The Faculty Excellence in Universal Design for Learning Award committee is very pleased to announce Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Wheeler as the 2022/2023 award recipient! Betsy has made numerous and powerful contributions to the University of Oregon. Her leadership, innovation, and dedication to students and accessibility has had a profound impact on students, colleagues, the campus, and disabled communities.

Betsy Wheeler founded the University of Oregon Disability Studies Minor in 2017 and served as its director for six years. Now retired, Betsy taught courses on race and disability, inclusive theater, ENG 205: Fantasy, ENG 240: Introduction to Disability Studies, and ENG 386: Bodies in Comics.  She researches the presence of disabilities in public space as represented in literature, visual/verbal popular culture, history, and urban planning. Her book HandiLand: The Crippest Place on Earth (U Michigan Press, 2019) received the Choice award, and her research will next appear in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. In 2018, Lane Independent Living Alliance presented her with the LILAC Award for her advocacy for disability communities.

Betsy’s nomination highlights her dedication, passion, and leadership related to accessibility, inclusion of disabled students, and inclusive teaching. Here is what one of her nominators had to say:

“Dr. Wheeler shows a consistent commitment to UDL practices in her classrooms and actively promotes UDL. This is especially true for the classes she teaches for the Disability Studies minor. In these classes, UDL is part of the lived experience and the curriculum. We learn not just what UDL is nor just what it feels like to experience a classroom environment with such dedication to UDL, but also why UDL is essential to an institution of higher learning. 

Betsy is one of the friendliest professors I have had the immense pleasure of meeting. As a disabled student at the University of Oregon, I felt alone. I didn’t know many other disabled students. It’s not like that in Betsy’s classrooms. First off, Betsy is and has been an invaluable resource for disabled students on this campus. She is familiar with both campus resources and community resources that could benefit disabled students. Second, I met some of my closest friends while sitting at a table in Betsy’s Intro to Disability Studies Class. Her class gave us the chance to talk about the lived experience of having a disability in college. A few of these friends became core members of AccessABILITY Student Union (The disability affinity group for the University of Oregon). Her classroom’s consistent use of UDL has not only created an equitable learning environment for University of Oregon students but it has also allowed students to build a community for themselves. Betsy’s commitment is that of a fierce advocate and I am honored to have been in her tutelage.”

We contacted Betsy to congratulate her and asked about her perspective on the use of Universal Design for Learning. Here is what she shared with us:

“It means a great deal to me to receive the Faculty Excellence in Universal Design Award. I’m happy such an award exists, because it draws attention to a crucial and often-neglected area of teaching. I’ve gained and implemented my knowledge of Universal Design in Learning gradually, following the “Plus One” principle I learned from Marla Wirrick at UO Online: each time you teach a class, add one more accessibility feature. Some of these features are technical, like adding headers to documents, turning the captions on, and assigning accessible pdfs from eBook chapters or UO Libraries Scan and Deliver instead of my old hand-scanned versions. Some UDL features are policies, like the banning of timed tests and a clear protocol for making up absences. Some features are interpersonal and communicative, like welcoming students warmly, writing clear and transparent assignments, and allowing students to complete classroom tasks on their own as an alternative to groupwork. I disclose my own disabilities, ask students for their patience and accommodation of them, and promise them the same consideration. My course content also constitutes a form of access, allowing students with disabilities to see themselves reflected in the curriculum and all students to learn how they can implement access. I use Universal Design features as teachable moments, showing students how the world at large should work.”

Please join us in congratulating Betsy for her exemplary use of Universal Design for Learning and the meaningful impact she continues to have here at UO and beyond.

Want to receive a scholarship to complete your Disability Studies Fieldwork Requirement? The College of Arts and Sciences offers a Hands-On Learning Scholarship to pursue experiential learning opportunities.

The scholarship will provide financial support of up to $5,000 to assist students in completing an unpaid internship, research opportunity, or service-learning experience. Preference will be given to applicants with financial need, as determined by the Office of Student Financial Aid & Scholarships. They consider assistance for paid internships where the case can be made that the compensation will not be adequate to cover living expenses. You need to apply by Week 7 of the term before your internship starts.

For more info, click here: UO Hands-On Learning Scholarship.

For info about DS Fieldwork, click here: https://disability.uoregon.edu/about-fieldwork/

Check out UO Assistant Professor Cera Smith’s talk on UO Today. Their Winter 2024 class “ES 440: Black Health and Healing” counts towards the Social Model requirement for the Disability Studies Minor. Smith joined UO this fall. Welcome Prof. Smith!

Cera Smith is an assistant professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. They specialize in twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. Black literatures, Radical Protest Literatures of the U.S., Black Studies, Critical Race Theories, Affect Theory, Gender and Sexuality, Histories of Science and Medicine, and Health Humanities. Smith joined the UO faculty in fall 2023. Smith’s book project, Vivified Viscerality: Bioscience and the Black Interior in U.S. Black Literature and Sculpture, demonstrates how and why U.S. Black artists use biology to depict racialized life.

