WEBVTT
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(lively music)
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Welcome to "The Accessible Learning Experience,"
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where we help you turn learning barriers
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into learning opportunities.
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On this episode,
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CAST Technical Assistance specialist, Maggie Pickett,
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is joined by Michelle Schladant and Austin Garilli
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from Step Up AT,
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and Jani Kozlowski
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from the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center,
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or ECTA.
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ECTA is new to the podcast,
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but you've heard from Michelle and Austin
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on episode seven of our first season,
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and we encourage you to check out that episode
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if you want to learn more about the work of Step Up AT.
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The AEM Center has enjoyed an exciting partnership
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with both Step Up AT and ECTA.
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All three centers are funded
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by the Office of Special Education Programs, or OSEP,
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to improve outcomes for children with disabilities.
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Over the past year,
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the teams collaborated on a workshop series
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to help early childhood education providers
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better understand
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how the use of assistive technology, or AT,
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and accessible education materials, or AEM,
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relates to the successful development
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of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities.
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Let's find out how the AEM Center, ECTA, and Step Up AT
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are working together
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to foster inclusive early learning education.
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Hello, it's so good to have each of you here with us today
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on "The Accessible Learning Experience" podcast.
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We've had the pleasure, the four of us,
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of working together, now, for a little over a year,
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and what a fun year it's been.
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Seriously, it's been one of the biggest pleasures
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of this last year of mine, professionally.
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So Michelle and Austin, you're not new to the podcast,
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and so Jani, around here,
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we like to get to know people's accessibility story,
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how you got to this place in your career,
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what was your journey
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through accessibility and inclusive practices.
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So Michelle, let's start with you.
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How did you find yourself leading the Step Up AT program?
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What's your accessibility story?
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Well, my accessibility story,
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I'm not gonna go way back when I was a classroom teacher,
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but I will say that as a classroom teacher,
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I was introduced to assistive technology,
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and that's what sparked my passion
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for learning everything I could about assistive technology.
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When I found myself working
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at the University of Miami
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Mailman Center for Child Development,
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I really wanted to improve systems of care
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for children with disabilities,
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specifically in the education system,
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and I went on to get my PhD
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and started providing trainings to other people,
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and that's really what sparked the Step Up AT program,
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was trying to find ways to help support teachers
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in their journey to provide inclusive practices
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through the use of assistive technology,
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and that's what started the Step Up AT Program.
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Austin, so you work alongside Michelle.
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What's your accessibility story? How did you get here?
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So, like Michelle,
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my accessibility story starts in the classroom,
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but my path is a little bit different.
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So I taught in the gifted classroom,
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but one of the things,
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one of the things that I do remember,
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I had a student who was struggling,
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and when he finally got his accommodations,
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he finally had that IEP written,
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I don't know that assistive technology
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was given the consideration it should have been,
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and when he came back to my classroom,
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and I was supposed to be providing something for him,
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there was a lack of professional development
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and a lack of communication
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about what exactly I should be doing for him.
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I come to find, later, that there was somebody at the school
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who was supposed to lead me on that journey,
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but there was a lack of communication
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about what needed to be done.
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And so my role on the Step Up AT team
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is to find those places
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where professional development can make a difference.
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And so here I am, walking that journey every day.
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Wonderful; so Jani, now to you.
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You've heard Michelle and Austin's accessibility story.
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Would you mind sharing with us your accessibility story,
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and then how you ended up
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at the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
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focused on inclusion?
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Well, thanks, Maggie.
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I have to say that my accessibility story
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has really come into 3D focus, I think,
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through these new friendships that I have
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with you, and with Michelle, and Austin,
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because my focus has really been
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on inclusion of children with disabilities,
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young children with disabilities.
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I worked as a disability services coordinator
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with Migrant Head Start,
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I was the disability services and inclusion lead
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with the National Center on Early Childhood Development
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Teaching and Learning,
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which is a Head Start national center,
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and then more recently, I've come
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to the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
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at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center
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in Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina,
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and even wrote a book in 2022, about inclusion,
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for early childhood educators.
