The Legacy of Judy Heumann, “The Mother of Disability Rights”

As a child in 1949 living in Brooklyn, New York, Heumann contracted polio and began using a wheelchair for mobility. At the age of five, she was deemed a “fire hazard,” and denied entry to school, according to her website. As a child, her mother advocated for her and she was eventually allowed into school. Though this was among the first discriminatory acts against her, it was not the last. 

“Some people say that what I did changed the world, but really, I simply refused to accept what I was told about who I could be. And I was willing to make a fuss about it.”

“It was still a radical claim that disabled people didn’t see themselves, or their conditions, as something to be pitied. Or that they insisted what most held them back wasn’t their health condition but society’s exclusion — maybe attitudes that they were less capable to do a job, go to college or find romance; or a physical barrier, like a sidewalk without a curb cut,” said NPR’s Joseph Shapiro in an article about Heumann.  

Shapiro shared that he wrote an article about disability rights in 1987 in which Heumann said “Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives — job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example,” she said. “It is not a tragedy to me that I’m living in a wheelchair.” The article was not published because the idea she relayed seemed so “unexpected and strange.”

Starting a Revolution

In 1970, after Heumann passed her oral and written teaching exams, but she ultimately failed the medical exam where she was again deemed a “fire hazard.” This time, examiners said she would not be able to evacuate children or herself during an emergency. Heumann sued the board of education to allow her to become a teacher. The New York Times headline read “Woman in Wheel Chair Sues to Become Teacher” and the article noted she would be the city’s first teacher in a wheelchair. Her lawyers said the case was the first such civil rights suit ever filed in a federal court. 

She was instrumental in the development and passage of Section 504, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which “have been advancing the inclusion of disabled people in the US and around the world and fighting to end discrimination against all those with disabilities.”

“Section 504 became a model for the ADA, which would extend the principles of non-discrimination to all public accommodations, employment, transportation, communications and access to state and local government programs,” NPR said. That means if you’ve ever used an elevator in a subway station or busy public area, if you used the curb cuts to more easily get on a sidewalk, or if you’ve used the accessible restrooms in a public space, you’ve benefited from the ADA. Closed captions, transcripts, and website accessibility, are all other examples of services for disabled people that benefit everyone. 

When Richard Nixon vetoed the 1972 Rehabilitation act, Heumann helped lead a protest that shut down traffic in Manhattan. She also launched a 26-day sit-in at a federal building in San Francisco to get Section 504 of the revived Rehabilitation Act enforced. “(The sit-in) has often been described as the longest nonviolent occupation of a federal building in American history,” The New York Times reported.

More Advocacy Efforts

Heumann never stopped at securing rights for herself, but continued her work for others. Heumann co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID), which was among the first global disability rights organizations led by people with disabilities. The institute is “dedicated to designing, building, and supporting whole community solutions by removing barriers to include people with disabilities.”

Heumann served the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education from 1993 to 2001. From 2002 to 2006, she was the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development. 

She was appointed by President Barack Obama as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights in the U.S. Department of State, a position she held from 2010-2017. She also was the Director for the Department on Disability Services and responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. 

The American Civil Liberties Union said she traveled to countries on every continent to help change the way people perceive those with disabilities and to help remove barriers they face in their everyday lives. Between 2000 and 2015, 181 countries passed disability civil rights modeled after the ADA, according to NPR.

Documentary and Book Release

Just before the pandemic, Heumann was featured in a documentary released at the 2020 Sundance film festival. “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” was about Heumann and others who attended a summer camp (Camp Janed) for children with disabilities in the Catskills. Heumann later was a counselor at the camp. Camp Janed became “the beginnings of a revolution.”

“What I want is for the book and the film — and other books and films — to allow people to recognize the real absence of representation of disability in media, broadly speaking”

Heumann also has a memoir, “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.” Heumann told The Cut, “What I want is for the book and the film — and other books and films — to allow people to recognize the real absence of representation of disability in media, broadly speaking. Black disabled people, Latino disabled people, Asian disabled people, indigenous disabled people, disabled people with visible and invisible disabilities — they’re pretty absent. And yet, in the United States, it’s more than 20 percent of our population. Disability is something that all families experience, temporarily or permanently.”

“Some people say that what I did changed the world,” she wrote, “But really, I simply refused to accept what I was told about who I could be. And I was willing to make a fuss about it.”

Learn more about Judy Heumann on her website. 

Photos courtesy of Judithheumann.com

Benefits of YuJa’s Cloud-Based Storage Solution

Cloud storage is easily scalable, reliable and on-demand. Designed by engineers, scientists and PhDs with a track-record of deploying large-scale distributed systems, the YuJa Cloud is the nucleus of our Video Platform. Every tool within our products leverages the YuJa Cloud technology to deliver a high impact user experience.

