KAEE 2024 Conference

You put a lot of work into your newsletters, social media posts, PowerPoints and website -- but are they accessible to people with disabilities? Roberta Burnes will show you how a few simple steps can improve accessibility of your socials, email announcements, PowerPoints and more, to ensure that EVERYONE gets your message. Topics covered will include writing appropriate alt text for images, effective use of color and contrast, and using Microsoft's built-in accessibility checker. Bring your smartphone or laptop for some hands-on practice.

In Growing Gorillas: Building Capacity for Conservation in Community participants will learn to find and collaborate with local organizations that share their conservation mission, hear examples of how the Louisville Zoo is working with partners to increase their audience and capacity for conservation while promoting an accessible entry to global wildlife conservation. The project offers the perfect medium to connect local schools, community groups, and organizations to an international conservation effort through its involvement with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Western Lowland Gorilla SAFE Project and its associated partners. During the session participants will learn how to effectively connect global conservation projects to local issues, practice strategies for mutually beneficial collaboration, and brainstorm ideas to get diverse age groups excited in the same conservation project.

Rethinking Recess provides practical examples of how to reframe our concept of outdoor learning. This session teaches how to remove common barriers to stepping outside of the traditional classroom and working to create the type of learning environment that allows both students and teachers to succeed (with more regulated nervous systems)! Through interactive, hands-on small group sessions, participants will work through real-life examples of challenges as well as success stories of teachers who were bold and brave enough to lean into rethinking recess. Sometimes "new" and innovative approaches are simply a return to honoring childhood.