Tag: accessibility

Building a Remote Work Toolkit and Panel Opportunity

Building upon the Archivists at Home remote work advocacy document, the SAA Accessibility & Disability Section is building a remote work toolkit to continue to advance hybrid or fully remote archival work options. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many jobs transitioned at some point to remote work and the Section continues to advocate for the continued adoption of this work approach. 

The benefits of remote work, particularly for archival workers with disabilities, can be truly transformational. Whether it is flexible work hours or personal control over work environment and set up, remote work can be beneficial for both employees and employers. For employers, remote work allows for a wider and more diverse job pool, regardless of geographic location.

The Section has begun compiling examples of remote work job descriptions and remote work policies. Would you like to help us build this toolkit? Volunteer for the team or please send along helpful resources! Contact us at SAAdisabilityarchivists@gmail.com or on Twitter @SAA_ADS.

Additionally, we are also seeking participants for a panel discussion in October for National Disability Employment Awareness Month on the intersection of archival work, disability, and remote work. If you’re interested in participating, submit this form by Monday August 29th.

Join the Accessibility & Disability Section blog editorial team!

Hello, everyone!

Are you passionate about accessibility and disability in archives? Do you love creating and sharing resources? The SAA Accessibility & Disability Section is recruiting for our section blog’s editorial team!

The editorial team develops, cultivates, and publishes content relevant to accessibility and disability in the archives through our section blog. We welcome all ideas for maintaining a thoughtful, creative, and rich blog presence. Some ideas might include event and resource roundups, member spotlights, allyship, and self-advocacy tips. 

This role would be an ex-officio role with the ADS steering committee. The term would be effective through August 2023 and is eligible for renewal. We welcome any current SAA members to apply. If you are interested, please email us at SAAdisabilityarchivists@gmail.com by April 16 with a brief note about yourself and what you would like to see the ADS blog cover over the year.

Seeking volunteers: QA reviewers for SAA Education webinar captions

In 2021, the Accessibility & Disability Steering Committee received a SAA Foundation grant to caption pre-2020 SAA Education courses using the Rev transcription service. We are recruiting volunteers to help with the transcription quality assurance!

If you would like to help us, please fill out this form. Volunteers would be trained by the project coordinator Lydia Tang on how to review and correct captions within the Rev interface. Volunteers need to be a member of the Society of American Archivists. In addition to being able to access the course recording during the QA process, volunteers who would like to get credit toward the DAS Certificate will be able to purchase access to up to 5 course exams at a rate of $40 per exam. For questions about this project, please contact Lydia Tang (lydia.tang@lyrasis.org) and/or SAA Director of Education Rana Salzmann (rsalzmann@archivists.org)

DEADLINE EXTENDED 4/1: Call for Abstracts – Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession (Litwin Books)

Call for Abstracts – Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession (Litwin Books)
Edited by Gracen Brilmyer and Lydia Tang

Key Details:
– Abstracts due: EXTENDED to April 1, 2022 Submit your abstract proposal
– Invitations to submit full papers: April 15, 2022
– Full papers due: August 1, 2022
– Estimated publication: September 2023

Looking for collaborators? Contribute your ideas and connect with others on our brainstorming document

Questions for the editors? Contact Gracen Brilmyer & Lydia Tang

We are inviting contributions from disabled archivists and disabled archival users to bring critical perspectives and approaches to the archival profession for a forthcoming book, Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession (to be published by Litwin Books). This book aims to address disability, ableism, and accessibility as they intersect with the archival profession-through collection development, archival labor, and accessing historical records.

The deadline has been extended to expand representation of ideas and identities within the book. We particularly encourage contributions from disabled people of color.

We are especially are seeking submissions that address:

– Disability collection appraisal, acquisition, description, and preservation that explicitly addresses the nuances of archival theory and practice
– Surfacing disabled narratives in community-based archives that focus on other identities
– Post-custodial practices around disability collections
– Community archives, post-custodial practices, and/or reparative work
– Disability community engagement: creating and sustaining relationships with donors, creators, and community members for historical documentation, events, and outreach
– Funding and fundraising around disability and accessibility
– Navigating challenges with privacy and access for disability collections

Contributions could also address topics including:

– Historical overviews of disability and/or accessibility in the archival field and profession
– Overviews of accessibility, legal regulations, standards, and best practices across different types of archives-community, university, government, corporate, etc.
– Critiques of standards and policies that emphasize legal compliance over actual users
– Disabled users’ experiences of accessibility or inaccessibility of digital and/or physical spaces, archival content, and services
– Calls to action for archives to better support disabled archivists, users, and disability-related collections

Call for Abstracts – Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession (Litwin Books)

