Tracy is the founder of the BCEdAccess Society, an organization devoted to equity and inclusion for all students in British Columbia. From the very start of her presentation she was very open with us in disclosing her intent in founding the group being rooted in her own disabilities and those of her children. I found this honesty to be very brave and refreshing.
BCEdAccess is a volunteer-run non-profit organization serving families of students with disabilities that has grown into a support group of around 3500 parents. This organization helps families navigate the school system and advocate for their children through designations and psycho-educational assessment.
Some of the specific tech tools mentioned were speech-to-text, dictation, AAC/communication boards, translators, microphones and hearing aids, AI generated notes, closed captions, and tablets. While these resources are common in schools, they can only be effectively used when we as teachers are familiar with our students individual needs and IEPs.
In addition to the content, the presentation methods themselves were very transparent and accessible; from the way Tracy and Kaori both gave a visual description of themselves, to the the land acknowledgment, to the closed captions running on the screen. I can tell that they really practice what they preach which makes me trust the ethos of their program more, and gives me a direct model of how to implement inclusion strategies in the classroom.
As someone who really struggles with giving my uninterrupted attention during lectures that go on for hours, I appreciated how this presentation was broken up into different interactive elements like responding to prompts with Mentimeter or the sticky-note simulation activity.