Making Math Accessible to All

The Ross Center is a partner in a new professional development project to enhance the instruction of math using principles of Universal Design. The staff of the Ross Center participated in the development of the successfully funded grant proposal. The project will include creating a training video and conducting a workshop to assist mathematics faculty to meet the learning needs of students who are blind or visually impaired.

Project Shift

The Ross Center for Disability Services at UMass Boston was selected as one of twenty-five institutions of higher education in the US to participate in a three-year study. This study is focused on changing disability services at UMass Boston from a medical model to a socio-political model in order to become more inclusive. The socio-political model regards disability as a form of diversity. In this model, the barriers to inclusion exist in the environment, not in the person with a disability. The study will target changing perceptions of disability across campus through various strategies. For more information about this project, contact the Ross Center: 617.287.7430.

Liberated Learning Consortium

UMass Boston recently became a member of the Liberated Learning Consortium. The mission of this international Consortium of colleges and universities is to advance speech recognition technology in order to improve accessibility to information in learning environments. The technology is an example of universal design in instruction because all students can benefit.

During the next year, the speech recognition technology will be piloted in classrooms at UMass Boston. Students and faculty who want more information or who are interested in being involved in the project should contact the Ross Center:627.287.7430. Visit www.liberatedlearning.com to learn more.