 What we're trying to do in the Duot Center is to help students with disabilities be successful in college and careers But also using technology as an empowering tool. I founded the Duot program in 1992 with a grant from the National Science Foundation Many of our projects are funded by the National Science Foundation. For example, Axis Computing We work with computing faculty nationwide to help them include students with disabilities in their programs We have a similar project called Axis Engineering where we work with engineering faculty Another project that we have is called Axis ISL, Informal Science Learning and there we're working with people that develop museum Exhibits helping to make them more accessible to people with disabilities The Duot Scholars Program is where we work with teams with disabilities to get them ready for college and careers For the Duot Scholars Program we'd like to start engaging students and families when they're sophomores in high school And that's very intentional because we invite them to come and live with us on the university campus for three summers And we like to have those experience occur After their sophomore year after their junior year and then as they're graduating high school when the Duot scholars are at summer camp They take a lot of classes and courses with us And so some of those are related to leadership and advocacy Some of those are related to different career fields that they might want to learn about and some of it is related to College access and how to advocate for what you might need in a college environment For their third summer as high school graduates many of whom have been accepted into college They work as leaders and mentors to the younger students I was one of the first Duot scholars the mentorship that I had early on from Duot was sufficient to show me how to actually mentor people and That has Specifically influenced my career because I manage people now the Duot Scholars Program taught me that I really need to be willing to advocate for myself. I got into the program when I was a junior in high school and That was the first time that I met other people with disabilities who Wanted to go to college and we're thinking about a career Even beyond I've hired a lot of people in my life And I've never hired them because of what they can't do. It's always because of what they can do and The Duot program these kids have an opportunity to meet adults That see their opportunities before them and figure out how they can maximize the use of those skills and interests They have to be successful For more information about do it you can go to our website uw.edu do it copyright 2020 University of Washington