St, Newport, OR 97365
Wednesday, November 1st
9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Check-in
10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. - Welcome
ORAHEAD board president, Jewls Griesmeyer-Krentz, will welcome attendees and introduce this year’s theme: Interconnected: Living, Working, and Learning in Community.
10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. - Session One:
Partners in Change: Moving toward an Institutional Culture of Accessibility presented by Jewls Griesmeyer-Krentz, Assistant Director, Accessible Education Services, Willamette University
This presentation uses a critical disability studies lens to examine how disability service providers can become institutional change agents. First, we will explore how themes found in critical disability studies can shift how we think about our responsibility toward equity for disabled students. As disability professionals, we have a responsibility to effect change on a level that moves beyond the individual student. In addition to reactive accommodations and supports, proactive measures are also essential to our efforts. We move beyond individual-level accommodations and supports toward an institutional culture of accessibility where proactive inclusion is fundamental. By forming key partnerships with stakeholder-allies outside disability services, disability professionals can promote accessibility beyond their offices and become institutional change agents to promote an institutional culture of accessibility. We will explore how these ideas work in a real-life contexts.
11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Introductions, Ice Breakers and Raffle Call
12:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. - Lunch and Learn with Lunch Buffet
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Session Two: Keynote Speaker: Georgena Moran
From struggle to empowerment – one woman’s journey to interdependent living
We are honored to have Georgena Moran join us virtually as our keynote speaker. Many of you may know Georgena’s work providing assessments and advocacy for access to our Pacific Northwest trails, and know her love of adventure and the outdoors. Georgena has recently written An Ingenious Way to Live, a memoir of her life before and after the onset of her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Georgena’s book inspired the theme of our conference: Interconnectedness: Living, Working, and Learning in Community, as she magically chronicles her amazing and often difficult journey and articulates how “living an interconnected life is more fulfilling than she could have ever imagined possible.”
3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - Raffle and break
3:35 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Business meeting - Please join us!
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Session Three: Breakouts
Making Invisible Disabilities Visible: Understanding, Empathy, and Inclusion presented by Jesse Graf, Director of Accessible Education & VR/ICAP Lead, Southwestern Oregon Community College
Invisible disabilities are a complex and often misunderstood category of health conditions that affect millions of people worldwide. These disabilities, which include mental health disorders, chronic pain conditions, and various neurological disorders, do not manifest obvious physical symptoms but can profoundly impact an individual's daily life. This presentation aims to shed light on the challenges faced by individuals with invisible disabilities and emphasizes the importance of creating a more inclusive and empathetic society.
Customer Service for Disability Services Professionals presented by Alexis Morrison, Program Specialist, Western Oregon University.
Customer service is something that many of us do every day without realizing the value that it brings to an office. Good customer service helps build rapport with students seeking services. Strong customer service skills for Disability Services professionals include: self-confidence, curiosity, communication, gratitude, and follow-up. During this session, we will cover all of these and more!
Dinner on your own
Thursday, November 2nd
8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. - Breakfast Buffet
9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. - Session Four: OCR Year in Review
Amy Kim, The Office of Civil Rights (OCR)
OCR will share some of this year’s most compelling cases. OCR assists individuals with disabilities who face discrimination and guides institutions in developing solutions to civil rights problems by investigating complaints, initiating compliance reviews, and providing technical assistance. OCR representatives will review recent, illustrative OCR decisions.
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Break and Raffle Call
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Session Five: Networking Speed-dating
Enjoy getting to know some of your peer network during this fun take on speed-dating.
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - Lunch Buffet
1:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. - Raffle Call
1:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - Session Six
Providing Civil Rights Protections for ELL Students presented by Andrew Childress, Access Office Coordinator, Rogue Community College and Mary Gerard, Disability Services Director, Bellingham Technical College.
Mary Gerard will join us to talk about an institutional-wide testing accommodation (1.5 times longer) at Bellingham Technical College for all students who self-report as English Language Learners (ELL). Andrew will share progress on this topic at RCC.
3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Break
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Session Seven: Breakouts
ASL Interpreting in Postsecondary Settings: Recent Research and Data presented by Andrew Weaver, Sign Language Interpreting and Transcription Coordinator, University of Oregon/Western Oregon University.
When one talks about educational interpreting, a majority of the time they mean interpreting in the K-12 setting. Due to the demands of school-age deaf consumers of interpreting, there is a lot of research dedicated to interpreting in K-12. Not as much research has been dedicated to interpreting in colleges and universities, yet many challenges faced by deaf students and interpreters remain in this setting. Some challenges include the availability of interpreters, the experience of interpreters, and the demands of various postsecondary settings (from community college to university to vocational schools to pre-college). Recently collected data will be presented to outline the work of American Sign Language/English interpreters in postsecondary settings and detail its unique demands as a subfield of the interpreting profession based on responses from currently working postsecondary interpreters, current and recently graduated Deaf students, and currently working Deaf faculty/staff.
Crack the Memory Aid Code: How Collaboration with STEM Faculty Prompted the Creation of Clear, Usable Memory Aid Guidelines & Examples. Presented by Phyllis Petteys, Accessibility Specialist, Portland Community College.
Portland Community College Memory aids are a necessary accommodation for many disabled students, but are often misunderstood and difficult to implement. At Portland Community College (PCC), the Accessible Education & Disability Resources office recognized that our memory aid guidelines were complicated with unnecessary jargon that was confusing to students and faculty. We partnered with STEM departments to create usable guidelines and concrete memory aid examples. We will present about this experience and our new memory aid guidelines, and share examples of memory aids. This presentation will also include students’ & instructors’ experiences engaging in the memory aid process. We will provide strategies & guidance for Disability Resource Providers to help students and instructors better understand how to create a memory aid.
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Dinner Buffet and Trivia Night
Additional tickets for the dinner buffet are available for partners and families at $25 per ticket.
Friday, November 3rd
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. - Breakfast Buffet
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - List Serv in Real Time
Listserv in Real Time presented by Jeff Larson, Director, Accessible Education Services, Willamette University
This session provides a chance for participants to pose a question or make a comment just as you would over the listserv, but in real time! Responses are generally limited to three replies, before the topic changes to a new thread.
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. - Raffle and Break!
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Networking time
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Session Eight:
Design of the Gladys Valley Marine Science Building presented by Gabe Merrell, Director, Access and Affirmative Action, Deputy ADA Coordinator, Oregon State University.
OSU designed the Gladys Valley Marine Science Center in Newport to be the first building in the United States with a vertical evacuation elevator. The building opened during COVID. Gabe will present on the building design, the conversations around emergency planning in the event of an earthquake and tsunami. He will discuss how we can implement planning centered on the needs of the disabled community. In the afternoon, those interested can take a tour of the building!