Cloud hosting uses a network of connected devices to save files, documents and other media to a remote database, rather than storing them on a computer’s hard drive, a local storage device or an on-site server that is maintained by the organization. Information is retrieved using the internet.

YuJa’s Cloud-Based Storage Offers Many Benefits

Our cloud-based storage is scalable. YuJa’s cloud infrastructure allows your organization to be responsive to demand, whether that means quickly scaling up or down. Storage can easily be expanded to meet the needs of your institution or organization with minimal additional investment. 

We handle the maintenance. Unlike with local storage options, there’s no need for costly hardware purchases or routine maintenance for your staff. YuJa’s skilled support team cares for your data around the clock.

Cloud-based computing makes collaboration simple, effective and practical. Teams can work together from remote locations and access documents from anywhere.

Hardware failures won’t impact your data. Using a cloud-based solution means that the risk of catastrophic local hardware failures is minimized. Cloud-based solutions offer reliability and redundancy to prevent the risk of hardware failure impacting your content.

Cloud-based storage reduces capital expenditure. Using the cloud makes data storage an operating expenditure. Low subscription costs limit initial capital expenditures, and affordable options allow you to easily store all of your institution’s data.

Built-in redundancy ensures consistent availability of your data. YuJa’s cloud-based infrastructure is deployed in multiple physical data center locations across several availability zones and redundant sub-systems. It may sound complicated, but what it means for organizations is that users can access information any time, from anywhere. 

Cloud-based solutions are practical and sustainable. They require far fewer resources for construction, maintenance, and use than local storage options.

Institutions Trust YuJa’s Cloud Infrastructure

The City University of New York (CUNY), Stanford University, Nevada State and Trent University are just some of the hundreds of organizations in North America and beyond that trust YuJa’s Cloud infrastructure to safely and securely store their data 24/7/365.  

Find the Right Fit: Lecture Capture vs. Video Podcasting

To get the most out of your video solution, it is important to choose the right recording tools for the right environment and to ensure everything works together seamlessly to create consistency, to allow for ease in training, and to increase adoption throughout your institution.

Lecture Capture is an Ideal Classroom Solution

Lecture capture, or the recording and archiving of audio and video components of a lecture, is ideal in the classroom, whether you opt for a traditional or flipped classroom structure. The YuJa hardware appliance integrates into all classroom multimedia equipment, streaming your lecture directly to the cloud, while software capture provides organizations with the ability to record anywhere and capture multiple inputs. With automated scheduling, you can capture lectures without any additional work. 

Lecture capture offers the following advantages:

• If you’re recording lectures in a brick-and-mortar classroom, you’re likely to find lecture capture the most practical choice, as you’ll typically be working from a podium in the classroom. 
• If you opt for software-based lecture capture, you will need to initiate the software; however, it will work on any device. Record with a camera or document camera, or record your smart board or external web camera, or any combination of devices.  
• Lecture capture integrates into other classroom multimedia resources, including the SmartBoard. 
• Your students can easily replay, pause and rewind lecture captures for future use.

Additionally, the Software Capture and Browser Capture tools used for lecture capture can be used to create podcasts.

Video Podcasting is Another Powerful Tool to Support Learning

“Podcast” refers to any software and hardware combination that allows automatic downloading of audio files for listening at a user’s convenience.

Video podcasting is ideal for review videos or enrichment materials to supplement work in the classroom; however, it can also be an ideal way to engage with students online, especially in remote learning environments. 

Use cases and advantages include:

• Video podcasting using your own webcam and microphone is an ideal way to offer information to your students.
• The videos stream into the cloud and are stored as part of your learning channel. 
• You can integrate files and materials you’re using directly into your video podcast, or even use an interactive sketchpad to illustrate lessons. This makes video podcasting a practical supplement to classroom learning or an ideal way to present short, manageable lessons for online-only students.

FERPA, Intellectual Property Rights and the YuJa Video Platform

FERPA applies to any public or private elementary, secondary, or post-secondary school and any state or local education agency that receives funds under an applicable program of the US Department of Education. 

YuJa is a FERPA Compliant Enterprise Video Platform 

What does this mean for users of the Video Platform? 

YuJa ensures student privacy and complies with regulations outlined in FERPA. While the Video Platform does contain student directory information, students control how that information is seen and accessed. All academic information is available only to the instructor and cannot be freely accessed. Information may be shared only within the guidelines of FERPA.

