Resources For Educators
One way that the KU Common Book program engages students with the book is through coursework. This requires collaboration with faculty and instructors to integrate the book and its themes into assignments and curriculum. The resources on this page can be used by faculty and instructors to teach the book in the classroom.
Our partners across campus have helped compile the resources below. If you have additional resources to highlight, please reach out to commonbook@ku.edu.
Library Guide
This guide, developed by librarians, is a starting point for research connected to Disability Visibility and links to further readings in connection with the book.
Accessibility in the Classroom:
- How to make documents (Word, scanned documents, PDFs, Excel documents, PowerPoint presentations, email) that are accessible to everyone.
- How to make videos more accessible
- How to make websites accessible
- Ally for LMS and Web
Supplemental Materials
These short, 15-20 minute videos, provide an introduction to major concepts in disability studies that provide a framework to discuss the topics and themes in the book. These can be assigned to students along with essays from the book, Disability Visibility, to help them better engage in discussion about these important topics.
"Words Matter: Language & Disability"
"Disability Models: Action, Communication, & Theory"
"Disability Justice & Disability Visibility"
"Disability Rights Movement: Introduction & Overview"
"Disability Rights Movement at KU: The Early Years"
Presentation Recordings
The following presentations were delivered in April 2022 as part of a series of workshops for faculty and instructors to prepare to teach Disability Visibility in the classroom.
"Bringing Disability Visibility into Focus:
Classroom Guidance for Teaching the 2022-23 KU Common Book"
Presenter: Ray Mizumura-Pence, American Studies, Associate Teaching Professor
Description: Disability Visibility is, in many ways, a text rooted in a disability justice ethos. Knowing about the relationship between disability rights and disability justice, and the relationships of both paradigms to the book, will be helpful to everyone who reads Disability Visibility. This workshop will include an overview of social movements, disability rights laws, and key concepts, ideas, and language that will help both students and faculty engage in discussion of the book.
Note: This video begins with a black screen with presenter audio only for approximately two minutes before the slides begin.
"Inclusive Research by Design"
Presenter: Shea Tanis, Associate Research Professor, Life Span Institute
Description: Disability Visibility clearly and poignantly describes ways in which the world has not been built for people with disabilities and how everyday struggles are due to unanticipated (and sometimes anticipated) structural and systemic barriers. But what if those barriers did not exist? One way to ensure that barriers are not created is by meaningfully including people with disabilities in research and design. Through these models, accessibility is baked into the outcomes rather than trying to retrofit programs, systems, and practices after inequities are identified. In this session, you will learn about inclusive research and design, and how to take initial steps toward accessibility and valued participant engagement in your work.
"Connecting primary sources from the Dole Archive to Disability Visibility – KU Common Book"
Presenter: Julie Clover, Public Education Coordinator, Dole Institute of Politics
Description: Utilize an iconic campus landmark and explore essential primary sources in your instruction of KU’s Common Book! The Robert J. Dole Archives & Special Collections at the Dole Institute of Politics invites students and instructors at all levels and across disciplines to visit our collections for a completely unique and enriching academic experience that complements the Common Book’s political, social, and cultural context. As an American with a physical disability himself, Senator Bob Dole used efforts to promote rights for people with disabilities in the U.S. Congress for over 35 years. The discussion of disability lends easily to primary sources from the Dole Archives to highlight a narrative of how community-voiced problems influenced policy and legislative development which, with key support in Congress, culminated in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a landmark piece of civil rights legislation. In this workshop, specific chapters from Disability Visibility will be related to primary sources and digital collections from the Dole Archives on Kansas and KU disability efforts, with a lens of national dialogue.
SWIFT Education Center’s Approach Aligned to: Disability Visibility:
SWIFT Education Center is a national research and technical assistance center of KU’s Life Span Institute that builds school capacity for equity-based inclusion. This video was produced SWIFT in connection with the 2022-23 KU Common Book program.