Accessibility Commons^™

Fitness For All: Education For Gym Staff Supporting People With Disabilites, Bianca Loor, Mary Jan Greer, Alison Skean

Spring 2026 OTD Capstone Symposium

This capstone project, “Fitness for All: Education for Gym Staff Supporting People with Disabilities,” focuses on improving accessibility and inclusion within community fitness settings through staff education. Individuals with disabilities often encounter barriers in gyms due to limited staff training, lack of confidence, and insufficient knowledge of adaptive fitness practices.

To address this gap, a comprehensive, evidence-based training program was developed and implemented for gym staff at Crunch Fitness Orange Park. The program incorporated occupational therapy frameworks, including the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) model and the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF-4), to promote inclusive and client-centered fitness practices.

Using a mixed-methods approach, …

Perceived Stigmatization Of Mental Health Problems And Utilization Of Academic Accommodations Among College Students, Sabrina Williams, Robert E. Davis Ph.D., Kristin Bogda Ph.D.

2026 Honors Symposium

Background: Higher education is seeing an increase in students utilizing mental health services. Studies on students with disabilities suggest students often have reservations about accessing these accommodations due to anticipated social stigmatization. Purpose: This study aimed to assess relationships among stigmatization and indicators of psychological distress among a sample of students who qualify for accommodations. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of students at a large university in the central United States. Data collection measures included previously validated screening instruments for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and adapted versions of the validated scales to assess specific aspects of stigma related to …

Meeting The Needs Of Students With Low Vision Or Blindness: A Resource Guidebook Through The Occupational Therapy Lens, Zoe E. Wilson, Keisa Boykin

Spring 2026 OTD Capstone Symposium

The purpose of this project is to develop a guidebook and educational tools to support the academic and social participation needs of students with visual impairments. These tools are intended to help address common challenges children with low vision face in school including difficulties accessing classroom materials, participating in group activities, and keeping up with academic expectations. The guidebook will include evidence-based strategies such as the use of low-vision aids, optical devices, and activity-based supports shown to improve quality of life for children with low vision. By providing practical resources, this project aims to enable educators and occupational therapists to …

Section 504 (Spanish), Children's Health School Services

School Guides

Parent guide about Section 504 school plan. Translated into Spanish.

Section 504, Children's Health School Services

School Guides

Parent guide about Section 504 school plan.

Seeing The Whole Child: Bridging Community Beliefs And Early Intervention, Grace Danladi Saleh

Graduate Research Posters

Background

The first five years of a child’s life are a very important time. What happens during these early years has a big effect on how the child grows, learns to communicate, and relates to others. When caregivers respond warmly and consistently, children tend to do better later on. However, most screening tools used to spot developmental concerns are based mainly on Western ideas of what is normal. These tools often don’t match what many families from different backgrounds believe about child growth, behavior, or communication. As a result, children from diverse communities can be missed or identified too late. …

Empowerment Through Creating An Adaptive Sports And Recreation Program For Persons With Disabilities, Sarah Kadri, Angela Labrie Blackwell

Fall 2025 OTD Capstone Symposium

Adaptive sports and recreation (ASR) refers to recreational and competitive physical activities modified to be inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities (PWD), adjusting equipment, rules, instruction, and environmental setup to support participation across a wide range of physical, cognitive, and sensory abilities. PWD often report feeling disempowered due to social stigma, inaccessible environments, and limited opportunities to make meaningful choices about leisure and community life. A lack of diverse and consistent ASR opportunities within communities collectively hinders participation and negatively impacts overall well-being. Utilizing the Person Environment Occupation Performance (PEOP) theoretical framework, this capstone project developed a 10-week swimming …

Bridging Sensory Processing And Community Integration For Adults With Idd: A Bilingual Approach, Stephanie J. Newman, Cynthia Haynes

Fall 2025 OTD Capstone Symposium

The capstone project included creation, implementation, and evaluation of an educational program. The program provided education for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their respective caregivers. The educational materials included development and implementation of educational workshops of sensory processing strategies in the community, work, and social settings for adults with IDD and bilingual home programs created for caregiver education. The program was evaluated through pre- and post-surveys administered to caregivers to demonstrate changes in knowledge of sensory processing strategies, as well as client assessments administered to assess changes in client understanding of sensory strategies.

A Specialized Training Toolkit To Increase Inclusion Of Children With Disabilities In After School Programs, Merilyn N. Powdrill, Abby Vander Laan, Angela Blackwell

Spring 2025 OTD Capstone Symposium

The Inclusive Pathways Toolkit was developed and implemented in after-school programs to enhance staff competencies in supporting children with disabilities. This initiative aimed to create a more inclusive environment by providing staff with practical strategies and resources, thereby improving the overall experience and participation of children with disabilities in after-school activities.

