About Me

Hello! I’m Shelby

Founder of THADA

Shortly before the start of my first semester teaching, administration sent an email to all faculty reminding them to ensure their courses were ADA accessible. As a new faculty member, I panicked! “What is the ‘ADA’? What is ‘accessibility’? And what do I do to make my courses accessible in under two weeks?” What I didn’t realize at the time was that most faculty filed this email in a special mailbox folder called “trash” (I’m only speculating). But I was new to my school and new to teaching, so it seemed any email coming from administration was a “do or die” command (can any other new faculty relate?). Thus, I embarked on a journey to create an ADA accessible course. This journey was extremely challenging and time-consuming – which is why I speculate that many educators put accessibility reminders  in the “trash” folder. If you’ve ever tried to teach yourself “accessibility”, one of the first struggles is knowing what to learn. I naturally relied on two colleagues: the University’s Distance Learning Coordinator and Google. Both extremely helpful, but neither could really address all my needs. The biggest challenge was not being able to turn to one place for all my questions, a “one-stop-shop” so-to-speak. Thus, I founded the Teaching Headquarters for the Americans with Disabilities Act (THADA, /θeɪdʌ/); Your one-stop-shop for learning and creating accessible, inclusive instructional materials. A place for educators, like you, to take the same journey as I did, but without the challenges.