Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the commanding officer of Officer Trinity Command Newport, welcome to the graduation ceremony for Officer Candidate School, Class 02, Tech 24. Over the past 13 weeks, the class team has been responsible for developing today's graduates to serve as professional naval officers worthy of special trust and confidence. The Class 02, Tech 24 class team includes class officers, Lieutenant Billups and Lieutenant Saldivar. Class Recruit Division Commander, Senior Chief Petty Officer Iguay and Class Drill Instructor, Staff Sergeant Renteria. Guests are encouraged to take photographs from the seating area at any time during the ceremony except during the playing of the national anthem. The order of events for today's ceremonies are as follows. At 1000, Captain Alcorn, Commanding Officer, Officer Training Command Newport and Rear Admiral Rustin, Get Real, Get Better Directorate, Deputy Commander of Naval Education Training Command will arrive. The guests and class will rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the playing of the national anthem and invocation. The commanding officer and guest of honor will then address the graduating class and administer the oath of office. The graduates will then be recognized through the presentation of their commission by the commanding officer and guest of honor. The guests will rise for the playing of the service songs and the final dismissal. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the national anthem and the invocation. Officer Training Command Newport arriving. Rear Admiral arriving. Ladies and gentlemen, Chaplain Everts will now offer the invocation. Let us pray. Eternal father, strong to save. We give you our thanks for binding the restless waves within each of these newly trained naval officers so they could stand proud this day for becoming morally, mentally, and physically developed for the service of our fleet. As they prepare for their next evolution in their communities, remind them of what it means to be a leader and to serve with a purpose. Let them embody humility and selflessness. Remind them to value every sailor and civilian they cross paths with each day. Press upon them, the initiative, integrity, accountability, and toughness needed to do the right thing, especially when it's difficult. It bolden them to have ownership of what they have, what they are called to do even when they are called into harm's way. So these officers look to the horizon, prepare them for the challenges that lie ahead, giving them the physical, mental, and spiritual readiness to meet each one with confidence. And as we continue to celebrate this moment, we ask for your spirit to reside with us and all those who stand to watch this day. In your name, we pray. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Everett Alcorn, Officer Training Command, Newport. Ladies and gentlemen, Admiral Rustin, Admiral Dwayne, Captain Williams, distinguished guests, veterans, service members, Officer Training Command, Newport staff, family members and friends, and most importantly, the soon to be commissioned officers of OCS class 02, tack 24, good morning. Morning, sir. I'm excited to welcome our 65 newest graduates into the one of the most challenging and fulfilling careers, that of Naval Officer. To the family and friends joining us, I applaud you for the great work you did preparing these impressive young leaders prior to their arrival here. Your love, support, and encouragement produced the remarkable individuals seated here. It enabled them to make sound choices and we are grateful to these graduates for their choice to serve. They could not have gotten to this point without careful guidance and support of family and friends. On behalf of the Navy and a grateful nation, please accept my most sincere thank you. To the graduates here today, I am proud of each and every one of you. You all had many other options in volunteering to serve your country. Yet you chose this path. I thank you for your patriotism and your willingness to serve. And I assure you that a life of service holds many rewards and will bring you great fulfillment. You've completed rigorous military, academic, and physical training. You have overcome obstacles. Nothing was handed to you except opportunity. Opportunity to make something more of yourself, to learn, to grow, and to lead. You seize that opportunity and today you reap its rewards. I congratulate each and every one of you for this significant and memorable achievement. It is now time to embrace a new opportunity to lead what is truly the Navy's most precious resource, Sailors in the Fleet. In the years ahead, your knowledge and leadership skills will be tested often. You'll be standing watch and working alongside fellow officers and sailors around the world, around the clock. Know that you're gonna be doing significant and meaningful work for our country. Work hard. Learn the warfare and professional skills of your designator. Strive to be the best and give your country 100% effort because nothing else will suffice. The nation and the Navy expect the best from you. The highest standards of personal and professional conduct, excellence in leadership, and a strict adherence to the Navy's core values, honor, courage, and commitment. I applaud your accomplishments and perseverance. You're about to embark on a great adventure, one of which I hope you find both professional success and personal fulfillment.  Congratulations to each and every one of you. I wish you fair wins and following seas. It is now my privilege this morning to introduce you to our guest of honor, we're Admiral Scott Rustin. Admiral Rustin is a native of Rancho Palo Verdez, California. He holds a PhD in critical studies from the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of both the Air Command and Staff College and the Joint Forces Staff College. The Naval Aviator, he has flown over 3,000 flight hours in SH-60 Bravo, UH-3, and MH-60 Sierra Aircraft. He served in various staff and operational tours, including NATO Allied Command Transformation, the Joint Staff J7, and Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa. Multiple deployments to the Arabian Gulf. His command tours include helicopter scene, combat squadron three, squadron augment unit, Navy Reserve Commander, United States Naval Forces, Europe Africa Six Fleet Maritime Partnership Program, and Navy Reserve Joint Staff South. In his civilian career, Admiral Rustin directs Arizona State's University Center on Narrative Disinformation and Strategic Influence on his military career. He currently serves dual roles as the Director of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Get Real, Get Better Directorate, and the Deputy Commander of Naval Education and Training Command. His leadership is essential to the continued success of the world's greatest Navy. We are privileged to have him here with us to share his thoughts. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me and welcome our guests of honor today. We're Admiral Scott Rustin. Good morning, that's just awesome. It's an honor to be here at beautiful Newport. We lucked out, we've got, the rain has held off a bit and it's 40 some odd degrees out there as a native Southern Californian and a long time resident of the desert Southwest in Arizona. This is a good day for Newport because I was really afraid it was gonna be snowing on us. This is a wonderful day for our graduates and their families and welcome. I would like to make a special welcome to Rare Admiral retired Sean DeWayne. I need to update my prescription because I can't quite pick out in the crowd there, but Doug, there you are. Great to see you. Long way since we first met in Djibouti serving together. Also wanna welcome Captain Williams. Captain Williams, US Navy Reserve, also Chief of Staff of the VA Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Captain Williams, thank you for your dual call to service helping both our veterans and serving in the reserves and also a warm welcome to all the distinguished guests. I see a lot of uniforms in the crowd, a lot of veterans, so thank you for being here. To all the friends and family members in the audience, I know you are proud and I know your loved ones who are here in the front rows will attempt to explain to you once we're done here what the impact of these last 13 weeks of training and instruction have had on their lives. I encourage you to listen to them, listen to their enthusiasm and their pride and know that while they have changed that transformation, that arc of what it means to be a naval officer in service to our country is really just beginning. And you all, family and friends, have had a powerful influence on shaping these young people into answering the call to become a naval officer, selflessly choose that call to service and I bid you and I ask of you to continue that support for their future success in the fleet. So thank you to the family and friends here today. To class 0224, like I said, today marks a beginning. You are now a member of an elite organization with a rich tradition that goes back even beyond the birth of our great nation. Congratulations on your remarkable achievement. Your graduation here today from Officer Candidate School is a testament to a number of things, your talent and intelligence, more importantly, your determination and your desire for self-improvement. As you move forward in your career, never lose sight of that spirit to always learn and grow. That's how you individually and how us as an organization will surmount the challenges that face us in the future that allow us to innovate in the face of danger or crisis.  Naval service reveals a sense of purpose and the opportunity to think outside the box, to take risks and challenge the status quo. Keep that in mind. Become an expert in your field. We're gonna train you to fly aircraft. We're gonna train you to drive ships. We're gonna train you to take submarines and patrol the depths of the ocean. We're gonna train you to fly core officers, information warfare officers, aviation maintenance officers and all of those professional disciplines. Become experts in that discipline. So much so that you're reexamining how you do business to look for ways that we can grow as an organization as a Navy. That is in the hallmark of the 248 year history of the United States Navy. And however long you serve, you will always bear the title of United States Naval Officer, a title I charge you to wear and discharge honorably and one that you should be extremely proud of. Here in Newport, the Officer Candidate School builds and instills the foundations of professional officership and ensures that our future Naval officers are constantly self-assessing, self-correcting and always learning throughout their careers to guarantee the lethality and survivability of our fleet and most importantly our sailors. 68% of all Navy officers commissioned come through either OCS or the two other pipelines that Officer Training Command oversees. The team that Captain Alcorn leads has a huge impact on our fleet. From our graduates and our guests and myself, I'd like to extend a recognition of the hard work that Captain Alcorn and your team do to produce these fine Naval officers. Thank you very much to you and the staff.  We are not operating in a world where we have the largest Navy anymore. We are soon going to face a world where our technology advantage is not as great as we once might have enjoyed. We need to look for what our secret sauce is, what our true war fighting advantage is and that is our people. You all will come to defend the forward, excuse me, the forward presence in the face of the destabilizing forces that we see today. The People's Republic of China is building and militarizing artificial islands in the South China Sea. They're growing their naval presence and increasing their maritime claims. We face a strategic competitor there on a level that we haven't seen in 30 years. Russia is continuing its unprovoked and illegal invasion of the Ukraine, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and Russia is resurging as an authoritarian regime. Iran is interfering with commercial shipping through the Straits of Hormuz and of course the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has destabilized the Middle East. Suffice to say that you all join at a critical point in our country's efforts for peace and security. Success in this century and I would argue success in the next, in the critical decade of the next 10 years will depend on a lot of things including the increasing cooperation with our allies regarding the shared challenges that we face. And our success will require a Navy to be in more places at once as the number of war fighting domains continues to expand. We are America's away team. That's the team you're joining. Your service is critical to sustain our competitive edge and defend the rules-based international order. Now make no mistake, I know that you are ready for those challenges ahead. I am confident that each of you will continue to grow and stand ready to meet these challenges and any challenge you face during your careers as a direct result of the skills you have acquired and honed during your time here at OCS. Now as you prepare to enjoy some well deserved time off it's important to reflect on what this upcoming weekend means for those in military service. Tomorrow marks the birthday of the Marine Corps. Happy birthday to our Marine Corps partners. Can I get a new raw? Outstanding. And then Saturday is Veterans Day. Veterans Day an opportunity to honor those who came before us to build the military we enjoy the privilege of serving in today. To all our veterans in attendance kind of get a hands of the veterans in the audience amongst the fans and family. That's a huge percentage. Thank you for your lifelong commitment and service to our nation. If you walk around the base and you look at the buildings you see names like Callahan, Kay, Perry, King, Nimitz. Names that we are very familiar with. As we observe Veterans Day, remember that we stand on the shoulders of these giants and it is our responsibility to honor their legacy through our service. In closing, congratulations on your commissioning. You have chosen your profession wisely and you have made friends within this class that will be with you for the rest of your life. You have a very bright future. Every day you spend as commissioned officers, remember that our nation needs you to live up to the oath that you are about to take to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Class 0224, congratulations. Let's get you into the fleet. Thank you. The graduating class will now receive the oath of office. Would all military personnel in uniform please come to the position of attention? Raise your right hand. State your name. Aye. Having been appointed an ensign in the United States Navy. Having been appointed an ensign in the United States Navy. Do hereby accept such appointment. Do hereby accept such appointment. And do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely without mental reservation or purpose of evasion. Without mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the responsibilities of the office on which I'm about to enter. Discharge the responsibilities of the office on which I'm about to enter. So help me God. So help me God. Welcome to the Navy. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. The distinguished graduates assembled will now be recognized by the commanding officer and guest of honor for their achievements while undergoing training here at Officer Training Command Newport. The Commander Jack Leavitt Leadership Award is presented to the ensign chosen by the class for the peer who most inspired them and personifies the highest standards of personal example, sound management practice and moral responsibility. This award is being presented to Anson Burke. Anson Burke has been designated as a Naval Flight Officer and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. The Lieutenant Thomas E.D. Honor Award is presented to the ensign who has achieved the highest overall average in academics, military training, and physical fitness. This award is being presented to Anson Pritchard. Anson Pritchard has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Pritchard is a distinguished Naval graduate. Your Admiral Stephen B. Loose Academic Award is presented to the ensign who achieved the highest academic average. This award is being presented to Anson Shakuri. Anson Shakuri has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Shakuri is a distinguished Naval graduate. The Chapel Clarty United States Marine Corps Physical Fitness Award is presented to the ensign who achieved the highest overall grade in physical fitness. This award is presented to Anson Antwan. Anson Antwan has been designated as a Supply Corps Officer and has been assigned to Naval Supply Corps School in Newport, Rhode Island. We will now recognize the remaining graduates. Anson Pankones has been designated as a Supply Officer and has been assigned to Naval Supply Corps School in Newport, Rhode Island. Anson Bright has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Pankie has been designated as a Nuclear Submarine Officer and has been assigned to Naval Nuclear Power School in Charleston, South Carolina. Anson Pankie is a distinguished Naval graduate. Anson Rockafort Fernandez has been designated as a Surface Warfare Officer and has been assigned to CG67 USS Shiloh home ported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Anson Steffi has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Weigel has been designated as a Naval Flight Officer and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Weigel is a distinguished Naval graduate. Anson Brown has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Flaherty has been designated as a Nuclear Submarine Officer and has been assigned to Naval Nuclear Power School in Charleston, South Carolina. Anson Idago has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Adanasov has been designated as a Naval Flight Officer and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Askew has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Askew is a Distinguished Naval Graduate. Anson Bailey has been designated as an Aviation Maintenance Studio Officer and has been assigned to Helicopter C Squadron 9 in Norfolk, Virginia. Anson Basu has been designated as an Information Professional Officer and has been assigned to Information Professional Basic Course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Anson Bees has been designated as an Information Professional Officer and has been assigned to Information Professional Basic Course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Anson Bello has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Ben Binnak has been designated as a Naval Flight Officer and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Benjamin has been designated as a Naval Flight Officer and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Borrell has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to Flight School at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Childers has been designated as an Aviation Maintenance Duty Officer and has been assigned to VAQ 136 in Whidbey Island, Washington. Ensign Clayton has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Credo has been designated as an information professional officer and has been assigned to information professional basic course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Cruz has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Dalla-Burdy has been designated as a naval flight officer and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign DeBona has been designated as an intelligence officer and has been assigned to Naval Intelligence Officer basic course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Diaz has been designated as a nuclear surface warfare officer and has been assigned to DDG 75 USS Donald Cook home ported in Mayport, Florida. Ensign Duane has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Dutzman has been designated as a civil engineering corps officer and has been assigned to public works department in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ensign Edwards has been designated as a supply corps officer and has been assigned to Naval Supply Corps School in Newport, Rhode Island. Ensign Fleming has been designated as a naval flight officer and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign French has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Fuentes Rivera has been designated as a nuclear surface warfare officer and has been assigned to LHA-6 USS America home ported in Sasebo, Japan. Ensign Gracia has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Gregor has been designated as an intelligence officer and has been assigned to Naval Intelligence Basic Course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Harris has been designated as a supply corps officer and has been assigned to Naval Intelligence Basic Course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Harris has been designated as a supply corps officer and has been assigned to Naval Supply Corps School in Newport, Rhode Island. Ensign Henian has been designated as an intelligence officer and has been assigned to Naval Intelligence Officer Basic Course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Hanyan is a distinguished naval graduate. Ensign Q's has been designated as an aviation maintenance duty officer and has been assigned to patrol squadron 16 in Jacksonville, Florida. Ensign Kendricks has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Carabo has been designated as a civil engineer corps officer and has been assigned to naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. Ensign Cubic has been designated as an intelligence officer and has been assigned to naval intelligence officer basic corps in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Larry Yosso has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Lily White has been designated as a supply corps officer and has been assigned to navy supply corps school in Newport, Rhode Island. Ensign Liu has been designated as a supply corps officer and has been assigned to naval supply corps school in Newport, Rhode Island. Ensign McCallum has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign McCoy has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign McNallis has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Mintsup has been designated as an information professional officer and has been assigned to information professional basic course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Anson At has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Pelton has been designated as a Civil Engineering Corps officer and has been assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 in Gulfport, Mississippi. Anson Pope has been designated as an intelligence officer and has been assigned to Naval Intelligence Officer basic course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Anson Santos has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Brendan Schneider has been designated as a Naval Aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Anson Jonah Schneider has been designated as a Naval Flight Officer and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Susie has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign St. Jocs has been designated as a naval flight officer and has been assigned to flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign St. Jocs is a distinguished naval graduate. Ensign Salter has been designated as an intelligence officer and has been assigned to Naval Intelligence Officer basic course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Thelamath has been designated as a naval aviator and has been assigned to a flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Ward has been designated as a nuclear surface warfare officer and has been assigned to LHG7 USS Iwo Jima home ported in Norfolk, Virginia. Ensign Watley has been designated as a naval flight officer and has been assigned to a flight school at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Ensign Wilmack has been designated as an information professional officer and has been assigned to information professional basic course in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ensign Robottom has been designated as a supply corps officer and has been assigned to Naval supply corps school in Newport, Rhode Island. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in recognizing the United States Navy's newest ensigns. Please rise for the playing of the service songs and the final dismissal. Ladies and gentlemen we will now conclude the ceremony. Please remain in your places until after the graduating class has taken their class photo and remember the only authorized visitor locations are K Hall and Nimitz PT Field. On behalf of the commanding officer, thank you for attending today's ceremony.


