Aloha and welcome to Episode 162: Sensory Spaces with Hazel Gedikli, Holly Manaseri, and Manca Sustarsic. All three of my guests are from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hazel Gedikli is the Interim Director of the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support, or OFDAS, as you will hear my guests reference it in today’s podcast. Holly Manaseri and Manca Sustarsic are both Faculty Members at the Center on Disability Studies. Today we will discuss the Sensory Room Initiative, a grant funded venture from OFDAS and the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which created a sensory room for faculty, staff and students along with the research about its effectiveness. You’ll learn everything you need to know about how to start your own and why it could be important to your campus. 

Resources

Reach out via email to Hazel Gedikli (hgedikli@hawaii.edu), Holly Manaseri (hmanaser@hawaii.edu), and Manca Sustarsic (msustars@hawaii.edu).

Find out more about the Sensory Room Initiative at the University of Hawaii at Manoa 

Transcript

44:59

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Sensory Room Initiative, University of Hawaii, sensory integration, emotional regulation, inclusive practices, sensory needs, faculty development, student well-being, sensory kit, stress relief, sensory spaces, research funding, campus collaboration, sensory design, learning environment.

SPEAKERS

Manca Sustarsic, Holly Manaseri, Hazel Gedikli, Lillian Nave

Lillian Nave  00:00

Welcome to Think UDL, the Universal Design for Learning podcast, where we hear from the people who are designing and implementing strategies with learner variability in mind. I’m your host, Lillian Nave, and I’m interested in not just what you’re teaching, learning, guiding, and facilitating, but how you design and implement it, and why it even matters. Aloha, and welcome to episode 162 Sensory Spaces with Hazel Gedikli, Holly Manaseri, and Manca Sustarsic. All three of my guests are from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hazel Gedikli is the interim director of the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support, or OFDAS, as you will hear my guests reference it in today’s podcast, and Holly Manaseri and Manca Sustarsic are both faculty members at the Center on Disability Studies there. Today we’ll discuss the Sensory Room Initiative, a grant-funded venture from OFDAS and the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which created a sensory room for faculty, staff, and students, along with the research about its effectiveness. You’ll also learn everything you need to know about how to start your own sensory room or sensory room initiative, and why it could be important to your campus. We mentioned a few resources in this conversation, and you’ll find them in the resource section just before the transcript on thinkudl.org and you’ll be especially interested to find some photos of the sensory room and a link to the website where you can find out more if you’d like. As always, thank you for listening to the Think UDL podcast. I’d like to welcome my colleagues from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and thank you to Holly Mansa and Hazel for joining me today, and I’m really excited to talk about the Sensory Room Initiative, and you all play a very important role in putting this together. But before I get into all of my questions, I wanted to start with my original question to all my guests, which is, What makes you a different kind of learner? And I’ll start first with Holly. Could you answer that for me?

Holly Manaseri  02:42

Sure. In keeping with some of the basic principles of UDL, for me it’s really critical to feel a sense of agency over my own learning. The minute I feel like there’s supposedly only one right answer, or we’re really just trying to get to like the facts or like a regurgitation of knowledge rather than the opportunity to, you know, be invited to co-investigate or create or explore. Then that just really doesn’t work for me. That’s a real turn off. So I do think that from an early stage, I could, you know, easily assess if this educational environment seemed to be all about compliance. Then, like, I would just check out as a learner, and I just rather not participate at all. And I do think sometimes, as educators, we might think in binary terms around engagement or disengagement, but I really think resistance is an act not of disengagement, but really having a lot of learners out there, maybe just like me, that want to have an environment that feels motivating, invitational, project-based, fun, even, dare I say, fun, that would be awesome, and that resistance can actually be just a signal about needing a learning environment that better meets their needs.

Lillian Nave  04:12

Absolutely excellent. Okay, I can see how that attitude or that idea might lead into what you’ve been doing lately, so okay. The next person answer this: what makes you a different kind of learner will be Hazel.

Hazel Gedikli  04:30

I guess I am figuring out what kind of a learner I am. Still, you know things change, and you get to know yourself a little bit better as you are in a teacher’s role, I believe, but for now I know that I prefer hands-on learning experiences, which are carefully planned for me. For the learner, I believe in the power of scaffolding, and for me, the scaffolding should be low stakes. Conceptually rich and ideally build my confidence as well, you know, through knowledge and mental preparation, and once I am guided through the initial learning steps, I can ease into an independent learning mode and feel empowered to explore more on my own, and make lots of mistakes. That’s what I’ve been learning. What that’s what I’ve been doing with sailing recently. I just picked it up and just going with it. I know when I was formerly a student, like, meaning enrolled in a program, I was scared to make mistakes or fail at something. Now I recognize it, and as an educator now I’m intentionally allowing myself to make mistakes and embrace it as part of learning, and I often remind myself that if I haven’t failed enough, I remind myself that I haven’t failed enough if I find myself struggling with a new skill or subject, so failing or making mistakes is required to learn something, is my motto these days.

