March is National Disability Awareness Month

National Disability Awareness Month is celebrated each March. This observance recognizes the importance of supporting and advocating for people with different abilities.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion encourages you to assess your current interactions with students, staff, and faculty with disabilities and determine actions you can take to create affirming, equitable, and inclusive classrooms and work environments.

We offer the following advice and resources:

• Learn about ableism and ableist language
• Address ableism in your work environment
• Listen to the 2019 DEI Conference keynote address featuring Sonya Renee Taylor, an author, artist, disability advocate, humanitarian, and body positivity advocate
• LinkedIn Learning Videos (log into LinkedIn Learning with your UGA MyID)
  • Creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office
  • Creating accessible PDFs
• Consider incorporating the principles of universal design learning (UDL) into your pedagogy
  • Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST): A non-profit organization dedicated to education research and development focused on UDL framework and guidelines
  • UDL in higher education
  • Lecture Breakers Podcast episode 19: “How Universal Design for Learning Can Help You Break Up Your Lectures with Dr. Thomas J. Tobin”
  • Lecture Breaker Podcast episode 26: “How to Integrate Universal Design for Learning Principles In Your Online Courses with Dr. Thomas J. Tobin”
  • Teaching in Higher Education Podcast episode 269: “Removing Learning Barriers with Universal Design Learning”