 Access ERC is about capacity building. In a classroom, students scroll images of forearms. They tape a grid on an arm. They take a photo of the tiny symbols on the arm. Words appear. Access ERC, promoting the participation of people with disabilities in engineering research centers. Cheryl Bergstahler. Access ERC is a project funded by the National Science Foundation. It's actually a supplemental grant to the Center for Sensory Motor Neuroengineering, which is an engineering research center at the University of Washington, also funded by the National Science Foundation. And there are about 15 of these centers across the country. And we were funded to help the other centers recruit and employ and engage individuals with disabilities in everything they do. Rajesh Rao. So we're helping other ERCs train their staff, create accessible websites, collect demographic data, and also ensure that the space and the labs that they have are accessible to people with disabilities. Pam McLeod. I think it's important for ERCs to include people with disabilities. Because when we think about pretty much any problem that any of us are trying to solve, the research has shown that the more diverse group that you have working on a problem, the more interesting and probably robust solutions that you'll get. Words appear. Recruitment and engagement. Develop strategic partnerships, including those with disability and veteran service units. Recruit people with disabilities, including veterans, onto advisory boards and leadership teams. Willie Savine. We've reached out and have partnered with our Veteran Center on campus, so that's a good start. Because the director is very willing to share information about our activities to help us recruit students who might be very interested in being researchers in the lab. Alexis Campbell. It's easy to send out an email or a letter that's saying, you know, we want to look at you. We would like you to apply to our program. Words appear. Communication. Promote disability awareness. Highlight the achievements of people with disabilities. Encourage faculty and staff to engage in disability-related conferences. Delia Sains. And so I think one key message that cannot be underscored enough is the fact that an institution is willing to create the environment that allows for that success. And so how do we put out that message? Well, I think in every brochure that is there to recruit students, employees, in every message on the web that showcases your institution and all that it has to offer, in every message that is delivered by the president, we need to allow information. We need to highlight information that shows where to find connections about universal design, about services to disabled students, about our commitment to inclusion. Words appear. Accessibility of facilities, information, products, and activities. Apply universal design and provide reasonable accommodations. Xifei Chen. We did mentor a blind student before. And I think, luckily, we have a leader, director, and also our staff, a very supportive of the student coming to our lab, because our lab is dealing with high voltage equipment. We provide an opportunity for him to do modeling and really advanced analysis, and which was a very challenging research project. And this student was just wonderful to work with. And he helped us to understand what he needs, what he wants. Shayla Kotadia. When we are organizing events, we try to make them accessible to all. We ask people for their accessibility needs. And I work really, really hard to make sure everybody feels comfortable with whatever they do need. And especially when we do diversity inclusion workshops, because that's the whole point, is that they should feel like they are welcome. Consult with individuals with disabilities in lab and facility design. Review websites, documents, and videos for accessibility. Roy Charles. Right now, we're in the information age. We're disseminating information in a variety of ways. And ensuring that your message is able to get out and be accessible to everyone is absolutely critical. Devdas Pai. And there's something I can do, some things that I can implement myself as an instructor. I learned about captioning processes, the use of headings. Roxanne Zelen. The website is the first entrance into our program into what we do. And if that population cannot access it, what good is it? Chet Moritz. Given that we are a center that works on sensory motor impairment, it was important that the space be accessible to a broad audience. And not only students with disabilities, but members of the community. So we have members of the community come to our practitioner and user advisory boards attending our research seminars. And so having this wide open space makes it much easier to negotiate whether the users are using an assistive device, a wheelchair otherwise. In high speed, staff rearrange chairs in a large space. Another aspect of this space that we really enjoy is the flexibility in the furniture. We can set it up in many different configurations to engage users. But we can also clear it out of the way if we have an event where many people with assistive devices are present. It's really an element of universal design. Various configurations appear and disappear. Words appear. An inclusive climate. Consider disability as a diversity issue. Provide mentoring opportunities for people with disabilities. I've worked in diversity for quite some time. And sometimes the conversation about diversity can focus very much on one or two particular groups in part, racial minorities and women. And not as much be discussed about persons with disabilities. Engineers are problem solvers. And many of these students bring a different perspective based on their experiences. One type of people will have one type of solution to the problem. So with the different people bringing their different perspectives, we'll have an opportunity to solve the problem in a way that we hadn't thought about before. Words appear. Data collection and evaluation. Collect disability status with other demographic information in application and evaluation forms. Analyze data to determine effectiveness. It is important in all of our evaluation instruments to ask about disability when we're asking students to evaluate how well they've done in an activity or what they've learned or how a lab is working for them. It's important for us to ask if they have a disability so we can see if their experience is different than other students. But it's also important to ask access questions. ERCs are designed to have huge impact in society by solving some of the major challenges in engineering that society is currently facing. And in order to have that kind of impact and to solve these important problems, we need to include every section of society, including people with disabilities in all aspects of ERCs. Words appear. To learn more about how you can incorporate accessibility and universal design in engineering research centers, visit the Access ERC website hosted by the University of Washington. Washington.edu slash doit slash programs slash access ERC. Access ERC is a supplement of the Center for Sensory Motor Neural Engineering National Science Foundation grant number EEC-1028725. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this video are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Copyright 2016. Permission is granted to copy these materials for educational non-commercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged. Fade to Black, described by AudioEyes.