Pictured above: Members of Alpha Mu Chi interview John Russo, an NTCC Instructor who is visually impaired, to help better understand the challenges of accessibility.
Alpha Mu Chi, NTCC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to help fund a documentary dealing with the issues of accessibility for the visually challenged. Inspired in part by the increasing use of the internet for business and education this year, a move that that left large segments of the population, such as the visually challenged, underserved, the chapter sought to explore the issues of accessibility in more depth.
“What's been most impressive to me is the way this team has researched and networked; every week, they've found and reached out to new people--experts from around the world, organizations working in the field--and dug up new research. They're working with people from Australia, Israel, Britain, and all across the country on this project.” said Dr. Matthew Lampert, chapter advisor and Professor of Philosophy.
The chapter will interview and film individuals both locally and elsewhere. John Russo, a popular history professor at NTCC who deals with visual challenges while teaching, will be featured in the documentary, along with some of his classes. Students on campus will be interviewed about various issues regarding visual challenges, accessibility, and digital affinity in general.
“I was very excited to find out that we would be receiving grant money. I am very thankful for being given the opportunity. I cannot wait for the great things we can do!” said Carolina Alcocer-Salas, President of the Alpha Mu Chi Chapter.
On Wednesday, November 4 at 7pm the chapter will be speaking with Dr. Scott Hollier, author of the book Outrunning the Night: A Life Journey of Disability, Determination and Joy and global digital accessibility specialist. CEO and co-founder of the Centre For Accessibility Australia, Hollier holds academic positions at Edith Cowan University and the University of South Australia, and is an Invited Expert for the W3C Accessible Platform Architectures Research Questions Task Force. Being legally blind, Hollier has both a professional and personal understanding of the importance of accessibility.
A few chapter members will take a field trip to Envision Dallas on Friday November 13 to visit one of the nation’s largest employers of the visually challenged. A small group of chapter members has been granted filming access to the location and its employers for their documentary.
On Tuesday November 24, Dr. Gregg Vanderheiden, Professor and Director of the Trace R&D Center at the University of Maryland, who has also agreed to be in the documentary, will address the future of accessibility. A pioneer in the field of Augmentative Communication, Vanderheiden has been working in the area of access to technology for over 47 years. Access features developed by Dr. Vanderheiden and his team have been built into the Apple’s Macintosh OS since 1987, IBM’s OS/2 and the UNIX X Window system since 1993. 9 of the first 10 access features built into Windows 95 (and subsequently 98, NT, 2000, Vista, Windows 7, 8, and 10) were licensed (royalty free) from Dr. Vanderheiden and his team.
Vanderheiden co-chaired and co-authored the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and currently co-leads an international effort to create a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) that focuses on lowering the cost to develop, deploy and support access technologies and to make special access features available on demand, anywhere, any time, on any device.
“I’m super excited to be part of a group of motivated students working on this documentary, and getting this award,” said chapter vice-president James Buckley.
“I am beyond grateful that we received the grant! I am thrilled to be able to use the grant for ideas that we have and to put those ideas in action.” said Corinne Suits, Alpha Mu Chi Chapter officer.
When completed, the documentary, which will include close captioning and audio descriptions, making it as widely accessible as possible, will be premiered locally and then posted on the internet and various social media sites.
For learn more about Alpha Mu Chi, Northeast Texas Community College’s Five Star, award-winning chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, check out their Facebook page at ‘Phi Theta Kappa Alpha Mu Chi.’ For anyone interested in learning more or attending some of the zoom sessions noted, email ptk@ntcc.edu or any of the chapter advisors, including Dr. Matthew Lampert at mlampert@ntcc.edu .