Okay. So, we missed out on three shows last week. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We had to dedicate that time to fly out to New Orleans. Let me back up and let me just explain everything that happened. So, Arch Manning, who is the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, number one quarterback prospect in 2023. Great player. Great kid, by the way. NBC was broadcasting their game this past Thursday. A buddy of mine, one of my boys, he livestreamed his games and he got contracted out by NBC to fly out to New Orleans and get a whole crew together. And let's go ahead and broadcast this Arch Manning game. They were supposed to do an interview with Arch Manning. It was supposed to be Drew Brees that went out and interviewed Arch Manning. Drew couldn't make it. And so, my boy, that got contracted out to livestream the game. He hit me up. And he said, Hasan, this opportunity right here, you got to come out to New Orleans. You have the opportunity to interview Arch Manning. This could put time and football on the freaking map. I was like, man, I got daily Monday through Friday live shows. I don't know if I can do it. And he was like, okay, cool. Just think on it. Two days later, he hit me up again. You got to come out to New Orleans. You got to come. This is the opportunity. And I was like, you know what? You're right. If I get this interview with Arch Manning, 10 to 15 minutes, sit down with them, it's going to be incredible for the brand. So, I fly out to New Orleans, right? We got this interview locked in. It was Wednesday at 6.30. We go out to New Orleans. We're going to show up at Isidore Newman School, which is a school that Peyton, Eli, Cooper, Odell Beckham, all of them played at. Arch plays it over there. So, we go out there. Three hours before the interview was supposed to happen, Arch pulls out. I flew out to New Orleans for no reason. So, I don't know whether it was him that pulled out. I don't know whether it was his family. I don't know whether it was a coach, the athletic, whatever. But on his Wikipedia page, if you look at Arch Manning's Wikipedia page, there's a section that says he does not interview way too much because the Manning family is trying to protect him, which makes sense. Like, he's just a kid, wants to focus on football, wants to focus on school. Got it. Already gets the overexposure with this last name. But we had a 10 to 15 minute interview already scheduled and then we couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. So, it was a little bit disappointing. I was able to get a little bit of footage. By the way, this is the, we drove by the Superdome in New Orleans. So, I'm trying to cross off a list of things to do. Let me go ahead and do this. And I'm trying to see every stadium in New Orleans or in the United States, every NFL stadium. So, seeing the Superdome was actually really, really cool and a cool opportunity. Also, we saw Isidore Newman School as well. We traveled out there. So, this is the place, like I said, where Peyton, Eli, Cooper, Odell, all of them played at here at Isidore Newman School. And they were practicing right here and Arch is kind of mixed in there somewhere. I think he's on the sideline.  We were at the game and I filmed a little bit of footage at the game. Actually, Texas head coach, Steve Sarkesian was there, as you can see right here. Sometimes my footage is a little bit shaky, if that's okay. But he's just chilling, man. He's just chilling. He's just scouting. Hopefully, he can land, I think Texas is actually the favorite to land archmaning if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, so this is all footage I just shot by myself. Like we were there. We saw him practice. We saw him play and man, he didn't have the best performance because the team that he faced had a really good defense. But it's still a very good player and good leader and captain on top of that as well. So even though it was kind of disappointing not to have the opportunity to interview him, I gave him a little bit of the only words that I gave to him was just, how's it going? That's it. That's it. So missed opportunity. Let me see if I got any other stuff. I mean, it's just random footage, random clips. But yeah, like I was right next to him too. And it's just, I don't know, I was more concerned about Steve Sarkesian. I wanted to go up to him and say, as a Falcons fan, I just wanted to tell him how much I loved him being the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons when he took over after we went to the Super Bowl. But yeah, Arch Manning, the interview did not happen, but we had the opportunity to go out there and film him, which I mean, not the same thing. But yeah, I mean, what can you say? I was the understudy for Drew Brees. Drew Brees couldn't make it. They hit up a son count at the time of football to interview him. And then he pulls out three hours before. Needless to say, that's the story of how I almost interviewed Arch Manning. Almost. That's okay. It gives me a little bit of hope that there are way more opportunities out there and that this isn't the end for time to football. There's going to be many more athletes that we have the chance to interview. We've already interviewed a few, I think like close to 40 NFL players so far. So we're, we're moving on up.


Welcome to Episode 1 in my series on the anti-aging 8 Let's Get Nutty, compared to any other food group. Consumption of nuts associated with the lowest risk of premature death, a palmful of nuts each day. Maybe enough to offer maximal benefit. Too many nuts more than a cup a day may increase the risk of kidney stones, and peanut butter consumption does not appear to have the same salutary effects. And of all nuts, walnuts may be the healthiest. Stay tuned for Episode 2 of our anti-aging 8 series.