A Wellness And Social Engagement Program For Post-Lower Limb Amputees, Graciela Gonzalez, Cassandra Nelson

Spring 2025 OTD Capstone Symposium

A wellness and social engagement program was developed and implemented to provide education relating to the mental health impacts, decrease in health management, and lack of social participation after a lower-limb amputation amongst adults, 18 years or older. The program provided a manual with educational information, external resources, and visual aids to enhance independence in activities of daily living (ADLs).

Noteworthy, Meredith Harrigan, Patrick Montanaro

Noteworthy

Noteworthy recounts Merry's journey to understand her grief in losing her smile. She explores her community park and discovers solace and inspiration in sights and sounds along the way.

Through a unique blend of critical autoethnography, parable, collage, and visual art, this book captures the intricacy, complexity, and fluidity of navigating a difficult experience, and engages readers in exploring how human and natural elements in combination with the arts, sciences, and humanities might pave a path to self-acceptance during times of difficult change.

Tear In The Wing, Aspen Balducci

Student Sequential Art and Comics

A short comic based on the author's own experiences with disability and acceptance, as a plus size person with knee problems, growing up.

Examining The Relationships Between Work Environment And Stress Coping Mechanisms With Burnout In Medical Students, Oluwafunke Oluwatosin Ogunremi

Scholarship Pathways Program

Introduction: Throughout the duration of medical training, learners are oftentimes overworked and faced with high levels of stress and pressure; this can decrease quality of life for many individuals. The goal of this study was to gain an understanding of how work environments and stress coping mechanisms play a role in the amount of burnout experienced by medical students.

Methods: Data was collected from medical students at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine by using a 22 question Qualtrics survey. The survey remained open until a 50% response rate was achieved from the student body. The results …

Fish In A Tree Book Study Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

Individuals lead storied lives, and everyone has a story to tell. Our stories can be shared orally and documented in print. Often, learners are exposed to stories through novels and other trade books. Teacher educators may benefit from using the stories in novels and trade books as case studies in preservice teacher preparation course. This assignment description outlines how to use the novel, Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, as a case study to contextualize and understand the lived story of an individual living and learning with dyslexia. Through the novel, preservice teachers experience the dilemmas faced and …

Diverse Minds, Shared Planet: Designing, Assessing, And Adapting Curricula To Engage Diverse Learners With Their Environment And Inspire Positive Change, Mallory Rose Lampe

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The pieces that compose this portfolio together explore how environmental education can connect diverse learners to their environment through the integration of accessible curricula to inspire stewardship and action to take care of the planet we share.

Occupation-Based Social Skills Training Program With Animal-Assisted Therapy For Individuals With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/Dd), Jason Sebastian, Karen Park

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

This presentation describes the development and implementation of an occupation-based social skills training program with Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) for Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and the implications for occupational therapy after program implementation.

Collaboration Between Occupational Therapists And Architects To Incorporate Universal Design To Increase Accessibility, Michelle C. L. Hoff, Susan Macdermott

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

The design of the built environment plays a key role in occupational participation. When the built environment is poorly designed, it severely limits accessibility for an individual with a disability. In contrast, when the built environment is well designed, it can support the occupational performance of individuals of all ages and abilities. Interprofessional collaboration between occupational therapists and architects can improve environmental barriers to occupational participation within home and community settings. Interprofessional collaboration between occupational therapists and architects has involved direct input through consultations, interprofessional education experiences, and the formation of interprofessional organizations. However, barriers to interprofessional collaboration have included …

Student With Twice-Exceptionalities Iep Meeting Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

General education teachers should remember that all students are general education students, first. We need to be prepared to work with students of all abilities in our classrooms. As general education teachers, we have an active role on a child’s IEP team and an active role during the IEP meeting. This assignment asked preservice teachers to develop a script of what they would say at an IEP meeting of one character from four different novels that would be considered a child with twice-exceptionalities.

Protecting Blind Screen-Reader Users From Deceptive Content, Ash Dobrenen, Vikas Ashok (Mentor)

Computer & Information Science: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Disinformation Detection and Analytics

Visually impaired people who want to use a computer rely on screen readers to independently do this. This research focuses on beginning to build a chrome extension in order to help users more safely navigate the internet using a screen reader. to begin collecting the data, a screen reader was used to help determine items in the website that might take the user somewhere they did not mean to go since the link or image was not sufficiently able to be described by the screen reader. Next, those items were tagged with ’data-attribute=”deceptive”’. After, those data-attributes were extracted and tagged …

Remote Learning, Van Whaley, Dustin Davis

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

• One instructor presents live, virtual, synchronous lectures while another instructor builds engagement and support using the live chat feature.

• An engaging way to highlight concepts and explain key figures, pictures, and drawings using shared screens.

