Faculty Workshop with Dr. Melanie Yergeau on, “Multimodality, Writing, and Disability: Designing Accessible Classroom Practices” on Feb 22, at 12-2pm, in Room 129, 1911 Building.
In this workshop, we will think about the ways in which accessibility can serve as a guiding process in the design of our class discussions, assignments, and curricula. We will pay particular attention to multimodal composing, and the ways in which composing in digital or multi-sensory forms might enhance or limit broader student participation. In many ways, the interdisciplinary field of disability studies will serve as a guiding frame for our discussions. For example, how might we think about closed captioning — both as a text and as a composing practice — in classroom contexts? In what ways might trigger warnings, or other affective forms of descriptive writing, provide broader opportunities for discussion and analysis across discipline? How might a turn to accessibility foster campus interest in social justice and community involvement?
Dr. Melanie Yergeau, an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan, combines her interests in digital media and disability studies to study neurodiversity as it relates to “learning, being, and writing.” Yergeau serves on the board of the Autism National Committee and blogs on her website about autism culture and rhetoric. She was a plenary speaker at the 2016 Council on Writing Program Administrators Conference in Raleigh, where she presented “Creating a Culture of Access in Writing Program Administration.”