So thank you for joining us today on the second day of celebrate learning week, and it's great to see so many people Joining us on particularly a non rainy day as well. My name is will Engel I'm a strategist for open education initiatives with the Center for Teaching Learning and Technology and I'm joined by a couple of my Colleagues and very excited to be working with both AJF Sonny and I'm gonna turn it over to them to introduce themselves So AJ do you want to introduce yourself? Sure, my name is AJ. I'm one of the advisors at the Center for Accessibility and I've been there for six this year's Hi, my name is up Sonny Sharif. I'm faculty liaison senior project manager with Center for Teaching and Learning Technology I'd like to acknowledge that UBC Vancouver, which is hosting this session is located on the traditional Ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people and as we're meeting virtually today I'd like to acknowledge that here in the lower mainland We're often on the unceded territories of the Squamish slay-law tooth and other coast slay-less people You may be joining us from many different areas and I'd like to take a moment to appreciate consider and give respect to the lands in which we are situated and Speaking to our lands the BC campus open textbook pulling together a guide for indigestion Excuse me indigitization of both secondary institutions Describes an indigenous epistemology one of the indigenous epistemologies as Relationality and this is the concept that we're all related to each other and our relationships create interdependencies The BC campus guide suggests that instructors and curricular Developers can apply the concept of relationality by creating learning opportunities that really emphasize learning in relationships and community And I'd like to think that's a strong theme that you'll hear at good in our discussions today About teaching with care and accessibility. So I will just throw a link out to that guide momentarily Before we begin I'd also like to note the session is being recorded I am close captioning is turned on you can toggle close captions on or off on your end of the zoom window There should be a button That's labeled CC for close captions in the bottom of your zoom window We have posted our slides and our resources including different links To this wiki page here. So if you want to use a copy of the slides to follow along, please do so and you'll see That the first link on that page is a guide to the BC campus pulling together a guide for indigenizations of post-secondary institutions that I've I just mentioned With that I'm going to turn it over to Afsani to talk about what we're going to talk about Thanks. Well, hi everyone I want to acknowledge that I'm zooming in from the traditional ancestral and unceded territory of muslim people Hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and well during this pandemic and global crisis On march 2020. We all needed flexibility Accessibility and accommodation as we all had to move to online environment We were experiencing a crisis of access that resembled to the crisis of Access of the people with disabilities that they have experienced for many years in our educational system Systematic barriers in learning and using new technology On the plus side during the kovid that this pandemic has resulted a valuable advancement in accessibility and inclusion and it's important for us to hold on to these gains That's why today's session is on the teaching with care focusing on accessibility and inclusion With that the agenda for today is reflection on accessibility at the uvc Consideration for designing inclusive and accessible online materials introduction to open in teaching and learning and why open education is important And rationale for how open educational resources support accessibility Now, let's look at what is accessibility and why it matters First, I would like to invite you all to use your mic or chat share one word to describe what this term means to you accessibility draw from your own life your classroom teaching your research activity or other parts of your life. What does accessibility mean to you? Please use chat or mic to say what the openness universal inclusive fair equity all participation for all those are all all great poems. Thank you all for brainstorming on that So here what we look at what accessibility means and how we define it here accessibility in a simple language in education means giving all a student equal opportunity to learn its ability to access And in education means that all the students are given equal opportunity to learn designing for your instruction and educational material for accessibility is Actually an important part of ensuring that these opportunities are given to those people and I've given them access to the same opportunity is important. We always encourage Everyone to think about designing for accessibility means a good design. It's not only for disabled. It's for non-disabled like for regular people and we will talk about some of those strategy that you can make your course and program more inclusive in the next few slides. One thing that I like to mention is that in order for us to move forward and make things more accessible there are three and more factors involved. One is assistive technology that people with disability might use. The other factor is instructor educational developer or learning designer who are involved in the course and program design that they need to follow those guidelines if it's online following W3 standards and the third person the third factor is the disabled individual the responsibility that they have in order to inform the community about their needs and look for the resources that are existing. So the next slide I want to talk about why doesn't matter we talk about what is accessibility now we want to know why even it's doesn't matter that we pay attention to accessibility and you hear more according to a stat Canada in 2017 one in five and Canadian over 15 has a disability. I was attending a session at Ability Summit in Microsoft they are saying that 50% of Americans have one kind of disability and if you look at what we have in Canada one in five this is kind of in all sectors of our community and it's showing up in our community and UBC community you can see that we have this number of the students also and participants or community members who are have one kind of a disability. Now let's look at accessibility at UBC with UBC AMS 2020 academic experience survey report it showed that one quarter of our undergrad report having one one or more disability which is kind of more than 2019 which was 22%. Mental illness is as the most important and common disability among our students and one third of those who identify themselves with disability have registered with Center for Accessibility. So if you have attended this morning keynote one of the reasons that people may not be registered with Center for Accessibility might be cultural things it might be frustration it might be stigma or it might be something related to their own and dealing with their disability so one third of those who are struggling with the system or have some needs of accommodation registered with Center for Accessibility. Another data or survey that you've done is the undergrad experience survey 2021 there are some of the things that I'd like to share with you is that with UBC Vancouver we have 4,183 students currently registered with Center for Accessibility which means that in your students among UBC students over 4,000 students need some kind of accommodation we have 17% that they have mental health condition and 14% of those have other medical condition we have 64% of our students at UBC Vancouver experiencing financial stress and we share some of the information about responsibility that six percent of our learners have some kind of a care responsibility these are all hurdles that our students have and they are facing with UBC we have 910 students registered with the Disability Resource Center 23% mental health condition 19 have other conditions and 84% have and are experiencing financial stress and the reason I share these data is just to know and get to know your students more and their needs and to see that what kind of backgrounds they have and what kind of personalities or characteristics they bring to the classroom and some of the challenges that they are facing I was shocked by seeing the financial stress on our students and the number of mental issues the percentage that is going up a few percent every year so I just wanted to show that these are the importance of accessibility one thing that I like to share with you here is UBC how UBC is responding and providing support and one of the policies that UBC has is LR7 policy which is about disability accommodation it talks about responsibility as UBC as an organization that they have to students to provide a welcoming environment for students not denying admission based on their disability and making sure programs are accessible for students also ensuring that staff and faculty are provided with relevant information about the policies and procedures and there are more information on that about this policy there are also some information about the individual what kind of a responsibility they have and what they need to do there is one frequently asked question about policy LR7 for those instructed who are not familiar what to do and where to start if they their student come and say I need an accommodation how to deal with their privacy how to respond to their needs there are these frequently asked questions on the policy LR7 is very very useful resource now I'd like to discuss about accessibility from a designer perspective and how to make our courses and programs more inclusive let's look at the system that we use for online environment canvas so from the designer perspective some of the very simple things that you can do or as an instructor to look at it is that canvas has a built-in accessibility checker within its rich content editor that you can use there is a link to that there is also Blackboard Ally that which help you to understand how accessible your course is it gives it can provide you alternative format for your course whether it's audio or e-pop or brave one thing about Blackboard Ally is that it also can give us an overall institutional lever information of how many of our courses are accessible if you want to try Blackboard Ally you can contact LTHOP at uvc.ca. Talking about inclusive and universal design for learning there are so many resources and I won't be able to get to all the details but I want to just share with you that we are going to talk about universal design and promote it because it's it's a framework that cover design and providing options for students and accessible design can be part of it and I will talk about those in more details in the next few slides. Inclusive Teaching Resource is also a website that gives some resources, training workshops, upcoming workshops about those who are interested about making their program more inclusive so I would recommend you all to have a look at that resource as well. So let's look at what does accessible and inclusive design mean to you. In general, a design process that consider full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, gender and other forms of human differences is designing products and services that are accessible to and usable by as many people as reasonably possible with the need of a special adaptation or a specialized design. Again, one of the things is that the more you put time on making your content, your courses accessible, the less accommodation needs will be needed as it was emphasized by our keynote speaker today. So in your design practices, consider what kind of students you might have and any small steps that you take today to make your online program, it will pay off in the future and it gives more as the opportunity to engage with your course materials. One of the ways as we talk about inclusive design and accessible design is universal design for learning. And in the next few slides, I'm going to briefly talk about universal design for learning. The universal design learning, the framework was created by researcher at Center for Applied Special Technology at Harvard University. If you want to get to know more about UDL, if you just Google cast UDL, you get all the information, all the wonderful resources. The overall framework was the result of alignment of three conceptual shifts, advancement in architectural design, which was about universal design, development in educational technology and discoveries from brain research. Universal design for learning is an approach to curriculum design that can help teacher to customize their curriculum to serve all learners regardless of their ability, disability, age, gender or culture or linguistic background. So it provides kind of a blueprint for designing strategy, material assessment and tools to reach out to your students with diverse needs and help them learn. Universal design have three principles, three simple principles. And I think that it was actually mentioned by yesterday's students panel when they asked, what is the best option for you about accessibility? I believe one mentioned about giving options. So UDL is about providing options. The three principles here are presented here. The first one is that provide multiple means of representation. Means that offer your content, your course, your classroom materials in different format, not only in text, it can be video, it can be images, it can be different way of providing different ways to present the information that you want. The second principle is providing options for engagement. Use different ways to engage your students, keep them motivated and stay motivated throughout the process. So if one student is excited with group work, another person might be scared even participating. So try to connect with your students, get to know, try to get to know them and understand and get them engaged. The third principle is multiple means of action and expression, which means giving students different options to demonstrate their knowledge. So if you know the goal, if you know them what outcomes you want your students to learn, the best way is that to give them options to demonstrate that knowledge. Because of the time of today's session, I won't be able to go through all the principles. But I want to just share with you a few simple tips in order to make sure that some of your online content are more accessible using some of these guidelines. The focus of this next few slides would be on the first principle, which is providing multiple means of representation. So I think that the first thing is that to describing your visual. As you see that one of the questions is that most of the time when I work with faculty members, they think about the responsibility that is a lot of work to provide alternative text for images. And what makes a good alternative text? Normally my answer, and we have a few resources that we can share, but one of the good answer, one of the answer that I always give to instructor is that what is the message that you want to deliver through this image? Or what do you want your students by looking at this image to learn? So this particular example to show you the difference between figure description or image description and alternative text. The description can just simply talk about some of the features of the image in this example would be the result of the field test. The second part which is alternative text talks about the comparison. What exactly you want students to learn by just looking at the image that what impacts something to start to get dry in a field and what makes it kind of live. So this is one alternative good example of alternative text and how to use it. Or another way to look at how to provide a good alternative text is that if you have someone to close their eyes and you have an image, how do you want to describe that image that to deliver the message you want them to learn? That would be your alternative text. Another tip is that make sure that you use proper font size and use proper color contrast. You have a student who might be color blind in your classroom and sometimes I use this example to see that how many like read the numbers in the each circle. Some people say and when I talk with different faculty or staff they might say well I'm using red or green is that accessible. Well it is accessible as long as you are not using color to convey information and what I mean by that is that if you say correct answer is in green or correct answer is in red the person who are color blind may not be able to see it or they might even sometimes the blend or less contrast they might not even see the the information that you are using. So color contrast and not using color for conveying information is important. So another thing is describing your hyperlinks and the reason I emphasize on this is that if you say click here for information or find this information here if the link is broken it would be hard for the person to find who is using assistive technology to use it and again as I emphasize at the beginning of the session if you have a if you focus on accessible design it's a good practice because doesn't matter if someone has a disability if the link is lost they can just google it and find it. Another emphasize I have is using headings because those who use screen reader as an assistive technology the screen reader works very well by using the headings in order to make things accessible. Again these are some of the very simple way to ensure and as I say if you take one step to make your content accessible it means that you are giving access to more and more people. And again to emphasize considering the importance of accessibility and the number of that students are registered I want to just bring to your attention that BC also passed a policy legislation accessible BC British Columbia accessibility law and by September 1st 2022 all 750 public sectors organization need to have an accessibility committee accessibility plan and feedback form to receive so we are all into it to make it more accessible for our student with that I'll pass it on to AJ. At DBC Center for Accessibility that's where I work students can register and we work with them to set up accommodations for their studies that might be a fit so sometimes students might come to us looking for certain accommodations like note taking or extended time for exams but when we connect with them there might be other accommodations for their studies that might be a fit such as like a reduced course load for scholarship and different things and so typically when we're connecting with students we're kind of working with them and figuring out those accommodations looking at their kind of narrative the history of accommodations and also kind of the documentation would play into that so these are just some examples on this slide of what kind of accommodations some of the types of accommodations our office you know provides for students and so I'm just going to move this to the next slide so I think one of the most important things in terms of figuring out what kind of accommodations or and how to make a accessible learning environment is to really know what the needs of the class are and the kind of example I give with this is often you know there's certain kind of accommodations or certain kind of ways we can adapt the learning environment that doesn't require knowing the nature of a medical condition to create a really good environment so for example I don't necessarily need to know if someone has migraine headaches or concussions to know that having kind of like low lighting at the back of the classroom might be helpful for people and so it's important to kind of create a mechanism to receive you know just to ask for this specific cohort of students that you're going to be working with what are some of the ways that the learning environment can be designed so it's going to really work for the needs of individuals and the more we can make learning environments work for the needs of individuals you know the less students would need to register with our office to seek out accommodations and so like and it's also thinking about that people are going to have learning needs that don't relate to disability so as we saw there's child care commitments or just care commitments people often have kind of financial components in terms of you know a job so that might inform how the learning environment is structured maybe it makes more sense to have quizzes at the start of class as there's going to be a group of students who might need to step out early you know just as an example so it's I think that that's a kind of one component is just kind of creating a mechanism to ask you know what are some of the learning needs that you as a cohort of students have and then figuring out what could be possible to implement and there's certain kind of things for example like our office might assess consideration for presentations maybe instead of giving the presentation to the class that's just done with the professor but you know could that be an option available to all students and that kind of piece is that the most accessible options is having options and so in terms of kind of being conscientious it's recognizing that certain kind of things that provide access for one student might actually you know inhibit access for another student so if we think about a student who might have a hearing disability sound amplification might be really helpful for that individual but for someone who may have autism it may be too loud you know and so it's speaking again about how can we create environments that might work so maybe at the back of the classroom we could have the sound system off and you know maybe at this front could be an FM system or you know there's just there's different ways to kind of think that through and the other piece there in terms of the different options for learning this would be for example thinking in various modalities so for example if traditionally let's say on a well as if we even think about types of assessments so does everyone need to take an exam or could people choose to take an exam or write a paper I think we sometimes think of our own experience that you know an exam was somewhat stressful but we don't kind of think about sometimes other people's experience that they have such a significant amount of anxiety that they might be vomiting before that exam they might be self-harming and so again could there be options where people can demonstrate learning in in different types of ways and if it is a situation where everyone has to take that exam could questions be even asked in different ways so as an example like you know if in working with you know students with visual disabilities a question if it you know picture the eye where there's arrows pointing it says you know what is this component of the eye that's you know that's a pretty inaccessible way for them to answer that question so is there a way to ask that question such as you know the blank does blank you know and it's being asked in words rather than acquiring vision and could that be open to all students answer a or b you know in terms of again more options we can provide often kind of the more accessible things can start to become and so those would be yeah those would be kind of those components in terms of us wanted to kind of speak to concessions and approaches with concessions because often when things when there is kind of more flexible course policies often that impacts the need even for concessions to occur so for example I've worked with instructors who've said you know this is the due date so that I can do marking and provide feedback and so if you want comprehensive feedback this is the due date to have it in by but you know we can look at other deadlines I might not be able to get that marking back as fast or have as much feedback but we you know it doesn't necessarily that all you know everything has to be submitted by that so again it's thinking through creative approaches and one of the kind of most common concessions we see is a midterm often reweighted to a final exam and just thinking about that for the students registered with our office like a vast majority relate to mental health and about a significant portion relate to anxiety and so you know if a student's really anxious about a midterm those marks go to the final you know how does that help to create access so kind of thinking about when writing a midterm is it possible to write another version in case there's some students who can't write that day maybe it's for reasons of disability maybe it's for reasons of care commitments you know for various kind of things and so is it is that a possibility and also just thinking about their scheduling so students who register their office if our office is providing accommodations students need to set that assessment up and book it on our website seven days in advance so we can provide those accommodations set up the staffing levels and that kind of component so making sure that if there is a makeup exam thinking about have I given students enough time that they would be able to register for this accommodations or have I made them know that because it's less than seven days I'm providing accommodations or you know some has really unique accommodations maybe they write off-cycle so just various kind of components to think through great now I'm going to talk a little bit about some other factors that can impact accessible learning so one aspect that can impact accessibility is the literal access to the learning materials that you might be sharing with your students barriers such as the affordability of the learning materials the technical format of the material and these days when we're using a lot of online processes and strategies and tools the bandwidth and that can be both technical bandwidth but as well as personal bandwidth needed to connect with the learning materials and these factors can all impact learning I do just like to call out specifically how cost is an accessibility factor so the cost of learning materials has a real a real impact on student wellness as well as teaching and learning so for example the 2020 MS academic experience survey which Afsani referenced earlier found that 28 percent of undergraduate students at UBC Vancouver indicated that they were somewhat or strongly concerned about not being able to come back to UBC at some point in the future specifically due to financial reasons the same survey found that 19 percent of both graduate and undergraduate students reported having concerns about food insecurity that's being unsure the ability to obtain food or feeds oneself on a monthly basis so if students are buying $800 textbooks they may be having to make real choices in terms of their own sort of financial wellness there and I just want to put out according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics in the U.S. so not sure how this would apply directly to UBC students but only those people with disabilities only 19 percent are gainfully employed so this may be even more impactful for people with disabilities so financial precarity precarity can really lead to decisions that may impact learning so 67 percent of undergraduate students at UBC Vancouver reported that they went out they went without a textbook or other course resource due to cost at least once with 28 percent reporting that they frequently are off and go without such learning materials due to cost and that fact always kind of kind of blows my mind so 25 percent of students in our courses are not able to regularly access the materials they need for the course that's sort of an accessibility and a teaching and learning issue one strategy that that instructors at UBC are using to address this is the use of OER OER or open educational materials are teaching learning resources that include full courses course materials textbooks streaming videos tests really any other educational materials that are free of cost and access barrier in which often carry a legal permission for reuse generally this legal permission is granted by the use of an open copyright license like a creative commons license and that allows anybody to freely use adapt modify or edit the resource anytime and anywhere the 2012 UNESCO Paris OER declaration that really launched a lot of the OER movement recommended that governments promote and use OER to widen access to education at all levels and thus contributing to social inclusion gender equity and special needs education so I like to point out that OER is a great strategy for making your course content accessible because it saves time and money online versions are free there's no access code needed there's no expiration states so students can retain this their materials and it's easy to circulate amongst a unlimited number of students there's no need to gain permission to pay or use to copy or distribute the OER and it can be changed and modified without fear of copyright infringement and because of this it's often available particularly text-based OER like open textbooks are often available in a variety of different formats so if you've ever been to the the BC open textbook repository you'll see most textbooks have an online version a windows version but there's also downloadable offline version so you can download it as EPUB you can download them often as mobi files as PDFs or often you can access them as raw text and this provides the option so going back to to general phrase we've been hearing a lot that the best accessibility options is options OER because they have sort of that free copyright license really can help support that it can also be really important for bandwidth so we often think that we all have great access to bandwidth but oftentimes that's not the case so it can be anything from a student who's sharing a house with multiple people all using the internet at the same time or it can be a student doing stuff on a bus or in an area without bandwidth so it may be better for them to be able to download the materials when they're when they're in an area like university campus where they can access and get online download those materials and then be able to access them when they have less bandwidth as well and I will just note that open copyright license also makes the OER really easy to be able to modify to suit your student needs your teaching method your curriculum and and again it's often available in a variety of formats so OER use at UBC is a really common practice in 2020-21 academic year we estimated that roughly around 19,000 UBC students took part in 60 courses or course sections that were using open or freely available resources in place of paid textbooks so what else can affect accessibility so all sorts of things that can affect the accessibility of our resource and these things are very much context dependent and can vary from student to student I really like this list which was compiled by Josie Gray the advisor of inclusive design and OER collections at BC campus and for example a student's day-to-day life can impact or affect their access consider a student has to commute on a crowded bus for hours a day and may have more anxiety this time this term because they're still COVID out there or a student has multiple roommates who need to attend streaming sessions at the same time on this may impact their ability to access their learning another example is differences in digital literacies and technology so many of us who work on a computer all day often take for granted our comfort experience with working with digital content a student can't learn from a resource that they don't know how to use or don't like using and I think we can't always make an assumption just because students are often on devices that they actually know how to use the resources that we're putting out there and some platforms may not work well on mobile devices like tablets or phones and that may be the only way the students are able to access those if we're using online content the final thing I want to come back to is something that Afsani mentioned is the structure of information how you organize and structure your textbook or resource to make it to make it easy to use and easy to find information and navigate is really important this means paying attention to numbers of chapters the titles the use of sections and subsections numbering systems heading some more providing well-structured information really makes that information easier to navigate these considerations will vary from book book to book and course to course but the more intentional you are about thinking about the structure organization and navigation of your online content and your courses and your module the more useful and powerful those materials will be so day-to-day life digital literacy access to technology all these things are very individualized and context-dependent and all these things in my role I like to point out that OER in particular has the potential to really make a difference everyone has a preference for how they'd like to access their learning materials and OER that are available in multiple options or multiple formats will make it possible for students to pick the format that they're most comfortable with and that works best for them I do like to say though it just doesn't end with the use of OER or using UDL I do like to really encourage the idea of feedback throughout the course so where students aware of all the formats and modalities available and how to use those formats you know just asking did they find anything confusing structurally like if were they able to navigate the course were they able to find information did it work on their devices again we sort of assume everybody is using the devices that we're using but that may not be the case as somebody who works a lot in the UBC Wiki when I learned the students were really using tablets that at the Wiki was a different experience because I had never used a tablet myself and had made the assumption that no one would edit the Wiki with the tablet and that forced some changes of thinking for myself these are just a couple of toolkits that I particularly like so the main one is the BC accessibility toolkit so if you're interested in UDL and the idea of designing your content to be accessible that's a great place to start we did modify it as well for the OER accessibility toolkit these links are on that Wiki page that we shared and I can show them out as well looks like Charlotte has showed them in the chat and they're good places to get sort of information and hands-on experience with doing some of the very specifics for making course content accessible. If you're interested in OER there is funding available I won't go into this but at open at OERfund.open.ubc.ca if you're on the UBC Vancouver campus we do have grants that can support your use and creation of OER on the UBC O campus there's the Aspire 2040 grants that can use that can support the use of OER on that campus. Afsani do you want to talk briefly about this the equity diversity inclusion course? Sure this inclusive teaching course it's an open course it has five module and introductory level which is for those who are keen in teaching and learning to make their learning and teaching environment more inclusive