Universal Design for Learning in Practice

World Usability Day New England

This session will present the methods used by The Hadley School for the Blind to provide usable e-learning and its alternatives to students who are blind or visually impaired. The presentation will describe how a student navigates through the courseware and how an instructors and staff members support their learning. Lastly, Hadley will share the results of the e-Hadley project by program. Michael Rydel brings both an academic and corporate training background to his work of providing usable distance education to students with visual disabilities. He began his career as an automation trainer and manager with two IBM value added dealers. After becoming the Corporate Training Manager at Kemper Insurance, he implemented e-learning solutions for over 8,000 employees. Over the years, he also taught as an adjunct faculty member with the English department at Loyola University Chicago. For the past three years, he has served as the Dean of Curricular Affairs at Hadley while the school has implemented its new e-Hadley program. Michael has a Bachelors of Arts from Loyola University Chicago and a Masters of Arts from Indiana University in English Literature. He also has an Online Teaching Certificate from UCLA. Andre Lukatsky is the Director of Computer Services at The Hadley School for the Blind in Winnetka, IL. Andre has been with Hadley since 1999 and the head of the Computer Services Department since 2001. Before coming to Hadley, he had been working as a Network Administrator at Solex Academy in Wheeling, IL. Andre has extensive experience working with various aspects of computer technology—from hardware support to programming to web development. He has been working with access technology since 1999, creating accessible desktop applications, writing custom scripts for screen readers to enhance accessibility for blind users, and developing accessible web content templates. Andre has a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL.