About Us

SEAT Center Staff

• Dr. Kim W. Fisher, Ph.D., FAAIDD

  Associate Professor of Special Education and SEAT Center Director
  kcwolow@IllinoisState.edu
  (309) 438-8980

• Ms. Karen Rennels, M.Ed

  Coordinator, Clinical Assistant Professor of Special Education

Center Mission

The mission of the SEAT Center is to promote the full participation of disabled, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing youth in schools and in their communities. To do this, we prepare educators to address technology access, knowledge, use, and support by creating inclusive technology-mediated spaces and instruction that facilitate and promote participation in society.

Center Purpose

The purpose of the Center is to promote disabled students’ participation in learning and community spaces by preparing educators to (a) create technology-mediated learning spaces, at school and in the community, that are equitable and accessible to diverse disabled, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing people, (b) seamlessly integrate and use accessible and assistive technology to support participation and access, and (c) support diverse disabled, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing people’s technology knowledge and skill acquisition to participate in society. To that end, the Center engages in research, teaching, and service on technology-mediated participation in three key areas:

• Empower disabled, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing people and the ISU educator community to address instructional technology and digital accessibility in learning and community spaces.
• Support disabled, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing people and the ISU educator community to use assistive technology in learning and community spaces.
• Promote digital literacy skills that support disabled, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing people to access and use technology to participate in learning and community spaces.

What We Offer

• Instruction and Support on Digital Accessibility: Supporting curriculum development and integration on digital accessibility across content areas, including use of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 in instruction. SED 207, 366, and SED 344 all provide instruction related to digital accessibility.
• Instruction on Assistive Technology. Providing learning experiences and integrated instruction opportunities for pre-service and in-service educators to identify and use accessible instructional technologies and seamlessly integrate access assistive technology into spaces in courses like SED 207, 344, 368, and 361 for join us during open hours or monthly events.
• Instruction on Digital Citizenship: Providing learning experiences to integrate digital citizenship and digital literacy skills that are aligned with standards-based instruction and addresses digital participation of disabled students.
• Access to technology. The SEAT Center inventory exploration and load system to current ISU educators. The SEAT Center has extensive assistive technology for exploration available during our drop-in open hours and available for check-out to ISU students.
• Research: Conduct (a) applied research in the PreK-12 and postsecondary environments, (b) scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) studying accessible technology-mediated spaces and participation for youth, and (c) community engaged research studying the role. Reach out to our staff or affiliated faculty to learn about research opportunities.