FERPA rights include:

• The right to inspect and review records.
• The right to have inaccurate records corrected.
• Written permission to disclose student records, except in certain circumstances.
• The right to refuse to allow directory information to be shared.

How Institutions Can Use Information

YuJa allows students to interact safely and securely with classmates in a protected environment and feel confident that YuJa will never sell personal information to third parties.

Examples of appropriate use of student information under FERPA include: 

• Schools can provide information for financial aid.
• Instructors can provide a list of student names for members of the class.
• Professors can provide students with the ability to check their grades through a private interface.

YuJa only asks for information essential to maintain the classroom learning environment, which remains private and inaccessible to others. Even instructors cannot see email addresses or phone numbers and this information is not shared.

YUJA AND INSTRUCTORS’ PRIVACY

For instructors, maintaining FERPA compliance is essential. YuJa supports these efforts while ensuring students’ privacy rights are protected. Instructors can be at ease knowing they don’t have to be concerned with potential violations of FERPA when encouraging student interaction and engagement. This helps instructors create a safe space for student learning.

Instructors may also be concerned about intellectual property (IP) rights. YuJa stores lecture captures, video podcasts and other materials on the YuJa Cloud. The content’s intellectual property rights are retained by the organization and instructor, not YuJa. A secure group has access to the files instructors choose to share, and membership in individual groups is controlled by the instructor or administrator.

STUDENTS AND PRIVACY, IP CONCERNS

Students may worry about their online privacy, including security of personal information and IP. 

FERPA protects privacy by limiting access to personal information. Instructors will have some information, as does the school administration, but in most cases they don’t have the right to share it without permission. YuJa allows students to interact safely and securely with classmates in a protected environment and feel confident that YuJa will never sell personal information to third parties.

With regard to the security of intellectual property, including files, lecture captures, and other material, YuJa stores data in the YuJa Cloud. This is a secure and stable online storage environment with security protections in place. We place security as our highest priority and use world-class primary data centers.

The Importance of Video Analytics

With video analytics, instructors and administrators can see who watched a video, review video hotspots, and see how long each viewer spent watching different videos. A powerful analytics suite is a key component to a Video Content Management System (VCMS), as it can draw attention to what media is making an impact and how it’s performing. 

YuJa’s Enterprise Video Platform offers a variety of information about individual media files and how users interact with those files. The overall summary shows information on storage, views, viewing patterns and where users stop watching the video, providing instructors with insights on areas where students may be having trouble.

Using Analytics to Improve Play Rate

Your play rate is how often viewers play video content. A low play rate means your investment in video content will be ineffective, and your students, clients and customers won’t learn as much as they could from your videos.

Assessing Video Engagement

Video engagement is how much time people spend watching your video content, and how much they engage with content, whether it’s by asking or answering questions, taking notes, or adding annotations. A higher video engagement means that viewers are staying interested in your content rather than shutting off the video mid-play.

Analytics enable administrators to look closely at individual videos. This can, over time, enable pattern recognition in videos and overall improvement of video content and video engagement. Assessing the following may help to improve video engagement.

• Are viewers watching videos all the way through? If not, when are they stopping the video? Are there any patterns to viewer interest?
• Is the video topically appropriate for the site? Is it relevant to your viewers?
• Does the video meet the needs of your users? Do they have a reason to watch it?
• Which of your videos has performed the best? What has made it a strong performer?

Not only does YuJa’s analytics suite provide an overall summary of data, but it also breaks it down user by user, which allows instructors to identify at-risk students. 

Using YuJa’s Video Analytics

Using video analytics maximizes the value of video content and video content management. YuJa’s Usage and Analytics tools enable an in-depth understanding of how users are watching video, and how your videos are performing on an ongoing basis. With these tools, you can review how students are using your content, what is peaking their interests, and which videos are performing best, which can be used to help guide future lessons.

Make Your Organization’s Content Accessible Across Devices

To make learning accessible across devices, YuJa offers a strong suite of mobile video capabilities, which include a customizable HTML5 player, apps for both android and iPhone phones, Apple and android tablets, and features like adaptive bitrate streaming. 

Feature-Rich HTML5 Player was Designed for Flexible Learning

The HTML5 player was designed with phones and tablets in mind. It provides:

• A responsive design, which allows for automatic scaling to any resolution and screen size.
• Network-sensing technology automatically throttles the quality levels to minimize network impact if a large volume of views occurs.
• Interactive capabilities, such as online quizzes and polls. 
• A scalable global network that can grow with your organization.
• Adaptive bitrate streaming, which improves video startup times, minimizes buffering and rebuffering, and provides a richer media experience for viewers. 

