January 28, 2021 at 4pm EST – Access and accessibility in online and hybrid learning environments – Dr. Mary Rice and Dr. Michael Dunn
Please join us in this timely and valuable session.
The discussion will focus on the major access and accessibility issues in online learning, including remote and hybrid learning. We will talk from the perspective of support for students who struggle to learn unless specific attention is paid to helping them into the learning environment and making instructional materials available and easy to use.
Mary Frances Rice is an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has conducted research on online learning in 30 US states and has worked with scholars, teachers, and students in Germany, Sweden, China, and India as well. 
Mary was named an Emerging Scholar by the Online Learning Consortium in 2017 and she is an assistant editor for the Online Learning journal. She also the program chair for the Online Teaching and Learning special interest group of the American Educational Research Association. In 2020, teaching materials about teaching diverse learners developed with her collaboration received the Creative Works Award for Innovative Scholarly Work. Since 2015, Mary has published nearly 50 articles and book chapters and edited 2 special issues of journals and 3 books about inclusive online teaching and learning.
Dr. Michael Dunn is an associate professor of special education and literacy at Washington State University Vancouver ad teaches undergraduate and graduate courses applicable to K-12 educators. 
His areas of research interest include: writing strategy interventions, struggling writers, learning disabilities, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), inclusion strategies for students with disabilities, and general education teachers’ referral criteria and processes for students’ possible special education classification and placement. He taught in Toronto (Ontario) area elementary/middle schools for 11 years. His student caseload included learning disabilities (reading, writing, and/or math) as well as other disability types. Dr. Michael Dunn’s recent awards include: the Organization of Teacher Educators in Reading (OTER, a group within the International Literacy Association) chose his 2011 published manuscript in their Journal of Reading Education as the 2011-2012 Outstanding Article Award; and in 2012, the College of Education awarded Dr. Michael Dunn the Judy Nichols Mitchell Research Fellow Award, which provided $10,000 for his research in each academic year across 2012-2015.