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And so this has been an interesting new discovery for me
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in these conversations that we've had together
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about how can accessibility
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and accessible educational materials
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foster inclusion.
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So I feel like I'm still on this journey, and learning,
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but it's been pretty fun,
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and I feel like I've had lots of light-bulb moments
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with you all, over the past year.
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Such powerful stories, thank you for sharing.
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So as I alluded to a little bit ago,
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we've been working together for a year,
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and all of us kind of represent these different centers
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that have been funded by OSEP,
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the US Department of Education
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Office of Special Education Programs.
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So we have Step Up AT,
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really focused on assistive technology,
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the provision and consideration of assistive technology
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for our early learners,
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we've got Jani, at the ECTA,
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focused on inclusive practices
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and building these inclusive systems,
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and then we have our work at the AEM Center,
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where we're focused on the gamut of ages
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and providing accessible materials,
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with one of our components really focused on early learning,
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and we've been working together
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and really trying to hone in
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how these three centers can work together and explore
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how AT, AEM, and inclusion can kind of work together.
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So Jani, can you tell us and share with our audience
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a little bit more about that overarching concept
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that we've been focused on?
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Sure, so, you know, we know from the research
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that children with and without disabilities benefit
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from inclusive settings,
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and in particular, inclusion right from the start,
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so even in preschool, children who are included, are served
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alongside children with and without disabilities,
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tend to see much stronger outcomes,
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and what it also does is sets the trajectory
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for inclusion in elementary school,
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inclusion in middle school,
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inclusion in high school,
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and really, inclusion in life,
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and so what we've come to find out
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through this work together
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is that when there is inclusion in early childhood
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and early childhood educators are empowered
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with tools to foster inclusion
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through accessibility supports,
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they get those supports early,
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and then that leads to having those supports,
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again, when they need them,
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when they start in the kindergarten or K12 system.
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So I think that's really been our bigger picture,
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is thinking about how can we make this clear
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for people across this field
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and all of the folks that are interested
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in supporting children with disabilities.
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Absolutely, and Michelle, why is this focus
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this very thoughtful, intentional focus
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impactful to the field of early childhood education?
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The focus on inclusion is so important
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to early childhood education
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because children with disabilities are served
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in so many different settings in early childhood.
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A child with a disability may be in a Head Start program,
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they may be in a public school special education program,
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they might be in a community-based,
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voluntary pre-kindergarten program,
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and so the concept and idea of inclusive practices
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is so important,
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because young children are going
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to these early childhood environments
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in their neighborhood, near their home,
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and it's so important that we're thinking
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about the use of assistive technology,
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accessible educational materials,
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to ensure that these young learners
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are in inclusive settings,
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and are having the support that they need
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in order to benefit from these naturalistic settings.
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So let's take that a step farther,
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because I think you both touched
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on really important concepts.
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Austin, when we kinda got together with our state partners
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and we started these trainings,
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we were really intentional about illustrating
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what those inclusive practices,
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fostered by these accessibility strategies,
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the provision of assistive technology,
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provision of accessible materials,
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what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like
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in these early learning settings.
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Why is that a critical piece?
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Why do we choose to start there?
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I think that's easy.
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Whenever you work collaboratively, it's really important
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that everybody gains shared understanding
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of whatever problem it is that you wanna solve,
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and we invited early childhood folks
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from many different states
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who have a really deep understanding
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of preschool instruction,
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we brought together folks with great knowledge
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of assistive technology and AEM
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and inclusive practices,
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but because Step Up AT resources kind of meet
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at that intersection,
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it just made it that easy
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for Michelle and I to demonstrate authentically
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exactly what our project, our collaboration,
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all those states together,
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what they were striving for,
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using the videos.
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So taking a really deep look
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at what is actually happening in the classrooms
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and what kind of AT is really out there
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I think was very impactful,
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so we all were able to have that shared understanding
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of what we were going to do,
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and where we're going to go from there.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Jani, Michelle, when we worked through that experience
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with these early childhood educators,
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we really focused on this three-tiered instructional model
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and trying to illustrate these inclusive practices
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within that three-tiered instructional model.
