Accessibility

Vanessa Spero, Darcy Cole, Vera Bullard, Jennifer Cushman, Tara Dorn, Kelsey Dugan, Crystal Perry, andJennifer Taylor-Winney

The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics report that 15% of individuals aged 3–21 are served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This means that 15% of youth are diagnosed with a disability that has the potential to affect their success academically and in the workforce.  As a youth development organization, 4-H programs should anticipate at least 15% of their population, if not more, to have a diagnosed disability. As youth development professionals, we are tasked with meeting the needs of youth with disabilities through proactive and reactive planning strategies. This also includes professionals being flexible, accommodating, and ready to foster Positive Youth Development best practices.

Kathryn A. Stofer

Virtual and hybrid events present both challenges and opportunities for engaging persons with disabilities. In particular, accommodations for people who are blind or low vision, and deaf or hard of hearing, are common challenges that technology has been able to address but still require some work on the part of facilitators in similar manners to in-person events. Centering accessibility, however, opens up your events and often makes them more welcoming for non-disabled participants as well. This document will overview strategies for event facilitators for ensuring maximum accessibility for virtual events to allow a wide variety of participants.

Kathryn A. Stofer, Kirsten Hecht, andLisa Lundgren

This new 6-page document, part of a series on using social media to engage communities with research, focuses on making your social media inclusive by integrating accessibility up front for individuals with disabilities of various types. Any Extension personnel, researchers, and other public engagement and communications personnel can benefit from these strategies. Written by Kathryn A. Stofer, Kirsten Hecht, and Lisa Lundgren, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.

Terry Brite DelValle andTiare Saracino

This document is ENH1211, one of a series of the Environmental Horticulture Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date May 2013. Revised July 2016.

Kathryn A. Stofer

For event planners, it is important to be inclusive of people with diverse physical and mental abilities when establishing accommodations for programs or events. This publication is one in the series Getting Engaged, and will aid Extension professionals and other program/event planners in appropriately accommodating audiences and attendees with various needs.

Vanessa Spero

Universal Design Learning (UDL) is about designing for the minority in the learning environment to meet the needs of all. This publication explains the principles of Universal Design Learning—engagement, representation, and action and expression—and how to incorporate them into lesson plans. As practitioners, 4-H Extension agents and other professionals who educate youth can support learners by incorporating these UDL principles.