Lillian Nave  06:12

Absolutely, failure is the best teacher I’ve found. Yes, it pushes, we fail forward. I talk about that a lot with my students, in total agreement. There, okay. and same question to you. What makes you a different kind of learner, Manca?

Manca Sustarsic  06:27

on one hand, I am for sure a very task-oriented learner, which probably comes from growing up in a very structured environment where they set expectations for us around when and how things needed to be done, and even how you learn, but you know, as I got older and experienced different things, I also learned more about myself, and I know now that I’m actually a naturally creative and curious human being, so I do enjoy learning through hands-on experiences, and I tend to ask a lot of why and how questions, because I first need to understand the big picture, that’s how my brain works, and I also know that learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it can only be meaningful when I can make personal connections to what I’m learning,

Lillian Nave  07:26

right? And the personal connections is that with the, with the teacher, or with the, like, your application, or what do you mean by that?

Holly Manaseri  07:37

Yeah, with the application, the new knowledge or information,

Lillian Nave  07:42

so it’s got to be useful. It’s going to be something

Holly Manaseri  07:44

sharp.

Lillian Nave  07:45

Okay, I gotcha. Okay, great. Well, I love all of these three brains. I get to talk to wonderful people who have come up with a great initiative that you’ve put into practice, and I really actually like that you’ve done a lot of research around it as well to see the results, and so I’ll start with just the general idea of what is a sensory room, and I’ll start off with you, Mansa.

Holly Manaseri  08:12

Yes, so a sensory room is a carefully curated, controlled environment that is designed to support individual self regulation, self management, emotional regulation, and this can look like an actual dedicated space that is meant for sensor regulation, or it can be in a form of sensor integration, such as into an existing space, for example, a study room that can feature an intentional sensor design, like a corner area where students can take a break and recharge. Another important thing to note is that a sensor space can be a low stimulation calming environment or a high stimulation, even a social space, depending on the sensory needs that we’re trying to meet. What makes a sensory space different, though, from other spaces is that it may offer calming lighting, comfortable seating options, a variety of tactile objects, and sensory inputs that allow individuals to either calm down, relax their body and mind, or to re-energize, really, depending on what their sensory needs may be, and although sensory spaces were initially intended for individuals with disabilities, we know that they can benefit everyone, whether one is managing stress, anxiety, environmental overload, or simply needs a quiet and safe space to relax and reset. Everyone can benefit from. Having access to sensory space,

Lillian Nave  10:03

great, and sounds like that it, when what, what you just said, there’s got to be a lot of flexibility, like you’ve mentioned a lot of different things that needs to be

Holly Manaseri  10:13

exactly, there’s a lot of freedom and flexibility as to what a sensory design may look like.

Lillian Nave  10:20

Okay, oh, so there’s not a one size fits all for sensory rooms,

Holly Manaseri  10:24

not at all,

Lillian Nave  10:25

or spaces, I guess. You made it clear it doesn’t have to be just one room, it could be mobile, or could be kind of in, you know, doesn’t have to be one particular area or place, or stay in the same place. Okay, exactly. Great. Okay. Thank you. So, I’ll start this next question with Holly. But why did you decide that the University of Hawaii at Manoa needed a sensory room?

Hazel Gedikli  10:54

Sure. Well, as we’ve established, we are really committed to kind of de-stigmatizing sensory processing and sensory needs, and we have a strong commitment and inclusive vision of this, that sensory integration benefits everyone, as Mansa had mentioned. So we know that by adapting the sensory environment, people can improve their sensory processing and regulation, they can enhance their ability to engage in learning, build relationships, and navigate daily life even more smoothly, and college campuses, where we work and do our professional, you know, engagement, we know that they are constructed as neurotypical physical environments, typically, you know, having fluorescent lit classrooms, lecture halls with high ceilings, that can be very over stimulating and loud and noisy, maybe cold AC is going on, you know, especially in Hawaii, that might be the case, right? You know, crowds of students, as you’re just even trying to get into the door or into your seat, as well as, you know, nowadays everyone on their devices, so sensory processing challenges can certainly manifest in very different ways for individuals that can look like anxiety, depression, maybe the inability to focus, maybe intense emotions for some, or a lack of energy for others, hyperactivity, difficulty with self regulation, and then even on issues in the learning environment, such as challenges with reading, paying attention, writing, listening, and research shows that sensory spaces are highly effective. 85% of students report having better sensory regulation and emotional de-escalation through participating in a sensory space, and for us, looking at our own institution, 55% of University of Hawaii at Manoa peer institutions already offer sensory friendly spaces on their campus, and 22% of those schools have sensory rooms available, so this was, you know, certainly something we became passionate about, part of a broader work that we were doing around post-secondary success and access through inclusive practices, and we just knew that we couldn’t do that work alone, so we reached out to the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support, who’s a willing partner for this work, seeing as they’ve partnered with us in the past in several initiatives. And Hazelle, I’ll, you know, turn it over to you here.