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Can you tell us more about what that model is,
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and how we leveraged it to structure our discussions,
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and how we really kind of brought these practices to life?
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So when we were thinking
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about assistive technology,
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accessible educational materials, and inclusion,
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we were thinking about it similar to the pyramid model.
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So at the base of the pyramid,
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where you're serving most of your learners,
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we were thinking about,
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when we were demonstrating our assistive technology,
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we were showing examples of assistive technology
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that could be used across a broad range of learners,
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and at the bottom of the pyramid, it was,
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most of your learners fall within that bottom pyramid,
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but then there are some in the middle of the pyramid
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that might need just a little bit of help,
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and so we demonstrated the use of assistive technology
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and accessible educational materials
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that could fit that middle tier
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of providing support for that middle tier of students.
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And then in the top are the few students
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that need extra support, or specialized support,
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and we demonstrated how you could use assistive technology
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to support those students
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that needed more individualized, specific help.
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But the interesting thing about the pyramid model,
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and when we were showing the different examples
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of assistive technology
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is that depending on
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who you're using the assistive technology with,
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or for what purposes,
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the assistive technology cuts across
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the universal, the some, the few,
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and so the idea behind the three-tiered model
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was that yes, you can use assistive technology
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at these various levels, to promote inclusion,
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but many times, it's the same type of assistive technology,
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it just depends on who are you using it with
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and for what purposes.
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So there's a lot of overlap.
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The point that we were making
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is that we can use assistive technology
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and accessible educational materials,
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teachers can use these tools
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to help support instruction for all students,
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but for those that need individualized or specific help,
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we can individualize the assistive technology
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and the accessible educational materials
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for those few students who need that very specific help.
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This was such a key takeaway for so many participants.
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It was like, "Oh, yeah, we do that. Oh, yeah!"
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There were these light-bulb moments
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as we like to say, right?
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But there were some other pretty key takeaways
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that we and our state and local partners captured
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during our time together
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as part of this learning experience.
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Austin, can you kind of maybe
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just share a few of those takeaways with us?
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Absolutely, Michelle and I like to call them
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the magic three (laughs),
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because there's always three big things
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that you can take away,
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and I think we captured it in our work as well.
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You know, the first one is collaboration.
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Nobody was meant to tackle this on their own,
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and so we like to say
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bringing people to the table, right?
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So it's getting all those perspectives together
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and filling in those knowledge gaps,
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because together, we're stronger,
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we're more powerful with that knowledge.
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I like to think that when we bring those people to the table
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we have a,
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creating a small army
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of believers (laughs) in inclusion, right,
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and we're strengthening them every day.
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I guess the second one we would say
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is the role of policy.
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Hitting those highest levels,
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we know, when we're talking about systems change,
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that's what's gonna be the most impactful,
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so, you know, looking at that knowledge about AEM and AT,
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knowing that that drives policy,
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and then, again, coming together
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to talk about where those gaps are.
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And that plays into the third takeaway,
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which is that professional development, right,
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because when you are finding those gaps
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and getting those people together,
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that's when the creativity takes place,
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that's when we can get some really creative solutions
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around spreading the good word,
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that's how I like to say it,
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spreading the good word on assistive technology and AIM,
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and really bringing in,
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or getting out those perspectives
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to a greater audience,
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and then putting the money behind it,
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because that's what's going to get us moving,
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is to look for that funding
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and make some of these things a reality.
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So I would say I think those are the three things,
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and I really feel like
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our state partners, they really got that.
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Absolutely, and we, as this group,
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had some key takeaways as well,
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and those key takeaways, really,
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are feeding, maybe, our next steps and our excitement
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for the future of this partnership together
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as federally-funded projects and services
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that are being provided by OSEP.
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So Jani, what are some things,
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how are we learning from this
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and taking it forward into the future?
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Yeah, that was part of the fun of this I think, wasn't it?
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We were able to learn about each other's systems.
