Closing The Gap was founded in 1982 by Budd and Dolores Hagen, parents of a child with a disability. The Hagens recognized and embraced the revolutionary role technology would play in the life of their son and soon thereafter, began their mission to share the information and possibilities with others. The first edition of Closing The Gap and annual event were born. The Hagens’ work has been instrumental in the development of the assistive technology industry, as well as tools that are helping individuals with disabilities and additional learning needs participate equally with their peers.
Closing The Gap kicks off today in a virtual format and runs through November 11th. The event will gather special educators, rehabilitation professionals, parents, students, administrators and consumers. Verbit’s leaders will be speaking and exhibiting at the event.
Verbit’s session, Driving Student Accessibility & Inclusion Forward, will explore how schools can become leaders in inclusivity to not only accommodate the reported needs of today’s students with disabilities, but all students. Scott Ready, Senior Customer Success Manager and Accessibility Evangelist at Verbit, will take a deep dive into new accessibility tools, trends and technologies to help make both physical campuses and online classrooms more accessible to all students.
We’ll demonstrate a use case of some of these accessibility tools through the lens of Palmer, a university student, and showcase how the right tools end up serving not just Palmer, but her entire class. Attendees will learn how to increase student retention and meet students’ expectations for video and online learning in today’s environment.
Verbit will also be taking part as a virtual exhibitor from today through November 11th to drive awareness about its AI-based captioning and transcription technologies. These tools are designed to help hard of hearing or deaf students, but also help to drive engagement for all students, especially as they learn remotely and can benefit from additional visual aids like real-time captions and interactive tools like our transcripts.
Exhibitors will present their offerings and solutions to help with accessibility, hard of hearing or deaf students, overall education, UDL, seating, positioning and mobility and low vision students. To come visit our virtual booth and learn about the great work being done by our peers in the space, you can register for a free Exhibit-Hall only pass here. You can view the full list of exhibitors here.