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...

Sign up now and join ATE Central on Tuesday September 17, from 1:00-2:00 pm EDT for a free webinar on archiving with ATE Central's Kendra Bouda and Rachael Bower. Presenters will share tips on organizing your materials for archiving, using the archive submission form, and tracking your submissions online. See what happens with your submissions behind the scenes, as ATE Central staff process your materials, add metadata, and make your resources discoverable to the ATE community and beyond. Participants are encouraged to come prepared with archiving questions and seek advice on navigating the archiving process.

Community colleges in search of a method to assess student progress and outcomes, as well as the effectiveness of institutional procedures may be interested in participating in the Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA). This accountability framework, developed by community college leaders, “gauges student progress and outcomes including pre-collegiate participation (such as developmental education and Adult Basic Education), academic progress and momentum, completion and transfer measures, and workforce outcomes for career and technical education.”

Those interested in contributing to the on-going development of the VFA can select from two tiers of participation. The first tier is free with 2019 AACC membership. A second tier, providing additional data and reports, is also available for $1,000.

Institutions that would like to register to participate can do so here.