MACA Quarterly Newsletter - September 2018

Hello MACA members,

As you may have noticed at the top of this newsletter, MACA now has a logo! Thank you to Jessica for creating the logo and spearheading the voting process and to all who voted in the recent survey. We are also excited to welcome our new Programming Chair, Jen Taggart from the Bloomfield Township Public Library. Please see below to learn more about Jen.

Last month, Elena, Jessica, and I attended the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This is the conference that I look forward to the most each year, as everyone talks about accessibility all of the time and there is so much practical information to take home. This year, it was great to have Elena and Jessica along to share the experience. Soon after the conference, the three of us met to compile our ten best takeaways from LEAD to share with all of you. I hope that you find them as helpful as we have.

Caroline Braden,
Executive Chair

LEAD Top 10

The Access Champions Podcast
Phil Dallmann is a super engaging and charismatic speaker. He’s fun to listen to and he was doing some “pop-up” interviews for his podcast at LEAD.
Making Temporary Events and Festivals Accessible
Do you organize temporary events like outdoor festivals? Find out more about how to make them accessible in these documents from the Great Plains ADA Center and Accessible Ontario.
TDF’s National Open Caption Performance Partnership for Regional Theatres
The Theatre Development Fund (TDF) in New York offers a limited number of two-year partnerships with professional regional theatres to sponsor open captioned performances and increase attendance by people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Web Accessibility Guidelines
Did you know that only in 2018, 1,054 lawsuits have been filed due to websites that are not accessible? Make sure your website is accessible.
Hospitality & Disability
Learn more about ADA and see some of the resources that the ADA National Network offers. Their materials are also designed to assist hospitality employers recruit, hire, and retain qualified staff with disabilities.
Hearing Aid - FM Simulation
This is a really good simulation for people who do not use any assistive hearing technology. It’s a good example of how “training” doesn’t need to be a big event, but a sharing of small resources to get staff thinking about how they interact with visitors.
Universal Design for Learning Framework
UDL is a visual framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. It could be a great resource for anyone thinking about programmatic accessibility.
(If you're interested in UDL, be sure to check out our upcoming professional development opportunity!)
The Kennedy Center
A great source for general cultural access resources is the Kennedy Center’s website.They have a list of documents and links, organized by topic and audience.
The National Park Service: All In!
NPS is always a fabulous source for cultural site management documents. If your organization is thinking about incorporating accessibility into its strategic plan, All In! is a great model document as it prefaces the plan with a high-level needs assessment.
Quotes you can Use
“Each step is a success.” – Phil Dallmann
Try to recognize success in every little step toward increasing accessibility, whether it’s a staff training that went well, or even just a productive conversation with a board member.

“Inclusion in the arts matters because it leads to inclusion in life.” – Mickey Rowe (Actor with autism and LEAD's keynote speaker.)
Just in case you ever need a reminder about why we do what we do.

News & Events

Professional Development Opportunities

Opportunity to Observe: Sensory-Friendly Open Rehearsal
September 18, from 1:30 - 3:30
At the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Please RSVP to Kiersten Alcorn (kalcorn@dso.org) if you are interested in observing.

FREE Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Workshop
October 10, from 9:30-11 am
At The Henry Ford - RSVP

This will be an interactive virtual presentation by LaTonya Motley, Learning Design and Accessibility Specialist at MSU.

Michigan Museums Association 2018 Annual Conference
October 28 - 30
At the Dearborn Inn

Click here for registration details and additional conference information.

Meet our Newest Board Member!
We are excited to welcome Jen as our new Programming Chair!

Jennifer Taggart,
Assistant Department Head of Youth Services, Special Needs Collection Librarian, Speaker & Consultant
Bloomfield Township Public Library

Jen has enjoyed being a youth librarian for almost 20 years. She collaborated with special education teachers and therapists to develop the Special Needs Collection at the Bloomfield Township Public Library (btpl.org/youth/special-needs) and adaptive library programs. She has presented on inclusion and accessibility in library services and collection development nationally, in addition to developing the biennial Adaptive Umbrella Workshop. Jen also co-created and serves as chair of the Special Needs Services Roundtable (SNSR) of Michigan librarians providing services for children, teens, and adults with special needs. You can also find her on adaptiveumbrella.blogspot.com.

Our Next Meeting

Monday, November 5, 9:30 am - 11:30 am
Host: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

About MACA

The Michigan Alliance for Cultural Accessibility (MACA) is a consortium of professionals working together in order to enhance the accessibility of Southeast Michigan’s cultural institutions for people with all abilities.

Our mission is to empower cultural institutions in Southeast Michigan to become more accessible and inclusive for people of all abilities. By sharing resources and experiences, leveraging expertise, refining best practices, and building institutional capacity we will increase accessibility for people with disabilities therein increasing accessibility for all.

miculturalaccess@gmail.com

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Michigan Alliance for Cultural Accessibility · PO Box 7315 · Ann Arbor, MI 48107 · USA