From Disability Rights Oregon:

Submit comments by November 13 on proposed updates to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

A new rule announced last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers our community better protection from discrimination when accessing health care and other resources. Now we need you to join Disability Rights Oregon in showing support and submitting comments to make the proposed regulations even stronger for people with disabilities!

The proposed rule, Discrimination on the Basis of Disability in Health and Human Service Programs or Activities, updates and improves regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the landmark national law that protects qualified individuals in federally funded programs from discrimination based on their disability. It’s been 40 years since Section 504 regulations have been updated, and our world has changed a lot. It’s past time for federal law to reflect the current state of our healthcare system, including how access to new technologies has made accessibility a much more affordable and attainable reality.

Disability Rights Oregon is happy with the many issues the proposed rule addresses to improve people’s lives, but some of the proposed regulations don’t go far enough, and others need further clarification to adequately address the many systemic issues people with disabilities face when seeking health care.

We are recommending several additions to the new rule in regards to medical treatment; value assessment methods; the child welfare system including segregated settings and parental fitness; integration; accessibility including medical equipment, websites, mobile apps, kiosks, and live-audio content; and equity for patients with co-occurring diagnoses such as mental health and substance abuse, a problem not addressed in the rule so far.

Share your thoughts about the new rule and how it can be made even stronger by submitting comments by November 13, 2023.

The University of Oregon Disability Studies Minor
Proudly Presents the Show:

WHO KNEW?
Who knew people with disabilities had so many tender and hilarious stories to tell?

We did.

SATURDAY, JUNE 10
7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 11
2 PM
HOPE THEATER, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
MILLER THEATER COMPLEX

Please join us for live public performances of Who Knew?, an original play based on stories by University of Oregon students and Lane County disability communities who came together as fellow students, storytellers, writers, and performers. The play touches on everything from navigating the world with disabilities to flights of imagination involving dire wolves, Bruce Lee’s alien encounters, and a really, really bad bowl of tofu. This is a FREE event with no tickets required, but come early to get a seat. We hope to see you in the audience!

More Info on Wheelchair Valet Parking, Trigger Warnings, and UO Disability Studies 

Or use the QR code

DIRECTIONS AND PARKING
The Hope Theater is in the Miller Theatre Complex at the University of Oregon, 1109 Old Campus Lane or 1231 University Avenue, next to the Dad’s Gates EMX Station, just before East 11th Avenue merges with Franklin Boulevard.

Attached you’ll find an aerial parking map of the Hope Theater area. UO Parking across East 11th Avenue from the theater is free during showtimes. There are ADA parking spots in this lot, and two more past the theater entrance on the south side of the Miller Theatre Complex building.

WHEELCHAIR VALET
Because ADA spots are limited, we offer a Wheelchair Valet service.

1. Drivers, please pull into the driveway in front of the Hope Theater.  Ushers will be there to help direct or push audience members in mobility devices to their seats.
2. Drivers can then find parking if accessible parking is not available.
3. The ushers will take note of how many there are in the party and will help secure seats for those attending with people using mobility devices.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

UO Disability Studies Instagram

Find Who Knew? on Instagram

Find Who Knew? on TikTok

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In addition to the course listings on this website, you can now find classes eligible for the minor under a dedicated program code in the main class schedule. Just go to classes.uoregon.edu, choose “Fall 2023,” and then select “DBST” from the “Subject” menu.

Check out Fall 2023 DBST offerings now!

Professor Britney Wilson

The Oregon Humanities Center is hosting Britney Wilson, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic at New York Law School. Her lecture will take place at 5:30 pm on May 16 and is titled, “Down for the Cause: Grace, Space, and Belonging in Social Movements.” You can find more information and register for the lecture on the OHC website.

In addition to practicing and teaching law at NYLS, Professor Wilson is also a creative writer whose work has been featured widely in national media outlets, including PBS Newshour, This American Life, Huffington Post, and The Nation. Born with Cerebral Palsy, she is known for her writing on disability and its intersections with race, and she recently hosted a symposium on “Reclaiming Disability Justice.”

Professor Britney Wilson
“Down for the Cause: Grace, Space, and Belonging in Social Movements”
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
5:30 p.m.
175 Knight Law Center

This is a livestreamed and ASL interpreted event.

Madness Outside In: Morningside Hospital, American Psychiatry, and the Evolving Nation in the mid-20th Century is an Andrew Mellon Digital Project by Professor Mary Wood, Department of English and Professor Kristin Yarris, Department of Global Studies. Morningside Psychiatric Hospital was a controversial private hospital operating in Portland, Oregon, from 1903-1963, and their website is rich with history, art, archives, and political debate.

morningside.uoregon.edu