Take notes and create accessible materials in about 90 seconds with Microsoft Office Lens

I’ve worked with DonorsChoose in a variety of different ways over the years, including helping teachers create their own classroom projects, researching tools that can be used by students with disabilities in the classroom, and donating to DonorsChoose projects as an individual or through a…

At many of the recent events I have attended, I’ve noticed that the speakers have been including visual descriptions of themselves when introducing themselves, to be more inclusive of visually impaired audiences. While I know some people don’t believe visual descriptions are necessary, I personally…

Last year, one of my best friends, who I will call Jane, experienced a great deal of academic ableism from a professor in their major. While I wasn’t there to witness what happened in the classroom, I watched Jane suffer from a mental and emotional…

When I was in middle school, I began to experience academic ableism in the classroom, primarily from my teachers. While I was fortunate to have many wonderful teachers who helped me to develop a love of learning and a sense of belonging in the classroom,…

I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) after dealing with symptoms for many years and experiencing a serious fall on campus that required hospitalization. After I was discharged from the hospital, my neurologist told me that I had to re-evaluate how I would…

One of my friends is a resident advisor/community assistant (RA/CA) for their college dorm, and mentioned that they were working on creating accessible bulletin boards to display information for residents about events, college policies, and self-care tips. I thought this was awesome, because I often…

Free accessibility resources available to museum guests with blindness and low vision

When I lived in college dorm/on-campus housing, the resident advisors for my floor would create dorm door signs and dorm door decorations for students that included their name and a fun design. There are a lot of creative dorm door decorations, and I received an…

I’ve had many opportunities to be a classroom volunteer and classroom visitor in a variety of different classrooms in my community and across the country, my favorite experience being when I was part of a high school mentorship program in an elementary school technology classroom.…

A few years ago, one of my best friends called me late at night feeling extremely distressed, because they were trying to figure out if they should report disability accommodation violations. Their professor hadn’t been following the accommodations listed in their Disability Services file, and…

As part of my work as the Microsoft Content Specialist for AIM-VA and as a Microsoft Certified Educator, I had the opportunity to present a short talk as part of the AT Lab at the I’m Determined Summit, a virtual conference for students with disabilities…

Every year, people from all around the world gather to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and this year is no exception. I’ve noticed that many of the events are targetted at professionals who want to learn more about accessibility and people who are already involved…

Recently, I was talking to another college student about different options for using visual assistance apps for virtual classes and how they could use different apps on their iOS and Android devices to help them with accessing visual information. While I frequently use visual assistance…

A high school-aged clarinet player reached out to me on Pinterest a few days ago asking me if I had any tips for how to read marching band drill sheets and talking to their director about marching with low vision. The conversation made me think…