The Future is Accessible
Leading Disability Services with Vision and Purpose
ORAHEAD Fall Conference 2025
Wednesday, November 5th, through Friday, November 7th
Hallmark Resort — 744 SW Elizabeth St, Newport, OR 97365
Welcome / Conference Overview
Join professionals, educators, and advocates shaping the future of disability services. Explore visionary leadership, inclusive design, and practical tools for accessibility
“The future is accessible means that we are seeking to make our environments — to create universal accessibility for everyone.”
Wednesday, November 5th
9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Check-in
10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. - Welcome
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Keynote Speaker: Ned Scott Laff, PhD, Author of ‘Hacking College’ & Jamie Opdyke, Linfield University
Hacking College, A Conversation on Tackling Wicked Problems
What if college were about becoming someone rather than just earning a degree? Inspired by Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn’t Matter — and What Really Does, this interactive session explores how disability professionals can help students strategically use the “blank spaces” in their undergraduate experience. We’ll discuss exploring multiple academic and vocational pathways, leveraging curiosity and initiative to access the hidden job market, and creating meaningful experiences that go beyond checkboxes and GPAs.
Participants will also reflect on our own journeys: how we landed in disability services, where vocation intersects with our work, and why, yes, there are 50 ways to get to Denver. Through stories, reflection, and a bit of humor, attendees will leave with strategies to help students not just survive college, but design it in ways that are creative, flexible, and human-centered - practicing the simple question: “What can’t we do?”
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Lunch (provided)
Intro to Art & Podcast project
2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - Session One
Let’s Talk!: Producing Multimedia for Accessibility presented by Miri Newman, Portland Community College
Let’s Talk! is PCC’s first digital storytelling space that centers the unique experience of being disabled in academia as part of a team inside Accessible Education and Disability Resources, creating cultural space and visibility for disabled students as well as making community outreach through partnerships. Let's Talk! also partners with KBOO FM and XRAY FM for radio broadcasting of our programming.
In this session, Miri Newman, podcast producer, will share the vision and workflow of the podcasts. The Collective aims to bring in disabled voices, and bring the unseen challenges faced by those with disabilities into the public consciousness. We create our podcasts with help from student interns from the Multimedia department, and provide paid learning opportunities for students seeking experience in an industry environment.
In addition to the presentation, the lead producer of Let's Talk! (Miri Newman) will create an episode documenting the stories, challenges, and goals of conference participants to be posted for sharing on our website.
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Session Two
The Power of Plain Language presented by Mel DeLeon and Anette Hassold, Portland Community College
Language has power. Power to include and inform, or to leave some readers confused, not trusting, and feeling left out. When content is written in a way that the actual audience can understand what is being communicated and know what to do, then it is inclusive. Too often, writers can get caught up in their own beliefs that plain language means dumbing down content. New ADA WCAG guidelines also support plain language for web content. Let's better understand plain language, and have a short hands-on practice session.
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. - Happy Hour Sponsored by Simplicity
Dinner (on your own)
Thursday, November 6th
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. - Breakfast Buffet
9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. - Session Three
Diversity Representation in Graphic Novels presented by Dane Johns, Rogue Community College
Graphic Novels are one of America’s most important entertainment mediums. Not only are they a multibillion-dollar industry, but historically they’ve been forces for change. Graphic novels were one of the first media formats to treat addiction as a medical issue, one of the first forms of entertainment to regularly feature women and people of color, and have reliably tackled all manner of difficult real-world issues. American Graphic novels’ diverse cast of characters were often far ahead of their time, and we all know that representation matters. This is especially true for disability representation. Join Dane Johns, a lecturer on Graphic Novels and member of Rogue Community College’s Access and Disability Resources team for a discussion around disability representation in American graphic novels.
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Session Four
Building a Community for Autistics, for Autistics presented by Justin Bowman, Oregon State University
The Autism Community Group is a group that is open to all Autistic students at Oregon State University. In this presentation, I will discuss Autism, the importance of building a community for Autistic students, and the benefits of the group. I will will also discuss how we meet, what we discuss, activities that the group does, and how the group stays connected outside of group meetings.
12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Lunch (on your own)
2:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - Session Five
How Does Your Office Advance Narratives of Intersectional Equity? presented by Jewls Griesmeyer-Krentz, Willamette University
The Intersectional Identity Force and Dynamic Salience Model is a tool to assess how well your office policies, practices, and implicit attitudes pull students with intersectional identities toward dominant deficit narratives, reinforce their development of counter-narratives, or encourage acts of agency, self-advocacy, and resistance
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Session Six
Listserv in Real Time presented by Jeff Larson, Portland Community College
This session provides a chance for participants to pose a question or make a comment just as you would over the listserv, but in real time! Responses are generally limited to three replies, before the topic changes to a new thread.
5:30 p.m. ORAHEAD Banquet and Trivia Night
Additional tickets for the dinner buffet are available for partners and families at $25 per ticket.
7:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Bonfire and S’mores! Cancelled Due to Weather
Friday, November 7th
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. - Lite Breakfast (provided)
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Session Seven
The Deaf Center - Interactive Process presented by Mel DeLeon, Portland Community College and Kate Lewandowski, National Deaf Center
[Presentation Description]
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Business Meeting
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Session Eight:
ADA Digital Accessibility: How Are We Approaching Compliance Collectively? presented by Allyson Day, Jennifer Gossett, and Gabe Merrell, Portland Community College
[Presentation Description]
Return to Fall 2025 Conference Homepage
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 4th