Project ShIFT Grant

In August, 2008 the Disability Resources department was awarded a three year grant for more than a million dollars from the Department of Education to improve the quality of higher education for students with disabilities using Universal Design Principals and social model thinking.

Universal Design Information

• Universal Design Principles
• Universal Design Instructional Methodologies

Proposal Abstract

Project ShIFT, Shaping Inclusion through Foundational Transformation, will build on the excellent resources created by previously funded grants to demonstrate a model that offers sustainability in institutional change by addressing underlying systems and campus-wide conceptualizations of disability. Curricular change and faculty development activities will be implemented through a systemic analysis and retraining of the campus disability services (DS) staff. This initial emphasis on creating progressive philosophical constructs of disability within the DS office, uncovering and correcting negative messages that are transferred to faculty, and assuring skills in faculty development will provide the basis for a profound campus shift. Once DS offices have begun to incorporate social model thinking and universal design (UD) into their own operations, project activities will guide them in transferring this knowledge and skill to faculty. They will serve as leaders for faculty in the redesign of curriculum, the use of UD instructional strategies, and the infusion of disability into course content.

Project ShIFT consists of a three-part Summer Institute that will provide resources and professional development activities for two groups of higher education professionals: DS staff and faculty. In Year I, DS staff will examine the policies and practices of their offices and create an action plan to infuse a social construction of disability and UD into their operations. In Year II, the DS staff will invite one faculty member to accompany them back to the Institute and guide that faculty in creating curriculum and teaching strategies that infuse new conceptualizations of disability and UD into their classes. In Year III, emphasis will be on summarizing, documenting, and sustaining successful changes and in increasing capacity. Project participants will be supported in their activities through curriculum materials and guides, monthly technical assistance conference calls, and a Project Web site.

The ultimate objective of Project ShIFT is to improve the quality of higher education for students with disabilities, measured through:

1. The difference between the rate at which students with documented disabilities complete courses taught by faculty trained in project activities and the rate at which other students complete those courses, and
2. The percentage of faculty trained in project activities that incorporate elements of training into their classroom teaching.

Additionally, the project will create and disseminate training curriculum for DS staff to analyze and enhance their own policies and practices and guide faculty in the development of more inclusive courses, the template for a DS action plan, implementation plans for faculty, and a replication manual. Campus-wide dissemination will be through trained DS staff and faculty with the goal of increasing institutional capacity; national dissemination will be through publication, presentation, and a Project Web site.

Recognizing the importance of a strong evaluation plan, the project includes a full-time evaluator who will track long-term data on student outcomes and develop assessment measure for all project activities throughout the project duration. All objectives are presented in measurable terms.

Overview and Narrative* - more details about the grant.

For additional information, contact Bob Choquette at choquetter@lanecc.edu.

*(requires Adobe Reader to view)