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SHERYL BURGSTAHLER: Hello.
I'm Sheryl Burgstahler.
I direct the DO-IT
Center at the University
of Washington -- Disabilities,
Opportunities, Internetworking
and Technology.
And part of that program,
we have the DO-IT Scholars
program, which is
for teenagers later
in high school that are
working to transition
to college and on to careers.
SCOTT BELLMAN: My
name is Scott Bellman.
I'm the program manager
at the DO-IT Center.
Our Scholars program
offers a variety
of college
preparation activities
throughout the school year.
The most exciting time being
during our summer camp, which
we call DO-IT Summer Study.
That's where students visit
campus to live in dorms,
and learn how to navigate the
campus and eat in cafeterias,
and take college
classes as they learn
about how to get ready for
school after high school.
NAOMI: My name is Naomi.
I've been a DO-IT
Scholar since 2016.
And it's been a
really fun journey,
full of great
opportunities from DO-IT
and connecting with DO-IT
throughout the years.
FINN: My name is Finn.
When we did DO-IT
in person, there
was a focus on disability
advocacy and also on STEM, STEM
things, like we had
daily workshops.
We would go to
the facility where
they monitor seismic activity.
That like the STEM element.
And then, we would also have
the disability element where
we would learn, OK, here's
how to get accommodations
at college.
ALEXIS: My name is Alexis, and
I was a DO-IT 2019 Scholar.
While being there
physically I was
able to learn the ropes of
how a college functions,
traveling all over the campus,
eating at the different places,
sitting through
several hours of class,
and I also learned to
advocate for myself.
A while ago, I had to
do a meeting with, well,
I arranged a meeting with the
disability services at DigiPen.
I was able to get
through it myself.
SHERYL BURGSTAHLER: So when 2020
hit us all with the pandemic,
we were stunned, like
the rest of the world.
But we thought, well, this
will last a week or two.
And we'll have our
program, because we
were planning a program
in 2020 to be on-site,
like the other ones.
But very quickly, we
realized this wasn't
going to be over that fast.
We had to convert
totally online.
It was clear the
students weren't
going to be safe in
an on-site program.
And so we got to work.
What I said to my
staff is, well,
who better than this
team for going online?
We're always about technology.
TAMI TIDWELL: I'm Tami
Tidwell, a program coordinator
with DO-IT.
And I've worked with Summer
Study for almost two decades.
The decision to move online,
like most youth programs,
was something that we knew
was not going to be easy.
KAYLA BROWN: My name is Kayla.
And I am a program coordinator
at the DO-IT program.
I'm also a past Scholar.
I was a Scholar in 2005.
And right now, I work
with students who
are in our Scholars program.
And so we use Zoom
as our primary way
of communication
and facilitation
of all of our programming.
And students who felt
comfortable talking
outloud and answering
questions, they could do that.
Students who were more
comfortable with text,
they would write in the chat.
And so we were able to
accommodate different learning
styles and communication styles.
And in a lot of ways, it
made it more inclusive.
And we were able to
keep people safe,
which, of course, was our
primary concern at the time.
TAMI TIDWELL: We wanted to
make sure that students still
had some of those
interactive pieces,
like mock interviews or
meeting with faculty.
And what we found was those
interactions were actually
more focused,
because students were
in a breakout room
with the faculty
or the mock interviewers
and could really
focus on what they were doing.
And they got to be
in the spotlight
and really say what
they wanted to say.
Whereas, in a
normal situation, we
would have an entire
room of interviews
happening at the same
time, which is very loud
and distracting.
FINN: It was the same deal
as the previous two years,
but just online.
So you'd have the
different sessions
and instead of going
somewhere, you'd just log on,
and your classroom
would be the Zoom room.
I think what I enjoyed most
about the virtual program
is in the lecture setting and
the group discussion setting,
I felt like it was a
lot easier for people--
for everyone to be able
to get their ideas across.
I felt like it was a
lot easier for people
to share ideas in that way.
I felt like it was a lot
easier for people to--
if they didn't
understand something
or wanted
clarification, you could
raise your hand,
the virtual hand,
or you could type
something in the chat.
I felt like the chat
was helpful in terms of,
hey, I didn't understand
this, or what does this mean?
Ask for clarification.
NAOMI: You get
more participation
in classes and in
activities if you
turn on that chat feature, which
made the virtual Summer Study
exponentially more engaging.
TAMI TIDWELL: One of the
most important things
about Summer Study, whether
it's in person or online,
is building
community, making sure
that students with disabilities
that are headed to college
feel like they
belong, feel like they
have other people
like them out there.
And that is definitely something
we still saw happening online.
We see that students find out
more about disability history.
They find out more
about their roots.
They find out more about
this entire community
around the world of people who
have experiences like they do.
MERRITT: Hi.
My name is Merritt.
I'm a 19-year-old
autistic student
who is a Scholar at DO-IT.
In the virtual program,
we did share videos
about our disabilities and
how important it is to us.
It was interesting to hear
about how many of my friends
have persevered through their
lives with a disability.
SCOTT BELLMAN: We had
to get pretty creative.
We included activities, such as
game nights, and movie nights,
and opportunities for students
to talk about their hobbies
and pets and share a meal,
so that we could still
have that sense of community.
ANDREA MANO: My
name is Andrea Mano,
and I'm an assistive
technologist
with the DO-IT program.
We wanted to build a community,
even before Summer Study.
