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With the academic year in full swing, faculty members and instructors may be looking for new ways to embed accessibility throughout their curriculum. To support them, the Centre for Teaching and Learning is hosting a series of speakers who will provide insights and practical guidance to foster a culture of accessibility across Queen’s learning environments. Throughout the fall and winter terms, the series will feature disability studies and disability justice researchers, activists, and educators who will provide practical ideas for making courses more accessible.

“The leading experts who will be giving these talks will offer concrete strategies participants can take away and start implementing in their own teaching,” says Rebecca Sweetman, Associate Director, Centre for Teaching and Learning. “Taken together, the talks explore disability from many different perspectives including that of students and faculty with disabilities. The approaches will offer pedagocial and cultural insights for inclusive teaching strategies. By taking part in the series, we hope members of the Queen’s community will learn valuable new techniques for cultivating equitable physical and digital learning environments on campus.”

The speakers will examine topics such as technology, competing access needs in the classroom, and how Indigenous knowledges can inform inclusive pedagogical practices.

“Prioritizing accessibility is a shared responsibility—one that depends on active collaboration between instructors and students playing a central role in the process,” says Sweetman. “This series will help you think how the classroom can be accessible for learning for students with varied disabilities, and also how it can be an accessible space for teaching for instructors with disabilities.”

The events are open to faculty, students, staff, and the broader community. The speaker series is supported by the Brockington Visitorship.

The Dunning Lecture

The Centre for Teaching and Learning will also encourage reflection on the history of disability politics with the 2025 Dunning Lecture. The talk will be given by Professor Sami Schalk, who teaches in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She will be speaking on the role of the Black Panther Party in the 504 Sit-in, a significant 1977 protest for disability rights in the United States. The online lecture takes place Monday Nov. 10, 2:30 – 4 pm.

Learn more on the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s website.