ACTFL 2011 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo

On November 18-20, 2011, I attended the ACTFL 2011 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo in Denver. This was a large and exciting event: the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo attracted more than 7,000 teachers, administrators, method instructors and students of foreign languages at all levels from across the world. The convention featured over 600 educational sessions on such topics areas as: Assessment, Culture, Curriculum, Literature, Methods/Techniques, Advocacy and Policy Issues, Professional Development, Research, Specific Purposes, Standards and Technology.

The Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver

 One session I particularly enjoyed was "Collaborating with Disability Services: Design Strategies for Inclusive Classrooms," presented by Wade Edwards of Longwood University, Sally Scott of University of Mary Washington, and Susan Hildebrandt of Illinois State University. This session considered how to proactively design college courses to meet the needs of diverse learners, including students with disabilities, with the goal of reducing the need for retroactive accommodations. The presenters discussed their five-year collaboration with the disability services offices on their respective campuses and the outcomes they had been able to achieve, such as more students with disabilities succeeding in certain subjects like foreign language classes that traditionally such students were waived from taking, even as the number of self-disclosing students with disabilities has grown in recent years. This presentation was gratifying outcomes-based and included hard numbers, rather than simply anecdotal evidence; it was encouraging to see that the combination of increased awareness of potential barriers and the implementation of inclusive instructional strategies really did make a difference!

I especially enjoyed the questions from the audience, which ranged from online teaching to colleges' disability policies to discipline-specific inquiries, and the opportunity to engage with folks who had "been there" from both the instructional side and the administrative side. I've reached out to Wade Edwards, Sally Scott, and Susan Hildebrandt and we are working on the possibility of designing a webinar to bring their expertise on accessibility to Colorado Mountain College. I'm very excited to have had the chance to attend the ACTFL convention and become acquainted with such interesting work, which has expanded my awareness of learning disabilities and universal design or accessibility.
.