YuJa’s Technology Makes Learning Flexible 

“YuJa automatically optimizes video for effective play across devices and browsers.”

In addition to providing a smooth streaming experience, adaptive bitrate technology supports consistent, quality playback on every device across network types, wireless or wireline. It automatically generates adjustable transcodes for videos, so students who have lower bandwidth can view the video in a lower resolution and bitrate without sacrificing quality.

Using the app (downloadable in the App Store or Google Play), instructors and students can play back media, record captures, upload media, and download content for offline review, which is especially important for students with low bandwidth or where internet connectivity is an issue, as content can be viewed without WiFi.  

YuJa Bridges the Education Gap for Active-Duty Military

Education and Active Duty Military

The United States military supports students who wish to begin or continue higher education while on active duty with tuition assistance and other educational programs for those in the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, and most Reserves. The GI Bill and VA Benefits also are available to help with educational costs no matter the type of degree a student is working toward.

Active Duty Military Students can: 

• Enroll in evening courses on base, provided by local colleges or community colleges.
• Take evening or weekend courses at an institution in a nearby community.
• Take advantage of distance learning opportunities and online learning.

The pandemic has expanded the world of online learning, with many programs now being offered entirely online. This makes remote learning convenient, accessible and flexible even to those with unpredictable schedules, while in-person learning options may vary depending upon where an individual is stationed, their work schedule, and their role in the military. 

Institutions that use YuJa help create distance or remote educational opportunities to support active duty students in meeting their educational goals.

Online Learning for Active-Duty Military

“The pandemic has expanded the world of online learning, with many programs now being offered entirely online.”

Online courses through YuJa allow students to watch lecture captures with integrated multimedia presentations, participate in online real-time discussions, and to connect and collaborate with one another.

To meet the needs of active-duty personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, YuJa offers:

• The ability to watch lectures from any device.
• Features that enable search inside video and to re-watch lecture captures.
• Adaptive bitrate streaming and downloadable content for those with connectivity issues or who don’t have access to WiFi at all times. 
• The potential for instructors or course designers to create flexible, competency-based courses.

Competency-Based Learning: How to Support Non-Traditional Students

What Is Competency-Based Education?

Competency-based education (CBE), or personalized learning, combines the assessment of existing skills with mastery-based academic progression. With this model, instructors assess the knowledge and experience students already possess through work and life experience. Then, individualized educational plans can be created to best meet the needs of non-traditional learners, many of whom are in the workforce as they work toward earning a degree. 

Learner-centric in nature, interest in CBE has grown in higher education over the past decade, and adoption efforts span all institution types, according to the National Survey of Postsecondary Competency-Based Education (NSPCBE).

CBE FOR NONTRADITIONAL LEARNERS

“More research is needed, but early indications suggest that CBE programs often serve a greater proportion of students with prior credits than traditional programs, and institutions price their CBE programs so that the amount students pay may be similar to or lower than for traditional programs,”

Personalized learning solutions offer improved access to education, particularly for non-traditional learners such as adults who are returning to school after years away, and students with families.

“More research is needed, but early indications suggest that CBE programs often serve a greater proportion of students with prior credits than traditional programs, and institutions price their CBE programs so that the amount students pay may be similar to or lower than for traditional programs,” the report noted.

For a student with significant relevant experience, course progression may occur quite rapidly. Non-traditional students may find personalized education more manageable and affordable.

YUJA AND COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION

Traditional classroom structures can fail to support competency-based learning—these set-ups require students to move through material at approximately the same pace, regardless of personal understanding.  

YuJa provides video capture and integrated social tools that enable students to tailor their learning path to reflect their strengths and interests, as well as tools that make attending flipped courses more convenient for the student and easy for the instructor. 

INCREASING COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Competency-based learning leans on innovative technological solutions to help non-traditional students thrive.  A 2020 State of the Field study by American Institutes for Research found that between 2018 and 2020, 128 unique institutions have reported offering at least one operating CBE program, for a total of 1,057 CBE programs. 

Further, 82% of institutions expect the number of CBE programs in the US to increase in the next five years. 

“Despite the major disruptions to institutional operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we see evidence of growth in programs and optimism about the future of CBE, even though barriers remain,” it concluded. 

LTI Compliant Lecture Capture for Seamless Lecture Capture and LMS Integration

Learning tools interoperability allows third-party tools to communicate and work within the structure of a compliant LMS, without the addition of special applications.

LTI integration simplifies the process of faculty lecture capture integration, as well as student access to lecture capture files.

