I'm so proud to work at the largest urban university in Oregon and the most diverse, and that diversity includes students with disabilities, whether they are studying here on our campus or at a distance. Many years ago when I did my dissertation for my doctorate, it was on tactile maps, which are maps for the blind. I mentioned that because I think oftentimes, people don't think about the kinds of resources and tools that are needed by all of our students. I'm Angel Chesimet, I am a graduate student here at PSU, and I'm also totally blind. My name is Steven Brown, my sign name is Steven Brown and I'm a deaf individual, I'm a student here at PSU, and have been for some time now. My name is Christine Getman and I studied Community Health Education at Portland State. I still need to finish my psychology degree and I'll be going back to do that very soon. Hi, I'm Terry Blosser, and I'm a student at Portland state, I'm a senior and my major is history. I use different accommodations, I use what we call eText, and I also utilize something called real-time captioning, and I also utilize something called the FM monitor system. I use a screen reader, and so I need documents in a format that my screen reader can access, which means usually a Word document or some PDF documents. So if there is something that's posted and it's not accessible, then that means that I'm only getting 20 percent of what's required for that course. I feel like teachers need to maybe be a little more open-minded and understand that need for closed captions. I feel like it happens so often for me that I'm watching the interpreter in one place and then there's a TV screen or something else I have to follow that's in a separate place, the interpreter, it's like a tennis match, you have to walk back and forth. If I'm watching the screen and it has the captions, I can see their face, I can see what's happening, I can see how the voice coincides with the facial expression and the emotion, and I understand all the language that's happening. With President Obama's speech, for example, when they are talking about the healthcare for passing, that was a historical moment, that was this huge moment in time, and you knew there was this sense of inspiration and people had that first moment of hearing would have happened, it would impact all our futures, and it was this important moment in history, and I missed that. I wouldn't change a lot about my experience of using online classes, however, it would ask the instructors be aware of in time difference for completing the online tasks. It takes a little bit longer for me to navigate through the website, as well as completing long written assignments and essays. I can do pretty much what any other student can, but it might take me just a little bit longer, because I'm actually listening. [BACKGROUND] Whereas, when you use your eyes, you're actually scanning and that is a lot faster. In my opinion, if a student with a disability discloses that they need a specific accommodation or some arrangement for completing the coursework, I believe that is opening the door for the instructor to actually ask questions and make sure that they can serve the students appropriately. It's really important for me as a student with a visual impairment to have open communication with instructors in order for me to be successful in a class just like any other student. We're not asked to be treated any different from any other student, we follow the course syllabus just like every other student. We are told you have to read a 100 pages or whatever before the next class. Trust me, I have to do two times, three times, possibly even four times as much work to be able to read those 100 pages compared to a normal sighted student, so it's a real challenge for somebody like myself. As a community of scholars here at PSU, it's important that we're all committed to creating learning environments that are accessible for all learners, and certainly navigating those online courses and digital media. Requires us to use resources on campus, like the Disability Resource Center in Smith's Student Union, that the staff at the Disability Resource Center or consultants and helpers to faculty as they make these very important decisions about how to construct the learning environment, what tools to use, and how to remove barriers to learning in that classroom. So it's just so important that our faculty utilize all the resources that are available to them here at PSU to help both them as instructors and scholars to be successful, but especially to help our students to be successful in the classroom. We're really doing a whole rethink of Portland State University's curriculum, and we have a great opportunity as we use more and more technology in order to be able to think about the ways in which our students learn and be able to provide them with the tools that they need. So my hope is that all of us faculty in particular, but all of us really take into account the kinds of things that we need to do to make this a great, accessible place for students.