Edited by: Gracen Brilmyer and Lydia Tang

Submission form: Please submit your abstract and author details

Looking for collaborators? Contribute your ideas and connect with others on our brainstorming document

Questions for the editors? Contact Gracen Brilmyer & Lydia Tang

Key Points:

– Abstracts due: February 19, 2022

– Invitations to submit full papers: March 1, 2022

– Full papers due: July 1, 2022

– Estimated publication date: September 2023

We are inviting contributions from disabled archivists and disabled archival users to bring critical perspectives and approaches to the archival profession for a forthcoming book, Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession (to be published by Litwin Books). This book aims to explicitly address disability, ableism, and accessibility as they intersect with the archival profession—through collection development, archival labor, and accessing historical records. We seek submissions that cover topics including but not limited to:

  • Historical overviews of disability and/or accessibility in the archival field and profession
  • Overviews of accessibility, legal regulations, standards, and best practices across different types of archives—community, university, government, corporate, etc.
  • Critiques of standards and initiatives that emphasize legal compliance over actual users 
  • First-person experiences from disabled archivists or users working with disability collections and connecting with the past
  • Disabled archivists experiences in the workplace: job requirements, disclosure, accommodations, self-advocacy, and ableism
  • Professional values, ableist expectations, and job precarity for disabled archivists (for tenure, promotions, contract renewal, etc.) 
  • Funding and fundraising around disability and accessibility
  • Disability collection appraisal, acquisition, description, and preservation
  • Archival absences in collections and the evolving concept of who and what is worthy of remembrance
  • Navigating challenges with privacy and access for disability collections
  • Disabled users’ experiences of accessibility or inaccessibility of digital and/or physical spaces, archival content, and services
  • Gatekeeping and stigmatization: the policing of behavior, bodies, and disabled people in reading rooms
  • Disability community engagement: creating and sustaining relationships with donors, creators, and community members for historical documentation, events, and outreach
  • Proposals or best practices for disabled leadership and disability-centered hiring, inclusive workplaces, and job models
  • Calls to action for archives to better support disabled archivists, users, and disability-related collections

We welcome contributions especially from multiply marginalized or minoritized archival workers and users of archives as well as a broad representation of archival repository types. We also actively seek contributors from outside academia who reflect on their experiences in archives. 

Abstracts are encouraged to be under 500 words in length. 

Please submit your abstract and author details by February 19, 2022.

We are also recruiting peer reviewers for this book. If you wish to be considered as a peer reviewer, please fill out the Peer Reviewer Recruitment form. Possible peer reviewers will be contacted in late spring.

October-November Resources!

Hello, everyone!

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and several other disability awareness commemorations. 

Here is a brief list of upcoming free and low cost webinars:

DLF Accessibility Working Group’s free webinar “Inclusive Design and Accessible Exhibits: Some Guidance for Libraries, Galleries, and Museums” taught by Sina Bahram, October 12, 3-4:30 ET

“Neurodiversity Rising: Eliminating Bias from Hiring” free virtual conference featuring speakers including Temple Grandin, Yuh-Line Niou, and Finn Gardiner, October 14, 1-3:30 ET

The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) will be hosting two disability-focused webinars (scaled registration fees):

  • Disabilities Consciousness Raising
    Thursday, October 15th, 2020 from 12pm-1pm PST
  • Practical Applications for Disabilities Consciousness Raising (including Immediate Past Chair Lydia Tang as a panelist)
    Friday, October 16th, 2020 from 12pm-2pm PST

Stay tuned on their website for registration information!

The Library Accessibility Alliance has been putting on free webinars on accessibility:

The University of Maryland has created a host of webinars for this month. While the content is primarily oriented towards the UMD campus community, the webinars appear to be free and open to the public. Session topics include workforce recruitment, accessible courses and teaching, #BlackDisabledLivesMatter, Mental Health Awareness Week, IT accessibility, self-care, adaptive sports, disclosure and accommodations, disability rights, and disability stigma. Steering committee member Zachary Tumlin is a co-organizer and moderator for the October 5th event. 

The Starkloff Disability Institute is having a Workforce, Workplace Disability Summit series of free webinars every Wednesday this month:

Oct 7 – Accomodations and the Remote Workplace

Oct 14 – Creating a Culture of Inclusion

Oct 21 – Digital Accessibility: What HR Professionals Need to Know

Oct 28 – The Role Your D&I Team Plays During Crisis

We also want to acknowledge the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who was a champion of disability rights. May her memory be a revolution.

Do you know of other resources or news to share? Please feel free to share it or send it to us to amplify! adsectionblogSAA@gmail.com

Be well,

Lydia Tang

~ on behalf of the Accessibility & Disability Section Steering Committee