• LTI compliance increases the value of your investment in classroom technology, both in terms of your LMS and your lecture capture technology. 
• LTI allows auto-generation of YuJa accounts in the LMS based on LMS user information, and it logs the user seamlessly into YuJa without the need to enter credentials.

YUJA IS FULLY COMPLIANT

YuJa is fully LTI compliant, making installation and access simple for users. YuJa offers an IMS-certified LTI 1.1, 1.3, and LTI Advantage LMS integration for all commercial LMS systems.

YuJa’s standard LMS integration for all commercial LMS platforms includes:

• IMS-Certified LTI Integration: We offer an IMS-certified LTI integration including provisioning of role, user, and course information. 
• Gradebook Integration: IMS-certified LTI Gradebook integration and native Gradebook integration to automatically import video quiz assessment data.
• Media Chooser Extension for LMS-Embedding: Instructors can directly embed media within LMS pages, modules, announcements, discussions, assignments, and more. Content is deep-linked using the LTI Advantage specification to ensure data is accurately tracked. 
• Single-Sign-On Crosslinking: Integration enables cross-linking capabilities with an institution’s Single-Sign-On provider across non-LMS enterprise systems. 

Other Benefits:

LTI compliance makes it simple to access the features of YuJa, but offers a number of other advantages to users of both your LMS and YuJa:

• Integrate student information, including access rights, directly into YuJa from your LMS.
• Information from the LMS automatically transfers to YuJa, making setup simple.
• Create seamless access to lecture capture video.
• Offer instructors multiple lecture capture options, including with the YuJa appliance, YuJa software interface and YuJa web capture available through the familiar LMS

HOW DOES YUJA INTEGRATE WITH YOUR LMS?

“LTI compliant lecture capture makes lecture capture technology accessible and available through the LMS your faculty and students already know and use.”

YuJa relies upon LMS integration modules designed for common and widely used learning management systems. LTI compliant lecture capture makes lecture capture technology accessible and available through the LMS your faculty and students already know and use. YuJa meets the specifications to integrate with other compliant LMS systems without other technology. 

Integrating YuJa into your LMS is a task for your IT department, but once it is in place, faculty can easily make YuJa available to students directly through the LMS. LTI integration makes the use of lecture capture technology seamless, both for instructors initiating capture in their classrooms and students who need to view lecture capture videos. 

Remote vs Online Learning: What’s the Difference?

The terminology has caused confusion among students and the public at large, but the main differences lie in planning and preparation for these courses. 

Remote learning:

• This type of education is an “emergency measure used to assure continuity of learning.”
• Faculty must quickly adapt and use whatever tools are at their disposal, even if they’re not designed for educational purposes. 
• This type of education may lack user experience if instructors aren’t trained to use available resources.
• Students may or may not have access to technology and internet connectivity needed to fully participate in courses without institutional technology at their disposal.

Online learning: 

• Online courses are purposefully planned and designed to function in an online environment.
• Technology and tools are selected to support the instruction and to help meet objectives.
• Faculty are trained and supported in their use of online teaching tools. 
• Students only enroll in the course if they have the technology and tools to help them be successful.

During the pandemic, many realized that the flexibility of online learning is a benefit that should be afforded to all students, even beyond lockdowns and emergency situations. To that end, selecting technology to support true online learning is critical. 

Create a Successful Online Course With Tools that Support Online Learning

“Courses and content should be available 24/7, so students can learn anywhere, and using any device.”

For a successful online learning experience, a strategic approach must be taken to ensure: 

Availability. Courses and content should be available 24/7, so students can learn anywhere, and using any device. Offering downloadable documents for offline viewing, adaptive bitrate playback, and delivery that facilitate support across a broad range of devices all will help students and instructors be successful. 

Accessibility. Courses should be accessible to all, including providing accessibility features like closed-captioning, high contrast options, compatibility with screen readers, and adherence to standard accessibility templates and frameworks. 

Interaction. Enabling interaction between the instructor and students, and among learners, is important to facilitate idea and knowledge sharing. Each individual should be able to contribute to the learning process. 

Integration. Learning tools should all work together to support your learning ecosystem. Ensure your solution includes enterprise connectors and integration points for cross-compatibility with your LMS, SSO, and other learning tools. 

Support. Train and support both instructors and students in their online educational journey.

Inside Higher Ed concluded that as institutions work to meet the needs of students, they must intentionally design online learning. “We certainly do not expect all courses to be online in the future, but institutions would do well to support all faculty in leveraging digital learning tools and best practices… To best employ such tools in serving students, institutions will need to rely on thoughtful technology selection, faculty development, instructional design and application of proven frameworks to best ensure quality online learning.”