CSU Accessible Technology Initiative
Disability Awareness Media Training
Monday, August 3, 2009
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Deborah Kaplan, Director, Accessible Technology Initiative
California State University Systems, Chancellor’s Office
Professor Paul K. Longmore
San Francisco State University
Tari Hartman Squire
EIN SOF Communications, Inc.
The Diversity of Disability:
Shattering Myths and Rolling Forward
Ground Rules
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Chat function:
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You ask questions of us
Please write QUESTION:
We ask questions of you
Our Goal Today
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Disability occurs at the intersection of a barrier in the physical, virtual
and/or social environment. It manifests in the form of denied
access/discrimination - intentional or not.
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Our goal as internal and external-focused communications professionals is
to be more mindful of those barriers created by words and images…so that
our work reveals the authentic essence, power and pride of disability with…
 students, faculty, staff and programs such as the Chancellor’s
Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI)
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CSU is a leader in accessibility, and inclusion of people with disabilities. It
is not just one campus, on program, one Professor or one staff member.
Leadership is system-wide. Now is the time to be loud and proud about
CSU Leadership…
Recent Press Coverage of Disability
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Critique of coverage of former VP Dick Cheney
using a wheelchair at the Inauguration;
Discuss Laura Hershey Op-Ed: Media
Coverage-Former VP Dick Cheney
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I never thought I’d be sticking up for Dick Cheney. But his appearance at the
Inauguration today, riding in a wheelchair pushed by several Marines, has elicited so
many nasty, disabiliphobic comments, that I find myself well, not exactly defending
Cheney, but at least defending the dignity of wheelchair use.
Cheney apparently pulled a back muscle, and has to stay off his feet for a few days.
Granted, with his clunky chair and his scowling countenance, he’s not exactly the
model of the hip, sexy crip. Too many commentators, however, have turned the
wheelchair into a mark of shame. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said, The Vice
President in that wheelchair is a metaphor for the low esteem with which he held in
this country. His numbers are pathetically low. (Is Matthews aware of the fact that
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the most effective and most popular
presidents, governed from a wheelchair?)
Around the Internet, I’ve seen numerous gleeful references to the image of Cheney
in a wheelchair. Several compared him to Dr. Strangelove, the maniacal nuclear
scientist in Stanley Kubrick’s film. Others invoke Mr. Potter, that mean old banker in
Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
We don’t need another villain in a wheelchair. A villain he may be, with shared
responsibility for torture, repression, and all kinds of other crimes against humanity.
But the wheelchair has nothing to do with it.
Disability Power & Pride
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Disability Power & Pride First-Ever Presidential
Inaugural Ball.
Has morphed into the
“Disability Power & Pride
Committee” to work with
the Obama Administration
on disability employment
and policy issues.
Our Goal Today
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Disability occurs at the intersection of a barrier in the physical, virtual
and/or social environment. It manifests in the form of denied
access/discrimination - intentional or not.

Our goal as internal and external-focused communications professionals is
to be more mindful of those barriers created by words and images…so that
our work reveals the authentic essence, power and pride of disability with…
 students, faculty, staff and programs such as the Chancellor’s
Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI)

CSU is a leader in accessibility, and inclusion of people with disabilities. It
is not just one campus, one program, one Professor or one staff member.
Leadership is system-wide. Now is the time to be loud and proud about
CSU Leadership…
“A New Era for Accessibility”
By Paul Harris
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…One important driver for these advances is California State
University itself, where vision, expertise, and muscle are being applied
to the challenge. Using the clout of its 23 campuses, CSU’s Accessible
Technology Initiative pursues every opportunity to impact learning,
from requiring technology vendors to meet accessibility compliance
requirements to pioneering approaches for students to receive and
perceive learning in the classroom. It is also promoting universal
design in all future-learning-related products.
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When it comes to promoting accessible technologies (AT), Kaplan and
her staff think big. “We’re trying to institutionalize AT so it becomes part
of everybody’s job, she says. After all, it’s as big an issue as security,
and it should be implemented on an equally broad scale.
