Dr. Karen Erickson
Karen Erickson, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, Professor in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and the Yoder Distinguished Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research addresses literacy assessment and instruction for struggling readers of all ages including those with significant disabilities. Karen is co-developer of the Tar Heel Reader online library of accessible books for beginning readers, as well as several other assistive and learning technologies. Karen has received many awards for her work including the 2004 national Down syndrome Congress Educator of the year and the 2004 International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication/Don Johnston, Inc. Distinguished Lecturer Award. She is a former teacher of children with significant disabilities. Karen and David co-authored the book Children with Disabilities, Reading and Writing the Four Blocks Way. The web site for the Center for Literacy and Disabilities is http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds
Dr. David Koppenhaver
David Koppenhaver, Ph.D., Professor and Reading Program Graduate Director, Reading Education and Special Education Department, Appalachian State University. David holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He is the former director of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and has worked for the past 25 years with preschool and school-aged children who have a wide variety of literacy learning difficulties. He currently teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in reading methods, special education, and instructional technology. He has written and lectured widely on literacy instruction for children with significant disabilities and was the recipient of the 1998 International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication/Don Johnston, Inc. Distinguished Lecturer Award. His current scholarship focuses on the use of internet technologies to assess reading capabilities in students with Down syndrome and co-authoring with Karen Erickson a literacy methods text for children with severe disabilities. David's web site is http://www.litdis.com