the five modules are focused on one of them is bias power and privilege one introduction to UDL another one introduction to inclusive teaching practices another one fourth one on conversation on decolonization and the last one is navigating difficult conversations so if you're a structure interested in any of this concept you can register yourself in Canvas as I say it's an open course and access one of them it's not important to where to start which module but I would strongly recommend to start with module one the reason is that you get to know more about the terminology and knowing about our own biases is key things for us in order to move us forward. So just to briefly summarize I really believe one of the things that's been a silver lining during the time of COVID and particularly the last couple of years is the idea of empathy and I really feel like the idea of empathy and teaching learning has increased I believe it goes both ways I think students have a lot more empathy for the work that their instructors do they had a little bit more insight into how instructors construct courses and course design and the actual practice of teaching and I also think it goes the other way that instructors have a lot of empathy for their students and just continuing to keep this empathy alive and continuing to care for our students and have our students care for us I think is a really important part of making things accessible with that we want to know what's working for you how is accessibility how are you approaching accessibility and what are the areas that are are going well and we have a bit of time and we're just going to open it up for questions and comments at this point and maybe will we do that I'm going to go ahead and turn off the screen sharing so we can can all see see each other so if you do have questions or comments or if things something you want to share that's working well for you please just go ahead and put it in the the chat or turn on turn on your mic and go ahead and say it we're a fairly small group so hi Christina hi just say something that that I found that's working well so there's a lot of products where you can run accessibility checkers and so I learned that you can do this in Microsoft Word you can do it in Microsoft PowerPoint and that's a way that's been really helping me to remember you know what I should do to make my documents more accessible and one thing that I found and I'm a sighted person one thing that I found when I did it with Microsoft Word was the headings you can now suddenly have this little sidebar that makes it really easy and the same in PDFs makes it really easy to go through the document because you've got actual headings in your document not just bold right so you get this outline right that you wouldn't otherwise get so I don't know I guess I would just say use the accessibility checkers because they provide useful suggestions and they're probably already on your machine same thing with Canvas thank you very much for this presentation Jeff just added a comment to the the discussion as well that the annotation function on Zoom as we're talking about tools works really well because it allows people to not feel comfortable to speak and participate and I once worked with an instructor who basically changed his whole participation in class model from making comments during the class to also making comments in the Canvas Chat thing and he said it just opened up the whole discussion quite a bit more because it turned out there's a lot of students who weren't comfortable speaking in front of their colleagues in a large class and yeah definitely and I would say too like something we talked about at the Center for Accessibility and kind of the advising context was even like having camera offer on and kind of what we're talking about as well if we were doing like a phone appointment often you know the camera would you know we wouldn't have access to visual information it can be nice on a zoom to kind of give an idea of learners in terms of like are they zoning out and that kind of component but it's recognizing that does everyone have to have camera on right like some people are in unsafe learning home environments that you know that it's not safe for them um you know that is their own personal space so just thinking again does it have to be everyone everything the same we also have just the floor open if folks have questions that they're kind of chewing on and I'll just note AJ and Afsani are have a lot of expertise in different approaches to accessibility so definitely take advantage I have a question in terms of asking students their need at the beginning of the semester would you recommend Quadrix which is you can students can respond anonymously so we do they don't have to disclose their identity but then we can know their need or do you have other suggestions yeah I think that can be you know one like one of the things kind of and thinking about is the kind of the that we don't again necessarily need to ask any kind of medical question per se like you know what's the medical rationale for this implementation of accommodation so it's just I think we put out something really general like you know are there ways that um if there you know if there's things in this course are going to be helpful for your learning needs please like let me know um you know and that again maybe that could be a Quadrix survey that maybe that approaching during office hours you know because different kind of formats again are going to work better for certain individuals some may have high concerns you know just letting you know that they wouldn't have any kind of need others are very open to talk about what their their needs are so it's you know can be a range Don I see you have your hand up yeah hi um I wonder AJ or um of Sanay or Will um a few of us a few programs particularly in the Faculty of Medicine are distributed right we have learners sitting remote from us in Prince George soon to be in Surrey et cetera et cetera you know Okanogan um our way of teaching is so different now here at Point Gray campus where we have to stand in front of a camera we can't roam around the room we can't put a therapeutic touch you know to say good job like so much has changed and even in our use of technology across these multiple screens and I just wonder I mean we've been experimenting and exploring and things will unfold for us um but if if any um accessibility things have come through that we should be aware of or any enormous tips or tricks would be super helpful I mean I've been teaching for such a such a long time this is sort of so out of my comfort zone it's going to be quite a learning experience yeah I think um I think what I've kind of noticed is that again that those kind of differing access needs so for some people um you know let's say who might be managing chronic pain getting to campus is very difficult so having kind of the access to attend class like in an online environment can be really helpful um for some students with like ADHD they've you know said that sometimes they really prefer an in-person class because it's a bit they feel just a bit more anchored and sometimes when there's different things going on different websites just it's again that impact on focus so you know anytime there's kind of a new approach or something that kind of new that can present its own access challenges for different groups of people but I so I think that the most important component is having a mechanism to receive feedback you know for people about like how things are working for them and again um you know we don't necessarily again need to know that medical condition to just ask that feedback like you know how was this learning experience for you just at the start to front load it are there any kind of learning needs are going to help you in this course and now that we've gone through this course you know how was that for you you know and so because every cohort will be different in terms of that so I think that that's you know having that mechanism for so that it's not operating in a kind of a black box that there is a chance for communication to occur just adding to what AJ mentioned one of the things we encourage is that the first few weeks to understand the climate of your classroom your cohort through feedback through simple question having one hour office hours virtual office hours to connect with them to see their needs some organization already started having accessibility statement in their course syllabus where they share their resources and just to be open to talk about like encourage them to come forward if they have their any needs or actually provide some of the resources for them that if you don't feel comfortable you still feel you need to connect with someone to have to contact center for accessibility or contact wellness those are the things that is important particularly very early in the program or at the start of the term just to set up that climate for students so that they feel welcome they feel comfortable to share their needs and their accommodation needs and I think I'm just going to build too is that you know oftentimes students are taking like multiple classes so they're being exposed to different instructors doing different things so putting again that mechanism for feedback so you can say like hey you know I'd love to hear from folks what's been working really well in terms of you know making your courses accessible or how you're interfacing with these kind of online technologies so we can think about it for this course so that that's going to kind of that sharing of ideas can kind of come forward and the other thing I was just thinking too is sometimes it's also just questioning like our cultural relationship to certain kind of components and and why I say that is like when I um you know I've kind of grew up in Vancouver and my understanding of this was like you know this is the deadline and we went to Barcelona where there's such a flexible understanding of time like arrival time was not kind of like half hour zone you know and a total different relationship where there someone wouldn't be like irritated that someone was late they're like oh okay I've arrived early and we got a coffee I'll enjoy life you know and so it's that piece of like sometimes again like does like again so what's our understanding of this kind of concept of a deadline does it have to be so rigid do we have to have a rigid or flexible relationship to deadlines or time and could it be again that approach where like you know this is the deadline if you want your feedback in a week but I can still accept it but this is going to be the impact if you hand it in past that time so again just kind of challenging ourselves is there different ways to understand education or concepts yeah it's going to be really interesting and that I will never see the 16 people who sit in Prince George on the campus up there right so again that relationship that empathy which we know the last two and a half years we've had we've worked so hard to to build like a sense of trust and caring and student first student safety student wellness um yeah it's just I just was wondering about you know students who are registered with Center for Accessibility now this is the way we have to teach this is the technology that's put in place and this is the way it has to be done beamed from mother ship up north and um you know it's it's might not work for me or or or the 64 sitting in point gray in the in 16 sitting in Prince George but I will um I'm sure we will be in touch and keep picking people's brains and I'll just note um in terms of like the resources and the learning materials one one of my big tip or suggestion is it's easier to build in the accessibility and the universal design as you're creating them rather than than necessarily trying to go back so just keeping it in mind as you develop I'm sure my screen again briefly with our email addresses and our contact information um and do don't hesitate sorry do reach out um don't hesitate to reach out if you if we if there's anything we can follow up on or if you do have other questions um but we still have another minute or two if you if you want to ask them as well so great well I'm not seeing a ton so I just want to maybe take this time to thank you for coming today and engaging in this topic um and uh really I appreciate um again your your engagement today


