The first annual virtual gathering for educational developers, “Making Change, Taking Space,” took place in 2024. The gathering was created by a group of disabled and neurodivergent educational developers who were concerned about the inaccessibility of conferences in our field, including the increasing cost and decreasing virtual options of the POD Annual Conference, in particular.
Many of our educational developer and accessibility-minded colleagues are unable to travel to an on-site conference for a variety of reasons: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, other highly transmissible illnesses that are increasing in prevalence, parents with childcare responsibilities, children with elder care duties, folks with disabilities that require they remain close to home and places they can cook their own food, pregnant people who cannot risk travel, folks whose immigration status in the US is especially tenuous, colleagues worried about being racially profiled during travel, among others. Further, as global climate change continues to endanger our homes, food, and everyone on the planet, many do not feel comfortable engaging in plane or other travel for a conference.
In 2025, the need for accessible spaces in which to develop in our profession, exchange ideas with one another, and nurture diverse, inclusive communities is greater than ever. And yet, educational developers continue to have constrained options–especially with tighter budgets across much of higher education. While legacy organizations have been slow to adapt to the needs of the profession at large–catering instead to the minority of those who are still able to travel to and pay for expensive conferences, and putting profit above access–we believe that all educational developers deserve equal opportunities to present at and attend professional development events with their peers.
Disabled people are tired of hearing that they cost too much to accommodate, that organizations “don’t have capacity” to include them fully and meaningfully. Disabled people are exhausted by professional associations who pay lip service to “equity,” “inclusion,” and “access” in their mission statements, but only act on these values when they won’t hurt the bottom line. Disabled educational developers refuse to be continually excluded from and sidelined by our profession. And we’re not the only ones.
The 2025 virtual gathering puts forward a radically different vision of what professional gatherings can look like, disrupting the norms and expectations of how educational development "should" be done. It’s free, and it puts accessibility first. We believe that the conferences you attend, the journals you publish in, and the scholarly avenues you pursue are all expressions of your values. This virtual gathering aims to provide a meaningful option for professional learning for those who share our values of community care, confidentiality, consent, accessibility, and inclusivity. If this sounds like you, please join us!