I share my screen and move through the e-textbook to discuss the most important topics from each week’s chapter. During each discussion, I intersperse my drawings of body structures on Google Jamboard. While I present, Dustin works in the chat to ask recall and application questions, answer students’ questions, and link resources such as educational YouTube videos and practice quizzes. Our DVDs address two key …

Bringing Swipe Out Hunger To Vcu: Identifying Best Practices And Analyzing Administrative Policies For Future Reform, Jackie Stephens, Anjali Ta

Undergraduate Research Posters

At first glance, a college campus might look like a place of equal opportunity– communal dorms, shared dining halls, and similar course loads. However, arriving on campus is not where the college access conversation ends if students’ basic needs are not met. Food insecure students are at elevated risk of poor academic performance and delayed degree completion, with first-generation students being particularly vulnerable. Swipe Out Hunger is an organization that partners with colleges to reduce food insecurity among students by allowing those with extra dining hall meal swipes to donate them to food insecure peers. If implemented at VCU, Swipe …

Library Programming For Autistic Children And Teens, Amelia Anderson

STEMPS Faculty Books

This second edition provides key information, updated program ideas, and practical tips that will help library workers feel more prepared to serve members of this prevalent population.

Since the first edition of this landmark guide was published, there has been increased interest in services for library patrons on the autism spectrum; indeed, more people of all ages now self-identify as autistic. Those who understand the unique characteristics of autistic young people know that ordinary library programming guides are not up to the task of effectively serving these library users. Well qualified to speak to this need, Anderson is an …

Universal Design For Learning’S Successful Implementation: What Can Administrators Do?, Monica Grillo

Graduate Research Posters

Administrators have a unique position to influence teacher attitudes by creating an inclusive school culture and providing instructional leadership. Implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a critical issue for public schools in our country. UDL is an inclusive framework based on the science of learning. It supports and removes barriers to learning for all students while maintaining high expectations. Federal education policies have called for inclusive instruction based on UDL principles. Nevertheless, our educators and administrators are not sure they believe in it and do not know what exactly it is or how to implement it with fidelity. Previous …

Family Engagement During Covid-19, Mark Nagasawa

Straus Institute for Thriving Children & Families

This is an infographic summarizing findings from a survey conducted in May 2020 (n=3355) about how the COVID-19 was affecting early childhood educators in New York. Unsurprisingly, the survey responses reflected respondents' multimodal creativity and professional commitment to connecting with children's families. Responses also suggested some underlying tensions, such as school-centric notions of family engagement (i.e., more academically focused) vs. family-centric perspectives (i.e., offering emotional and material support to families). Ultimately the survey's contribution lies in shedding some light on important, difficult-to-resolve issues that must be debated as the world moves towards "post" pandemic life (e.g., services, supports, and accessibility …

Covid-19 And Online Early Childhood Education, Mark Nagasawa

Straus Institute for Thriving Children & Families

This infographic summarizes some themes from a survey conducted with early childhood educators across New York in May 2020, when 65% of programs reported providing online ECE. While respondents expressed clear needs for support in providing technologically-mediated ECE - including tech support, curricular, materials, and hardware - they also displayed three key components of any ECE, commitments to relationships, flexibility, and creativity. This highlights a critical need to document educators' many creative approaches and lessons learned from the pandemic.

Podcasts Episode 15: Jake Koch, Jake Koch, Amy T. Parker

O&M On the Go

In this podcast, Amy interviews Jake Koch who offers wisdom from his personal and professional journey in mobility. Themes from this interview include ways to build confidence and competence for travel; guide dog mobility; elements of distance consultation; and how to work collaboratively for the good of all.

Jake Koch is the Community Outreach Specialist with Guide Dogs for the Blind. He travels with a five and a half year-old Black Labrador guide dog named Forli.

Jake’s role at Guide Dogs for the Blind includes:

• Facilitating awareness and educational opportunities about the guide dog lifestyle and guide dog mobility on …

Infographic: Students With Disability, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

Advocacy group Children and Young People with Disability Australia sought the views of almost 500 parents and carers of primary and secondary students with disability for its 2019 National Education Survey. Today’s infographic looks at some of the main findings.

Embedding Accessibility In Course Development, Gabriel Judkins, Rex Suba

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Accessibility as practice allows all to independently: acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, enjoy the same services within the same time frame with equivalent ease of use.

International Day Of Persons With Disabilities, Otterbein University

Social Justice & Activism

International Day of Persons with Disabilities, sanctioned by the United Nations, aims to promote understanding of the issues experienced by people with disabilities, celebrate their achievements, and mobilize support for an inclusive community.

Otterbein held a panel discussion in the library on this topic.

Intersection: Orientation And Mobility As Interdisciplinary Conversation, Amy T. Parker, Prateek Dujari

PSU Transportation Seminars

Knowing where one wants to go and how to get there are essential life skills for all people. Community access and travel skills are not only important rites of passage for youth in becoming adults, they are linked to higher rates of employment and overall health. People who are blind and visually impaired (BVI) face challenges in accessing public transportation, yet studies have shown that with relevant orientation and mobility instruction, technology, and accessible design, vision loss need not preclude community travel.

Join PSU's Amy Parker and Intel's Prateek Dujari on the ways that knowledge from consumers and the field …