Spotlight on CSU Best Practices
CSU - More Stars in More Places
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SFSU History Professor Paul K. Longmore, Ph.D., nation’s authority
on media images of people with disabilities, won prestigious Henry
Betts Award for his leadership;
CSUN Center on Disabilities convenes international annual
conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities;
CSU Fresno Social Work Professor Richard Salsgiver’s book shifts
rehab paradigm away from medical model;
CSU Humbolt is receiving a National Science Foundation grant for
collaboration between disability services and computer sciences;
Last year SFSU Accessible Landscape Project won a national Award
from American Physical Plant Administration’s Association
SFSU: Disability As Part of Equity,
Social Justice and Diversity
Vision Statement of SFSU President:
The Student Experience:
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San Francisco State University provides its
students with an academic and personal
experience that:
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Is both challenging and supportive;
Is physically and programmatically accessible…
SFSU: Disability As Part of Equity,
Social Justice and Diversity
Vision Statement of SFSU President: Employee Experience:
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Benefits of Employment. SFSU is a leader in offering physical and
programmatic accessibility;
It provides competitive salaries, superb benefits, attractive
surroundings, and continual career enhancement through
orientation, mentoring, and professional training and development
for all its employees;
It adjusts employee workload to support its student-centered
mission and to promote its core value of enhancing an employeefriendly environment;
It provides opportunities for public recognition of employee
achievement.
What’s In A Name?
Same Struggle, Different Difference
Nothing About Us, Without Us
Disability-Savvy Language
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Be mindful of semantics in crafting messages.
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Careless wording is the:
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Most common mistake
Easiest way to offend
Like other marginalized groups, people with
disabilities have evolving, preferred semantics
to describe themselves.
Disability-Savvy Language Avoids:
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Cutesy Words:
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Pity Labels:
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suffers from, afflicted with, crippled, invalid
Medical Model Descriptions:
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physically challenged, special needs, differently-abled
impairment, patient, sick, victim of
Derogatory Terms:
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wheelchair bound, confined to a wheelchair, deaf & dumb,
moron, stupid, idiot, crazy, handicap
“People First” Language
Associated Press Stylebook
AP Stylebook: Page 74
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Handicap It should be avoided in describing a
disability.
Avoid such euphemisms as mentally challenged,
and descriptions that connote pity, such as
afflicted with or suffers from multiple sclerosis.
Rather, has multiple sclerosis
Wheelchair-user. People use wheelchairs for
independent mobility. Do not use confined to a
wheelchair or wheelchair bound.
NIKE -- Just (DON’T) Do It!
Spotlight on Best Practices
A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Words
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Fortune Small Business & AdWeek Cover Stories on Disability
Northwest Airlines and Avis Access
Target
Home Depot
McDonald’s
AT&T
PepsiCo’s Annual Report
PepsiCo’s “Talent Sustainability”
PepsiCo’s ERG - EnAble
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
CSU All Stars:
PR and Communications
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CSU - Accessible Technology Initiative;
SFSU - Disability Inclusion in President’s Vision;
CSUN Center on Disabilities convenes international annual
conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities;
SFSU History Professor Paul K. Longmore, Ph.D., nation’s
authority on media images of people with disabilities;
CSU Fresno Social Work Professor Richard Salsgiver’s book shifts
rehab paradigm away from medical model;
CSU Humbolt is receiving a National Science Foundation grant for
collaboration between disability services and computer sciences;
Last year SFSU Accessible Landscape Project won a national
Award from American Physical Plant Administration’s Association
CSU’s Accessible Technology
Initiative: Claiming & Framing
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Groundbreaking systems approach to level the playing
field for:
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420,000 students
40,000 faculty and staff
23 campuses
Serves as an unprecedented blue-print for the rest of
the nation’s university systems and the third-party
vendors with which they do business.
CSU Fact Book
Resources
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Telabillity Media: Charlie Winston, 573-445-7656
Making News
Questions?
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Please use the chat box function.
Moving Forward
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How do we frame the CSU ATI groundbreaking
Initiative?
What kind of images?
What kind of descriptions?
What kind of media outlets?
What kind of strategic alliances and partners?
What is our goal?
How do we get there from here?
Thank You!