The Appalachian Advantage plan is the simpler, better way to get the phone you actually want instead of paying hundreds of dollars up front.  It's called the Appalachian Advantage and is available at Appalachian Wireless. The Letcher County Public Schools District has found itself in a controversy over religious displays in its facilities. A Fox News report published yesterday broke the story on the controversy that started when an atheist group filed a complaint with the district over the posting of scriptures and prayers in three schools. The complaint has resulted in the religious postings being removed and that has prompted numerous complaints and comments against the school district and its superintendent, Denise Yance. I spoke to Yance about the controversy and she told me that despite the action that had to be taken in removing the religious postings, students are still free to express themselves, including expressing their religious beliefs. The Letcher County Central High School Football locker room used to display the text of the Book of Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 11, but the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior. A bulletin board at Fleming Neon Middle School used to read, Jesus is my savior, you can't scare me. And the Martha Jane Potter Elementary School Facebook page used to have posted a prayer thanking God for education and praying students will be confident and kind to their peers. Now the wall of the locker room is painted blue, the bulletin board has been changed and the prayer post has been removed. All the result of a complaint filed by the group Freedom from Religion Foundation. The group filed a complaint with the school district in November over the postings stating that a quote concerned area resident end quote reported them. Public officials took action to remove the postings they believed were not in compliance with laws relating to separation of church and state. It's not something that I wanted to do at all, but I do want to respect the law and do want to follow the law so that we can allow our students the religious freedoms that they deserve. And I think you do that by respecting the law. The law does separate church and state, but it also allows our students religious freedoms. The action by the school district has elicited passionate responses, some in favor of the action by the district, with many more opposed. Superintendent Denise Yance says it's important for the public to realize that the displays taken down were only those posted by or with the assistance of school staff members. The displays were put up by adults and that's not within the law. In our opinion it doesn't comply with what the law allows. The law allows our students to express their religious freedoms and to generate those displays to participate in Bible clubs and other extracurricular activities around their religion and they're welcomed and encouraged to do those things in our school system. But by following the law we allow those things to happen and so when we looked at these we didn't feel like they complied with the law so they were asked to be taken down. Superintendent Yance says students are free to express themselves, including expressing their religious beliefs. What that story doesn't tell is the other side of our school system where we do have active Bible clubs, where we do have prayer circles and different activities for students where they're allowed to express their religious freedoms. The Freedom from Religion Foundation has said it is satisfied with the school district's response to the issue. Students never really factored into it. Our discussion is about what's doing the right thing and following the law. We have a great community who's very supportive and they will fight battles for us and I think putting that burden on our community, on our students is unfair when it's an outside group that really doesn't know us, doesn't know our culture and it's not something that we have to fight to continue to enjoy our religious freedoms. We don't need to give them any more publicity or any more credence to what they say or do, particularly because we don't agree with them and if we don't follow the law then they do win because they come in with lawsuits and do all of those things and so I just think it's an unnecessary evil. Democrats told me that religious displays posted by students alone with no staff involvement can still be found in the district's schools and those displays will not be removed. Reporting in Letra County, Chris Anderson, Mountain Top News.


Hi everyone, as stated my name is John Romy and I work as an assistant in information science in Geneva and With my professor in Australia. We had a very small project They school ticks so towards to both campaigns in Oceans, Switzerland You may have seen some stickers downstairs. I wonder what it was. So now you will understand what ticks means of course for a project need objectives results, and we had these four objectives in mind and so last year we did an online survey to see what kind of technology stacks the libraries Archives and museums were using in Switzerland and also what kind of training they would need if they wanted to implement trip of solutions the big thing that I'm going to be talking about is the The white paper so we designed one with a set of recommendations with the help of the trip trip of community and I'm going through like the main Like the main sections of it in the next slides and as mentioned earlier we we had a burn trip by event of the Swiss National Library and That was one of the great things to do is is to have people coming to these local events and you can really Have like foster community So my talk is more about the last two bits So my white paper or which is called free dish wash bar, and if you wonder why you can ask me at the lunch break So Fridges wash baths a couple of things. So first of all the main principles of trip af and thanks to the amazing Workshop that I've been done over the past few years. Hey, there is an example from Jack Reed and drew wind jets to this little image and So that's the kind of a mission you have what is trip af one where who and you have Also the super flago that is that you can that is present throughout documents, so just easy for the reader to understand What are the best links to use? Next step because it's base in Switzerland We I did a small landscape review of all the different platforms are trip af compatible put the link of the trip off top level Collection if there is one and you have here an example of imini script that which has been trip af compliant I think it's been a year now and The most important bit maybe for people outside of Switzerland are the use cases So I managed to gather six use cases Within the glam community. So this one is more like a museum related Use case when you have some background information The success story and for this case is the collaboration in didgeridoo and Victor now that museum with a online exhibition and I gave recommendation on which tool to use of course. I'm biased I say okay for that you may use universal viewer for this you may use me other and so on and Don't be angry at me if your project is not on it The goal of this white paper is really this is the first version and if you want to upgrade it Please contribute and I will release a second version or one point one or and call and have a different name And we'll see what name it will be given and at the very end and that's a section that I want to Expand I gave tips for smaller institutions because we also hear from big players But really you don't need to be a player to be part of this community how to discover trip af universe and We had great examples from the VC mount Japanese discovery platform. They also linked to that and I hope that we can have more that that kind of platforms in the future something about PID is and some information about the trip of cookbook and That's In the part in this white paper also had like a very high Overview of what you should do Yeah, it's a quite radical. Yes. No, and come back from stage one So you have to gather some information and thanks to amazing works done by the Brumfield labs and Jason Ronaldo You have these amazing questioner and step by step implementation guidelines and I I have put the link there so you can have a look and The maybe inversion to you will have more information about Authentication such content API is all the other discovery APIs that are now in 0.2 and 0.3 version so to design and conduct a Some kind of alignment outreach program so I did this this burn event the Swiss National Library of course with X stickers he works and I had this this program was like like this So first of all introductions like general introduction like in the showcase of what we had on Monday people from the UK France and The Netherlands came to give that the view point of trip I have so use cases from the global framework What has been done in Switzerland over the past few years and I have to better implement promote trip I have so that was some kind of breakout sessions and I had some very interesting feedback So and I like to use this feedback to for new projects And at the end of each session we had these kind of informal roundtables That was fun. I think The feedback I had well, it should be like more technical So I was like, okay, that's the feedback I received from the server that I just launched So hands-on workshops what we had yesterday more information about such content authentication APIs and it's true that we don't have a lot of Examples to show so that's one of the things that are quite Important apparently to the but Participants and also full two by F implementation example like how did one institution go from zero to a full triple at triple IF But also I had people complaining said no, it should be less technical. So maybe you can I have two pilot tracks? Okay, that's a challenge. So maybe more events, right and more triple a few cases in terms of Archives and AV So I had actually a couple of people coming from the archiving community and also people wanting to implement triple F only when AV material can be Done through the presentation through API, which is now the case. I mean almost and That's just pictures from the rig out session Next steps. Well So you see all the dots that's all the triple F compliant platforms in Switzerland two years ago There was only one ecodes is and so what I wanted to see in this map in a couple of years and more dots and That's the perspective that I would like to see sorry so other perspectives a follow-up projects More an increase when a major presentation three becomes stable and More application also outside of the cultural heritage field We had people coming from private institutions in my event when I was very thrilled to see them Finally remarks and that's a comment from Mark and sender In their plan to keep this report up to date as solutions solutions changes evolve will become outmoded Yes, they are solutions. Please review my white paper. Give me feedback. I will update it. That's easy And so you need to look at everyone together faster people To have a community and most importantly have drinks afterwards. So thank you very much