We are looking forward to seeing everyone from the ATE community October 23-25 in Washington DC at the 2019 PI Conference.  For up-to-date information on the Conference, follow @ATECentral and @Comm_College on Twitter or visit ATE Central staff at Booth #001 during the showcases on October 23^rd and 24^th!

As always, we are pleased to announce the release of the 2019 ATE PI Conference mobile app. The app and companion website are designed to help you make the most of your conference experience. Use your phone, tablet, or Internet browser to create a personal schedule, stay up-to-date with the agenda and speaker lineup, search the attendee directory, and more! The app is available for iPhone or iPad and Android devices. To download the app, search your app store for “ATE PI 2019" or simply follow the appropriate link from your mobile device.

Many in the ATE Community are well-versed in the importance of accessibility when it comes to higher education, but even the most experienced among us may benefit from new perspectives. Those looking to further develop their resources and skills in this area should take note of this unique professional development opportunity provided by the DeafTEC Resource Center in partnership with the Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD).

The Equity & Excellence in Higher Education Conference will give participants the chance to discuss “challenges that they face in working with students with disabilities and how they can collaborate to overcome these challenges.” Participation and sharing are encouraged, with a focus on teaching and supporting “students with disabilities, particularly deaf or hard of hearing students and student veterans with hearing loss.”

Teams from up to 20 community colleges will be selected to participate in the conference. Each team will consist of a STEM faculty member and a staff/faculty from disability services. All team member will receive a $1,650 travel stipend to attend the conference.

The conference will take place in Palm Springs,...

Are you a woman in STEM? If so, you may be interested in attending the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) annual conference. The organization, which focuses on "members' success and continu[ing] to evolve with the challenges and opportunities reflected in today's exciting engineering and technology specialties," boasts "the world’s largest conference and career fair for women in engineering and technology."

Attendees can choose from over 300 events, with categories like Education, Colegiate Competition, and K-12 Student Program. Keynote speakers for 2019 include: Carol Malnati, a vice president at Medtronic; Rachel Hutter, a senior vice president at Disney; and Jayshree Seth, a corporate scientist and chief science advocate at 3M. The conference also features two days of career fair opportunities.

This year, the conference takes place in Anaheim, CA from November 7-9, 2019. Those interested in registering to attend can do so here.

Media plays a huge role in most educational and training settings so it's important to make sure that everyone, including students, staff and faculty with disabilities, can easily access and use the media you create. Whether you are posting informative photos and diagrams or creating a short video, there are tools and techniques that can help support making accessible media for use in a variety of settings. 

Join partners from the NSF funded AccessATE project on Tuesday, October 8, 1:00 pm EDT for a free one-hour webinar to learn more about captioning tools, image description, and audio description.  Presenters Madeleine Rothberg from WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and Rachael Bower from AccessATE will focus on practical tips and techniques with plenty of time for questions and comments from participants. 

Click here to sign up for the Making Your Media More Accessible webinar!

Those in search of an assessment tool focused on gender equity may be interested in the WomenTech Gender Equity Self-Assessment Tool, developed by the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science to help schools see “the gap between their current practices and potential evidence-based strategies proven to broaden participation.”

The assessment is free, easy to complete in 20 minutes, and allows institutions to assess their "readiness to recruit and retain women in your STEM/CTE career pathways." Those interested in filling out the form gradually can also save their progress and return to complete it at a later time.

The EvaluATE center has also contributed to refining the assessment and is partnering to disseminate the tool.

Some big takeaways from the tool's evaluation results to date include:

• 93% of respondents have rated the assessment as “Excellent” or “Very Good”
• 80% have reported this tool raised their awareness of factors that affect gender equity in STEM/CTE programs and helped them understand what their school could do to improve
• 53% said that taking the assessment significantly helped them see the gap between what their schools are...