Featured Workshop
This featured TEACHx workshop is sponsored by AccessibleNU.
Workshop Leader
Luis Pérez
As the Disability & Digital Inclusion Lead for CAST, Luis promotes the creation, delivery, and use of high-quality accessible educational materials and technologies to support equitable learning opportunities for all students. Luis is embedded with the Postsecondary and Workforce Development group at CAST that works to increase access to middle- and high-income careers for populations underrepresented in the workforce, including people with disabilities. Luis’s perspective is informed by his own lived experience as a person with a disability and a multilingual learner.
Luis was recognized with an International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Making It Happen! Award in 2020. Other recognitions include Apple Distinguished Educator (2009) and Google Certified Innovator (2014). He has published three books on accessibility, mobile learning, and UDL: Mobile Learning for All (Corwin Press), Dive into UDL (ISTE), and Learning on the Go (CAST Publishing). He currently serves as a Transition and Workplace Accessibility strand advisor for the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA).
In addition to his work in educational technology, Luis is an avid photographer whose work has been featured in Better Photography magazine, Business Insider, the New York Times Bits Blog, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Session Description
Essential for Some, Helpful for All
Wednesday, May 15 @ 1 p.m. CST
Accessibility is a foundational component of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an instructional design framework pioneered at CAST that seeks to remove barriers and optimize teaching and learning so that it works for everyone. Starting with a shared definition of what is meant by “accessible,” participants will explore five practices that have a significant impact on the learner experience, especially those who rely on assistive technology for their access to the curriculum. These practices, which are captured by the acronym SLIDE, are meant to provide an on-ramp so that even those new to digital accessibility can quickly start creating more accessible materials to support learning for everyone. Attendees are encouraged to bring any documents or slide decks they wish to revise and make more accessible (syllabus, handouts, etc.).