Manca Sustarsic  13:58

I must say that I was convinced by Holly and Mansa team, that, uh, one on needed a sensor room. They are the experts, right? Like, they have been doing research and exploring it, and it was important for me to know that the initiative would open a sensor space for student use, as well as classroom visits and faculty use, because after all, we are a faculty serving office, a faculty serving unit, and this was in line with, in alignment with what we also do in a way, because we have our own classrooms that are significantly different than general use classrooms on campus, they are, they have nice furniture, they have carpet, and they have esthetic design elements in the, in the room that make learning an enjoyable process for the students, as well as for the teachers. Right, so offering another space for different kind of purpose, but also contributing to students’ learning and regulation in their overall learning journey was an important aspect of it. In a way, I was also curious to see how, how often, like students and faculty would use the room and what mental and emotional benefits they would receive from being in a physical space curated for sensory integration and I believe that there is a lot of room for growth to provide wellness resources for our campus community and a sensory room is one of those key resources if we want to be committed to student and faculty well-being,

Lillian Nave  15:44

that’s great. And I know I also work in our Center for Teaching and Learning, and I know that we want to be thinking about the student success, right? And that all of our faculty work is to help with student success. So, I think if we have also focused on faculty well-being. We’re going to be helping with our student well-being, right? They just go hand in hand.

Manca Sustarsic  16:06

Absolutely.

Lillian Nave  16:07

Yeah. And well, a follow-up question is to.. and I’ll start with Holly, and I know you both can answer this one, but we’re working at a center for teaching and learning. We have budgets, and, and the, you know, things cost money, so I’m wondering, how did you create this? Who were the collaborators? Because we often have to get cross-campus collaboration on things, because it’s, you know, depending on where it’s housed. Is it housed in the library, in the, you know, Office of Faculty Excellence, right? Like, where is it going to be? So, who are the collaborators, and how was it funded? And Holly, I’ll start with you on that one.

Hazel Gedikli  16:45

Sure, Mansa and I work at the Center on Disability Studies, which is an organized research unit housed within our College of Education, and as a center, we are one of 68 UCEDDs, or University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, that are networked across the nation, and we are largely dependent on grant funding, and we were able to reach out because we did have some resources through the University of Hawaii Foundation and a grant project from the Oak Foundation, which was Project Camp U, which is a post-secondary faculty training on inclusive practices, and that is a collaborative effort that seeks to empower students with learning differences in higher education, and a portion of that work on is focused on sensory integration as an inclusive practice. You know, it’s both the instructional design, the delivery, your assessment, but it is also the environment in which we find ourselves in and raising awareness of what that is like and how we can work to improve that was really important to us and it was a natural partnership to reach out with OFDAS and our Center for Teaching Excellence to collaborate in this effort because how do you, how do you find the space? Where do you access the individuals, and who can you partner with? And it was a perfect collaboration, because we could have the research about the design and development of the sensory kit, and the resources to bring that forward, but we absolutely had to do that in partnership with folks that had the access and the vision for where this could be located on campus and how viable this can be for and aligned with their with a mission that would allow them to do this work, and so you know, I’ll turn that over to Hazelle, who can talk a little bit more about what exactly it was in the kit itself and how we did that work together.

