Dr. Courtney Wilt Dr. Courtney Wilt graduated with her PhD from the Department of Special Education, University of Kansas in 2021. Since graduating, Courtney has been working at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater as an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Professional Studies. It is her enthusiasm for teaching and engagement with students that prompted this action research project! Within the UWW community, Courtney and her colleague Dr. Matthew Wolfgram mentor an undergraduate action research collective, which began in Fall of 2021, to better understand the experiences ..read more

A Disability Advocacy Organization Focused on Inclusion December is an exciting time!  Many of us are planning for the holidays, preparing for final exams, and wrapping up a busy semester.  For me, December is also an exciting time to reflect and prepare for the annual TASH conference.  TASH is an advocacy organization that is focused on inclusion for individuals with significant support needs.  Members of TASH include researchers, family members, self-advocates, educators, policy professionals and many more.   Each quarter, TASH publishes two ..read more

Inclusion, equality and equity are hot topics these days here in the USA and internationally. We’re becoming more aware of inequalities and the need for equity, whether it’s in relation to race, ethnicity, disability, gender and/or socio-economic differences, and you too have a role to play.  There are many human rights treaties signed and ratified by a majority of countries around the world, some of which include the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the UN Convention on the Eliminatio ..read more

I was introduced to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in 2006. I jumped into the implementation of UDL in 2007 and have since found a home in UDL. The framework teaches me, challenges me, frustrates me, and brings me hope. In 2006, I came across the book Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age by David Rose and Anne Meyer (2002). While I was really interested in the book, I wasn’t in the K-12 environment at that point. I was, however, leading a solo research project through the Indiana Department of Education. Three districts agreed to engage families and staff around a participa ..read more

Elementary school classroom in Gicumbi, Rwanda. When most people think of Rwanda, they cannot help but remember the country’s tragic history. In a period of 100 days in 1994, over a million Tutsi were killed in what is considered one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. Today, however, Rwanda is better thought of as a country of warm, welcoming people and diverse natural beauty. Known as the land of a thousand hills, the mountainous central African country is located just 75 miles south of the equator and boasts dense, equatorial forests in the northwest and a tropical savannah in ..read more

The 2019 Cohort members were asked to provide a word(s) that summed up their experience, a few sentences and a symbolic picture! GRATEFUL This year was not what any of us expected, but I still find myself really grateful. I’m grateful for my cohort and the community we formed, grateful to my research team for providing me with so many new experiences, grateful to the KU Special Education Department staff for their wisdom and guidance, and grateful that I chose KU over other opportunities. In a time where I should be missing family back home in NM, I feel like I’ve found one here at KU as well ..read more

We shall not fail or falter, we shall not weaken or tire – neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long drawn trails of vigilance or exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.  Sir Winston Churchill It was just about four AM on a warm August morning. I just landed in Kansas on my first visit here. My phone was discharged (dead), and I had no clue if the cab service I booked had shown up. This is because I was seven hours late. My flight which was scheduled to land at seven pm had now made it at four AM. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder and a man t ..read more

An Interview with Richard J. Whelan By Jim Teagarden, Robert Zabel, and Reece Peterson In describing his most memorable student, Richard Whelan said, “…I had the opportunity to work with the Space Child. He believed he was a general in outer space who commanded countless space ships. He sailed to faraway regions of space, destroyed stars, and invaded numerous solar systems. Space Child was written up in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic in 1952. On cold winte ..read more