Welcome to Ep 164: Creative and Expressive Learning Pathways with Jill Weidknecht Van Horne. Jill Weidknecht Van Horne, PhD, is my friend and colleague and is an Associate Professor and the Program Director of the Professional School Counseling Program at Appalachian State University. She is also the past president of the European Branch of the American Counseling Association and past vice-president of the North Carolina Association for Play Therapy. Her equine therapy class has been featured on our local PBS affiliate UNC-TV and I have a link to that video and her newly released book for which she is an editor writing under the name Jill Weidknecht in the resources. The book is Treatment Planning, Writing, and Documentation in Creative and Expressive Arts Therapies: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals. In our conversation, we discuss the connections between UDL and expressive and creative arts therapies and consider how her work in play therapy and equine-assisted therapy provides an empathetic lens for her to better understand learner variability and the various pathways for learning in her students. Thank you for listening to the Think UDL podcast!

Welcome to Ep 163: Low Tech, No Tech Accessibility Considerations with Sarah Silverman. Sarah Silverman, PhD is an independent faculty developer and instructor of Disability Studies. As an autistic educator, she has a personal stake in Neurodiversity as well as extensive college teaching and faculty development experience. Her interests include accessible and feminist pedagogy, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the history of the neurodiversity movement. Her book Classroom Mindscapes: An Introduction to Neurodiversity for Educators is forthcoming from the University of Oklahoma Press in September. In this conversation, Sarah and I discuss options for faculty members who are considering low tech, no tech, or more analog classroom activities or educational environments. We talk about access friction and decisions that might need to be considered in order to meet the needs of current students with competing access and technology needs. Sarah has been recently working on this topic and will have an upcoming workshop on this on July 21st. If you are listening to this podcast before or after that date in 2026, you’ll be able to find the sign-up or the results of that session in this episode’s resource section just before the transcript on ThinkUDL.org. You’ll also be able to find the other resources we mention throughout the conversation there.

Aloha and welcome to Episode 162: Sensory Spaces with Hazel Gedikli, Holly Manaseri, and Manca Sustarsic. All three of my guests are from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hazel Gedikli is the Interim Director of the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support, or OFDAS, as you will hear my guests reference it in today’s podcast. Holly Manaseri and Manca Sustarsic are both Faculty Members at the Center on Disability Studies. Today we will discuss the Sensory Room Initiative, a grant funded venture from OFDAS and the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which created a sensory room for faculty, staff and students along with the research about its effectiveness. You’ll learn everything you need to know about how to start your own and why it could be important to your campus.