1. Cultivating Access in the Writing Center
Flexibility, Universal Design, and Multimodality
Annika Konrad, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Electronic copies of slides and handouts available at

2. Agenda Access Orientation What does access mean to you?
What is Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning?
Applying these concepts to our work as Writing Center consultants
Article Discussion
Access Scenarios

3. Access Orientation What access looks like for me…
Please state your name when you speak
Please speak without raising hands
Don’t expect direct eye contact in a larger group
What access looks like for you…
Multiple formats
Multiple means of engagement (individual writing, discussion, video)

4. What does access mean to you?

5. Sushil Oswal, “Multimodality in Motion,” 2014
Access is…
“the ability to use, enjoy, perform, work on, avail of, and participate in a resource, technology, activity, opportunity, or product at an equal or comparable level with others. Separate is not equal and before or after the fact is also not equal”
Sushil Oswal, “Multimodality in Motion,” 2014

6. Why do we need to talk about access?
Until we make our work more accessible, we won’t know who we are excluding.
“What’s good for people with disabilities often ends up being good for everyone.”
Cythia Selfe and Franny Howes quoting Brenda Brueggemann in “Multimodality in Motion”

7. What is Universal Design?

8. What is Universal Design for Learning?
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9. Critiques of Universal Design
It elides or erases disability -- do we need to make something useful for all in order for it to be accessible to people with disabilities?
Who is getting excluded while we work to expand access for “all”?

10. Applications to Writing Center Practice

11. Applications to Writing Center Practice
How does the concept of Universal Design make you think about the space(s) of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence?
How does the concept of Universal Design for Learning make you think about writing center pedagogy?
Hitt suggests developing a multimodal toolkit of “rhetorical strategies that push against fixed communicative interactions.” What are some of the tools you would consider using, or that you’ve used in the past, in your multimodal toolkit for writing center conferences?

12. Access Scenarios
What strategies, multimodal or otherwise, could you use in these situations?

13. General strategies to keep in mind
Access is a “mindset,” rather than a checklist
Remember that while there are many best practices for writing center conferences, they are not fixed models
You can be flexible with time, space, and tools
Offer student writers multiple different options for ways to engage
Pay attention to your own access needs
Access is a collaborative effort - you don’t have to do it perfectly

14. Where to look to learn more
Sarah Groeneveld, “It Begins with a Mindset: Disability in the Writing Center” Another Word: From the Writing Center at Uniersity of Wisconsin-Madison
Alexandra (Sasha) Yambor, “Writing Center Tutors and Students with Learning Disabilities: Perceptions, Feelings, and Tutoring Strategies” Queen City Writers, 4.2
Shannon Madden and Michele Eodice (Eds.). Special Issue of Praxis: A Writing Center Journal “Access and Equity in Graduate Writing Support” Vol. 14, No. 1

15. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thank you!
Annika Konrad
University of Wisconsin-Madison
annikakonrad.com