Accessibility as Collaborative Practice

The Maple League of Universities

A session presented as part of the Maple League's fall Better Together season.

What does it mean to be an accessible campus? We used a multi-pronged research approach across the four Maple League Universities to explore this question. We are ready to share some of our findings with you and have an important conversation about ways we can collectively work together to achieve a culture of inclusion and make campus more accessible for everyone.

About the PresentersDr. Erin Austen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at StFX University. Her research combines her interest in perception with her interest in health. She recently introduced a new Applied Psychology: Health course in her department that explores perceptions of disability and methods for changing attitudes. As part of a course project, students work alongside individuals with disabilities to conduct accessibility audits of campus.Dr. Katie Aubrecht is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Canada Research Chair Health Equity and Social Justice at St. Francis Xavier (St.F.X.) University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Her research program analyzes marginality and mental health, rurality and resilience across the life span as health equity and social justice issues. This work draws on social theory, intersectional disability studies, aging studies and interpretive, decolonizing and arts-informed qualitative research methods to analyze disability and care education, policy and practice. As Director of the Spatializing Care: Intersectional Disability Studies Research Lab at St.F.X. Aubrecht leads a participatory arts-informed health research infrastructure that supports and enhances meaningful and ethical community engagement and cross-sectoral collaboration to bridge medical, social and cultural approaches to care. Dr. Cynthia Bruce is an Assistant Professor and coordinator of Music Therapy programs at Concordia University. Working as a blind activist educator and scholar at the intersection of Critical Disability Studies, Music Therapy, and education, she engages with lived experiences of disability to expose systemic inequity and mobilize more imaginative approaches to research and practice.Dr. Jane Dryden is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount Allison University. She teaches courses on history of philosophy, feminist philosophy, philosophy of disability, aesthetics, and biomedical ethics. Her current research concerns the relationship between vulnerability and autonomy, particularly as it concerns experiences with gut issues.Dr. Mary Ellen teaches in the Sociology of Settler/Indigenous relations, social inequality and gender at Bishop’s. Her research career explores various dimensions of social inequality in Canada. A monograph, How Canadian Social Policy Causes Homelessness was published by J. Charleton Press in 2016. Book chapters and journal articles she has written over her career address questions of: decolonizing higher education; gender, citizenship and career; domicide in Canada; neoliberalism and housing, and how our cultures’ individualization of the problem of sexual assault leaves students struggling with symptoms of post traumatic stress. She likes working in collaboration so in addition to the present Maple League Project, Mary Ellen coordinates a Indigenous and Race Research Axis at Bishop’s and is part of a SSHRC Insight Grant team which is studying the organizational response to Homelessness in three mid-sized Canadian Cities.

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Accessibility as Collaborative Practice

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Accessibility as Collaborative Practice

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