ATHEN meets [infiltrates?] EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE, to quote their website, "is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology." They are the leading organization as regards IT in postsecondary education and oversee the '.edu' domain tag. For several years now, AHEAD and ATHEN have made attempts to become more involved with Educause but these attempts have fallen by the wayside either due to indifference or disinterest on the side of Educause. Like much of the world outside of disability services and access technology, it is likely that Educause knows who we are and that what we do is important, but they just cannot figure out how to incorporate us into the framework. If we could just get our professional foot-in-the-door it would definitely elevate access technology from a side-job of Disability Services to an entity of its own right as part of campus IT.

Several inroads have been made over the years, most notably through the presenting and publishing efforts of members Terry Thompson, Sheryl Burgstahler, and Norm Coombs and others. Last month, Educause announced that AT pioneer and technology visionary Ray Kurzweil would be the keynote speaker for the 2006 Annual Conference. Terry Thompson contacted Ray and asked him to consider including access technology and accessibility issues within his address to Educause. In a very positive response, Ray said that he would include accessibility among his remarks. [If you are reading this Ray - 'Thank You'].

Another step was taken recently when Educause created a Community Blog Service open to members. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I have set up a blog in the Educause space and look forward to sharing the best of ATHEN at my blog site. A recent posting advertised the upcoming forum on Making Knowledge Accessible in the Digital Age being sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Responses to this post, via eMail and blog comments, have been positive, with one reader asking "Is there any chance of having something like this at the Educause annual conference, where it will be (ahem) "accessible" to more of us?"

I encourage all members of ATHEN whose institutions are members of Educause to seek out your Primary Representative and ask about being listed as a Participating or Subscribing Representative. The resources and professional development opportunities available to registered members are definitely worth the effort - and it also puts you in sight of your home IT as well as on the Educause radar screen.