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Like, for example, I didn't realize
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that there was an accessibility lead in each state,
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and that early childhood leaders
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could reach out to those folks as resources,
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identify lending laboratories,
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and other kinds of resources for families,
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and so because this was new to me,
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I figured it was new to my colleagues, as well,
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in early childhood inclusion,
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and so we connected with the Head Start work group
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on disability services and inclusion,
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so Maggie, and Michelle, and Austin,
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you all came and did a presentation for that work group.
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Michelle and Austin came
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to our inclusion community of practice
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and shared some of the Step Up AT videos,
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and that group was so excited
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to be able to know about those videos
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and use them in professional development going forward,
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and I think we were able to share some of our work
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around the inclusion indicators
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that have hopefully been helpful
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to the work that you all do,
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thinking about accessibility in a broader sense.
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So going forward,
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I hope we can continue those partnership efforts.
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We did a joint presentation
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at the OSEP leadership conference this summer,
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which was a lot of fun,
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and we've been talking about maybe a national webinar
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to share some of our lessons learned
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and how we've been able to crosspollinate our learning
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across the different sectors within our field.
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So I'm excited about these future plans.
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A lot of really great opportunities lie ahead,
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opportunities that, again,
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we were all aware of our own buckets of opportunities,
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but when we...
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It's that collective intelligence, right?
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When we collaborate and we build together,
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we find new opportunities to make those connections.
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It's been a lot of fun.
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To kind of wrap things up,
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how can people stay in touch with you all,
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again, thinking about that collective intelligence,
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how could people follow you and stay in touch
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and learn learn more
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about the great work that you all do?
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Jani, let's start with you.
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So I am on LinkedIn,
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so I put that link in the show notes.
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I also have some resources that might be helpful
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in the show notes.
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There's a link to my book, which is called
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"Every Child Can Fly:
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An Early Childhood Educator's Guide to Inclusion,"
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as well as some national resources.
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There is a policy statement on inclusion
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that our membership organizations have put together,
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as well as a joint position statement on inclusion
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from the Departments of Education
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and the Departments of Health and Human Services,
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and those early childhood technical assistance
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inclusion indicators
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that I mentioned
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are also linked in the show notes.
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So, hopefully, those will be helpful.
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Awesome; Michelle, Austin,
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how can folks stay in touch with you all?
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So the first thing they should do
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is go to www.stepupat.org.
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That is the hub
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for all the resources that we offer on assistive technology.
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Now, we're a toolkit,
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so, you know, in addition to videos, we have modules,
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and some of those modules can help you
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or people that you know
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right in the thick of things
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coach their own staff, their own teachers
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in assistive technology
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and accessible educational materials.
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But if you are at any walk of life
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and you want to take some of those modules
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and learn a little bit deeper
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about how that plays out in the early childhood classroom,
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all of our materials are free.
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You sign on, but those are open to you.
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We have all sorts of resources, paper resources,
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that you can get electronically at our website as well.
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And you can find us, too.
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We have mentor coaches on our team,
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so if you've got specifics,
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we can pinpoint those for you as well.
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So many great resources. Thank you all for sharing.
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I'm gonna throw one more in.
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At the AEM center, we have our early childhood synthesis
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of knowledge development findings.
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This synthesis summarizes
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the knowledge development activities
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that inform our critical components for early childhood.
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It's a literature review
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and a few other really insightful pieces of information.
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Check it out at aem.cast.org.
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We'll put the direct link to that resource
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in the show notes.
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Well, thank you all for being here today.
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We appreciate the partnership, continued partnership,
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and opportunities to work together
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to ensure that all children have access
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to equitable learning opportunities.
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Thanks again.
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(lively music)
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Thanks for tuning in to this episode
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of "The Accessible Learning Experience," brought to you
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by the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials
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at CAST.
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You can find us on the web at aem.cast.org.
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There, you'll find show notes, with links
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to all of the resources mentioned on each episode.
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Thanks again for listening,
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and remember, accessibility is everyone's responsibility.
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(lively music)
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The contents of this podcast were developed
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under a cooperative agreement
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00:22:06.330 --> 00:22:08.520
with the US Department of Education.
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00:22:08.520 --> 00:22:11.070
However, those contents do not necessarily represent
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the policy of the US Department of Education,
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and you should not assume endorsement
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by the federal government.