In an ever-changing educational landscape, mandates drive the move toward increased accessibility. Let’s consider, instead, why access matters and how students and faculty benefit. Reflecting on our own assumptions about access, this presentation will provide an opportunity to explore practical approaches to improving access to build inclusive environments.

April Coughlin is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz. She has been a “wheeler” since the age of six, is a disability rights advocate, and worked as a high school English teacher in New York city public schools. Her research, teaching, and advocacy focus on access and equity for students with disabilities/disabled students in schools, healthcare for women with disabilities, and transit accessibility.

Sponsored by the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts.