The Accessibility Co-Chair is a volunteer Officer position on the OWCA Executive Board.
Position Description
- Length of term: 2 years (June 2024 to December 2025)
- Time commitment: ~8 hours per month (includes synchronous and asynchronous work)
- Renewable?: No
- Elected by: OWCA membership
Qualifications
We welcome applications from anyone passionate about accessibility, regardless of prior experience with professional associations. The Executive Board will support you as a new Board member and help you to implement your ideas.
You should apply for this position if you:
- Would like to develop/hone skills in accessibility and inclusive event design
- Would enjoy working with others to strategize and implement initiatives related to accessibility, disability, and neurodiversity
- Have ideas for fostering equitable accessibility, such as offering support to professionals and/or institutions or planning and hosting virtual events
Responsibilities
If elected, you would serve 1 year as Accessibility Co-Chair, followed by 1 year as Accessibility Chair.
Year 1: Accessibility Co-Chair
As Accessibility Co-Chair, you would do the following within your monthly time commitment:
- Work closely with the Accessibility Chair and receive mentoring as needed
- Attend Accessibility Committee meetings and lead the meetings when the Accessibility Chair is not available
- Help to ensure that OWCA (our website, our events, etc.) is equitably accessible
- Help create and develop OWCA’s accessibility/disability scholarship repository
- Help work with other OWCA committees throughout the year (such as Virtual Events and Diversity & Social Justice)
- Attend monthly Executive Board meetings to report on your committee’s progress, review items that need Board feedback/approval, and vote on Board and committee projects
Year 2: Accessibility Chair
As Accessibility Chair, you would do the following within your monthly time commitment:
- Work closely with the incoming Accessibility Co-Chair and mentor them as needed
- Chair the Accessibility Committee, which involves scheduling and leading committee meetings, delegating tasks to committee members for both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, and organizing committee files
- Determine committee objectives for the year and the following year (as necessary)
- Advise on events, such as workshops for OWCA members
- Maintain OWCA’s accessibility/disability studies scholarship repository and Accessibility Statement according to current scholarship
- Work with other OWCA committees as necessary throughout the year (such as Virtual Events and Diversity & Social Justice)
- Attend monthly Executive Board meetings to report on your committee’s progress, review items that need Board feedback/approval, and vote on Board and committee projects
The Accessibility Committee
In the past, the OWCA Accessibility Committee has worked synchronously and asynchronously to accomplish the following:
- Help make virtual events equitably accessible, such as the annual virtual conference and various workshops
- Draft accessibility guides and examples for conference presenters
Currently, the Accessibility Committee is working to accomplish the following:
- Preparing to complete and publish the Accessibility Statement.
- Create alternate versions, such as audio, of the Accessibility Statement.
- Prepare for the 2024 Annual Conference
Learn More
To learn more about this position and the OWCA, you can attend an Informational Session.
You can also review the following pages on our website:
If you have questions, please email election@onlinewritingcenters.org.
How to Apply
Please create ONE of the following:
- written statement (200-300 words) OR
- video statement (2-3 minutes). Video statements should be uploaded to YouTube and include edited closed captions for accessibility (please review the OWCA Guide for Video Applications for assistance).
Your statement will be shared with OWCA members for voting. In your statement, please answer the following questions:
- Why do you want to be more involved with the OWCA and to hold the position of Accessibility Co-Chair?
- What values and/or experiences would inform the way you support accessible and equitable learning and mentoring through the OWCA?
- What ideas do you have for the OWCA to better support members, volunteers, and/or the larger writing center community?
Submit
Applications for this election are due May 6th (by end of the day)
