Agenda & Session Overviews

The intent of this 90-minute panel discussion style workshop is to explore the development and implementation of affinity groups at one diverse , community college institution in the Kansas City region. “Affinity groups, also known as employee resource groups (ERGs), bring together employees with similar backgrounds or interests and can have a powerful influence in the workplace” (SHRM, 2019). The format of this workshop would be a moderated panel discussion with expert panelists who bring rich knowledge and experience in leading affinity groups, followed by break-out sessions around each affinity group area: African American Faculty/Staff Affinity Group, Latin X Affinity Group, LGBTQ Affinity Group, and Women’s Mentorship and Networking Affinity Group. The panel discussion and question portion would focus on issues of developing new affinity groups, programming and collaboration and maintaining momentum across the spectrum of new to mature groups. The break out portion of the session would allow participants to connect with other groups they either have interest in starting or leading, where participants can share ideas, resources and best practices.

This presentation will demonstrate how audio description (AD) provides access to the arts and myriad cultural activities for people who are blind. AD, a form of audiovisual translation, translates visual images to a sense form that is accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. Using words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative, describers observe, select, and then succinctly and vividly use language to convey the visual image that is not fully accessible to a segment of the population—the American Foundation for the Blind notes that 31 million Americans are blind or “have difficulty seeing even with correction”.

Cultural activities are an important element of our society, often expressing values, trends, fads, historical perspectives, or future directions. People who are blind or visually impaired want and need to be a part of society in all its aspects. Audio description – for media, voiced in pauses between lines of dialogue or critical sound elements – provides the means for blind or visually impaired people to have full and equal participation in cultural life. This is particularly true within higher education contexts, in arts presentations on campus and in every academic presentation or lecture that includes visual elements.

In the United States and in countries throughout the world the principal constituency for audio description has an unemployment rate of about 70%. With more meaningful access to our culture, people become more engaged with society and more engaging individuals—thus, more employable.

This trend talk will share findings from community conversations that focus on identifying innovative ways to increase the competitive integrated employment of college students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The presenters will graphically display and discuss (a) innovative strategies communities can use to prepare college students with IDD for competitive integrated employment and (b) ways in which community members can work together to implement these strategies.

College completion is important for both individuals and the economy, as the Coordinating Board for Higher Education recognized in setting the “Big Goal.” Yet, disparities in degree completion by student demographic characteristics have been persistent over time. Using publicly available data from DESE and DHEWD, we present trends in postsecondary access and success for Missouri high school graduates, providing an in-depth examination of how these results vary by geographic region and high school characteristics including school locale, racial composition, and income levels. This trend talk, in addition to our reports on postsecondary access and success in Missouri, is intended to encourage civic leaders, educators, and the public to focus on postsecondary access and success when they consider the performance of Missouri high schools.

Findings indicate college enrollment in Missouri has declined and credential attainment has remained relatively stagnant over the last decade. We observe clear differences in college access and success for our students based on school location and student population, with the largest disparities occurring by income and racial composition of high schools.

KC Scholars is achieving uncommon results with scholarship programs for low and modest income individuals in the Kansas City Metro. The program serves 6,069 scholars with 81% individuals of color in three scholarship programs. The first cohort of traditional scholarship awardees have a 94% annual persistence rate and a projected 70+% graduation rate for next spring. Learn about the this program as well as the exciting new endeavors for KC Scholars including short term pathways to jobs paying $45,000-$85,000 and the KC Talent Network.