We had the Scholars meet with
us in small groups over Zoom
before Summer Study.
The groups were chosen based on
the shared assistive technology
and what we thought the
Scholars had in common.
Allowing the students
to attend virtually
enabled them to experiment with
technology in their own homes.
And if the students
wanted, they could
have their parents involved too,
which is always really helpful
to have another set of eyes when
you're learning something new.
TAMI TIDWELL: We also
realized that there
was an essential piece of
what we do in person that we
couldn't let go of.
And that was making sure we
had evening activities and fun
things interspersed throughout.
So during the day, we
would take museum tours,
and go online, and visit some
museums around the country.
And at night, we made sure
we had movie nights and game
nights, where
students could really
participate and get to know
each other and their senses
of humor.
And what we found was the
movie night was actually,
in my opinion, more fun
online, because normally,
people are shushing
each other if you're
in person watching a movie.
But we watched
movies, and they could
talk about the
disability-related content
that they may be
really-- didn't really
realize was there
before, or talk
about their favorite characters,
or talk about what they didn't
like about a scene or what they
really loved about that movie.
SHERYL BURGSTAHLER:
So on pet night,
you can bring your pet,
ideally in costume, by the way,
and perhaps in a matching
costume to yours.
That's not something
we would have done--
ever do in an on-site program,
have their pets come along.
And so that translated really
funny, funny, funny, funny
activity.
And as usual, the evening
activities were optional.
So some students that were
experiencing some Zoom fatigue,
or just needed a break, or
weren't interested in pets,
well, they could easily plan
their whole evening without us.
SOPHIA: My name is Sophia, and I
became a DO-IT Scholar in 2021.
I was able to meet people
throughout the community.
But mostly, I felt like
I connected with them
more throughout the
optional evening
activities, where
I had more time
to engage with the community.
I was in the--
I think it was a talent show.
I just showcased my origami.
And that was just
pretty fun, because I
got to see people's
reaction to my crafts
that I've worked on
during the pandemic.
MERRITT: It made us
feel like we were
all one class or one family.
It was very nice to
see so many new faces.
I think we were able to
make plenty of friends,
even though it wasn't in person.
FINN: Well, DO-IT, I
think, was able to build
a sense of community just
in virtue of how welcoming
and open the program is.
NAOMI: What I enjoyed
most about virtual
was probably the fact
that it felt like DO-IT.
So even if we're not together,
we're still together.
And it was like coming
back home, honestly.
I just felt like, I'm back home.
SPEAKER: Lessons learned.
SHERYL BURGSTAHLER:
Well, we learned
that you can pull this off.
We've learned some
things that we
share with others who are
in a similar situation that
are moving an on-site program
online or maybe even starting
an online.
One thing that we did the
first year and continue to do
is made our program
a little bit longer.
And so it's going three
weeks rather than two.
Because we wanted to
avoid Zoom fatigue,
we hear a lot about that.
We thought it was
important that we
keep the screen time a
little shorter than maybe we
would want to.
ANDREA MANO: DO-IT staff was
very thoughtful about moving
Summer Study online.
And in being thoughtful in that
way, they had a lot of staff
in the online sessions.
One staff could monitor
the faces on the screen.
One staff could
monitor the chat.
One staff could be
monitoring email
when a Scholar couldn't
get into the session.
I think that's really helpful.
And it seems like
that's a lot of people,
but you do need a lot of
people in case something
unexpectedly happens.
KAYLA BROWN: Some
of the things that
were particularly successful
that we hadn't thought
about before was we were
able to engage people
from all over the state.
And so it wasn't
just the students
that we were engaged with
but also their families.
We do involve the
parents with the process
of working with the Scholars.
And so we felt like we
made a deep connection
with that aspect of
the student's life.
So we could know
what the support
system looks like and maybe
how we could help them.
But we also got to know the
students in a different way
as well.
They were in their
own environments,
and some of our students
felt more comfortable.
TAMI TIDWELL: For
other programs thinking
about going to an online program
or even a hybrid program,
some of the positives
are that you
can get mentors, people who've
been through your program
in the past.
They can come from
wherever they are.
So if they're away at
school or they're not
able to get to campus
on a certain day,
they can still be engaged.
It engages a bigger
and wider community.
We also had end-of-the-day team
meetings, which were essential.
When we were in person, we can't
pull all those staff together,
because there are staff
working with the students
and supervising.
But online, we were able to
stay in touch with each other
every single day.
SPEAKER: Unexpected benefits.
TAMI TIDWELL: What I realize is
that the students who've only
participated in DO-IT
Summer Study online
have gotten a lot out
of the experience.
I see their growth
in their IEP or 504
meetings, during reunions
and also in the emails
that they send us.
They've gotten a lot.
They've grown a lot.
And the program has still
made a really big impact.
SOPHIA: I had a
lot of flexibility,
because I was also
balancing another summer
program I was doing along
with the Summer Study session.
So I met with Tami
just to talk over
a meeting about how I can
balance those two programs.
SHERYL BURGSTAHLER:
If anyone asks me
for some advice
when they're forced
into turning an on-site
program into online
or maybe even optionally doing
it on-- doing that transition,
the first thing I'd
like to say is just
from the get-go embrace and help
your staff embrace the problem
to solve, that this is
really kind of exciting.
It's stressful too.
But we've shown
that it can be done.
And you just need to do
things one step at a time.
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For more resources about supporting students with disabilities,
consult: uw.edu/doit
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