BARRIER FREE EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY is a 4-week long workshop delivered
online that will guide colleges and businesses in creating computer and
information technology systems that will create a level playingfield for
students and professionals with disabilities.

The Barrier-free educational technology workshop is delivered over the
Internet beginning on January 17th and lasting for 4 weeks delivered
primarily by e-mail.  Lessons and discussions with other participants are
delivered to your desktop.  You can participate at your convenience.

The workshop is provided by EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information)
a core activity of the TLT Group, and the instructors are Professor Norman
Coombs and Richard Banks.  Previous presentations have reached more than
3,000 people in more than 3 dozen countries.  The workshop is aimed for
administrators, faculty, instructional technologists, information
technologists, librarians, human resource staff  and disabled student
service staff.  It is aimed at developing an awareness of the power of
adaptive computer technology to permit students and professionals with
disabilities to compete on a level playing field.  The workshop will also
familiarize participants with the requirements of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.

As computers become an integral part of more courses, failing to provide
adaptive tools will deny a full education to these students.  But disabled
students are not the sole beneficiaries of barrier free educational
technology.  Adapting your educational technologies to meet the needs of
this special population will, at the same time, make them more useful for
students with different learning styles.

To see a syllabus of the workshop or to obtain information about workshop
fees and registration, go to http://www.rit.edu/~easi/workshops.html

C.E.U.s
Three continuing education units from the Rochester Institute of Technology
are available on request.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Today's distributed computer environment means that providing support for
the technology needs of students with disabilities is an institution-wide
responsibility.  It requires extensive planning and cooperation across
several departments.  It is no longer the sole province of the computer
staff.  Nor can it be relegated to the disabled student office. If "it
takes a village to raise a child," then, it takes the entire campus to
support the adaptive technology needs of students with disabilities.   This
workshop will help participants develop an understanding of technological,
legal, pedagogical issues that should inform the creation of a barrier-free
campus educational technology plan.

Norman Coombs, Ph.D.