Manca Sustarsic  19:13

Sure, so the sensor space at Ofdus includes a fully equipped 13 item sensor kit, and a camp year professional development program for UHM faculty, administrators, and staff. CDS had designed and pilot tested it in spring of 2024 and the room has been operating at Ofdus since the fall of 2024 semester, running guided sensor tours, providing a beginning of the semester workshop, and having open hours on most Mondays and Tuesdays. So that has been basically the schedule, and our team, the Off Dust team, provided the space and the logistical support. I should give a shout out to our student. Assistants who made it possible for Durham to be available once a week or twice a week during the last two academic years, they have done most of the work, basically setting everything up and putting them away after we were done, because it’s also our events room, so we use it for all kinds of workshops and events and meetings and whatnot, so it was really important that the team was involved in

Lillian Nave  20:27

it. Yeah, that’s really important to know who needs to staff it and what sort of manpower right it needs. If people are thinking about how this might work on their campus, right? So, what does the room feature? What’s in this room? Mansa,

Holly Manaseri  20:44

well, as has already mentioned, we first tested our sensor room design and the Packer in Conference on Disability that the Center on Disability Studies hosts each year, where we collected some very valuable data on how people experience and use the space, and what items were ranked highest, as opposed to some that were not as commonly used, and then this really informed our final design that we implemented at UH Manoa. Our sensory room is essentially a low-cost mobile sensory kit. Most of that items can fit into a 27 gallon tote, and this design features different sensory items that appeal to a variety of sensory needs, including a light, sound, tactile, and scent elements. Our model also aims to create this climate of inclusion, benefiting not only individuals with disabilities or sensory processing challenges or learning differences, but really the entire campus community promoting a supportive environment and sense of belonging for all our students, faculty, administrators, and staff. And in terms of just the design itself, we divided the composition of our sensory room into four main sensory areas, we have two tables, and then two corner, or kind of grounding areas. The first one, and it’s one of our most popular corners, the calming corner that features two chairs, an aurora light projection that illuminates the walls and ceilings, and a jellyfish lamp, all which intends to provide relaxation and support sensory regulation. Another corner area is our touch corner, where visitors can lie down on the floor on a little colorful rug to interact with LED light strands and lights that are tap activated, all of which can then support individuals’ tactile and visual regulation, and then we have two tables, one is our fidget table that includes a variety of fidget toys and colorful sand timers, people can squish, pull, wiggle, all of which can offer tactile input, release energy, and then also improve fine motor skills, and finally our tactile table that includes different sensory strips, scented silly putties, a sunset lamp that suit the sense of touch and support individuals’ attention.

Lillian Nave  23:57

That’s great. There’s a lot of flexibility and choice, then that’s included in this very UDL, right? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I see so many overlaps with this. This is especially for, you know, our neurodivergent students, but also helps with all students having that sense of calmness. We can’t learn if we are in that high state of anxiety. There’s just no learning that can happen. So, having that ability to mediate that in multiple ways, I can see is so important for all of our students. Okay, so, so now you’ve got the place, you’ve got the stuff you’ve got the money to fund it. How do you implement it? Like, how do you have visits? How do people know about it? We can’t just have a room on the campus and then everybody knows and starts coming. So, what did you do to let people know that you had this resource? And I’ll start that one with Hessel.

Manca Sustarsic  25:03

Yeah, absolutely. It is really key to spread the word if you are offering a resource for the campus community, and it’s not unusual for people to come say, “Oh, we didn’t know that this existed, and you had been doing it for years, right. So we utilize all kinds of promotional strategies, such as the email blasts to the whole campus, advertising the space on our website, and flyers – we still do flyers, paper flyers in our office, I know, yeah, and we kicked off each semester with a workshop, which Monsieur can say more about, they basically presented about the room, and they let people, you know, play with it a little bit in the beginning of the semester. And our office also holds some key professional development workshops and events on campus, such as the TA training or the new faculty orientation. Mansa and her team did short informational presentations, like during those, or we had flyers, if that wasn’t an option, due to a conflict, you know, as we kept offering the space, more people heard of it and wanted to bring their groups, sometimes it was a classroom, sometimes it was a committee of sorts, and we even had state legislators visiting this space as part of their campus tours, I think. Wow, yeah, I think the university was proud to be offering this space as a student resource and wanted to show it off a little bit.

Lillian Nave  26:36

That’s great.

Holly Manaseri  26:37

Well, on top of that, we reached out to different departments and units within our university system to invite classes, instructors, and even student organizations to schedule a one hour guided tour with us, and that our team then provided, and we received a very good response with over 20 student groups and classes visiting over just the past two semesters. I think we have nearly 200 visitors just from the guided tours, and we’ve noticed a pattern that the tours became more popular during midterms as well as around the final exam period, I

Lillian Nave  27:21

could see why. Yes, lots more stress, right?

Holly Manaseri  27:25

Exactly. When you know just people coming in saying, “Oh my god, I’m so stressed out, I really need this. And so we welcome visitors from a wide range of departments, not only from the College of Education, but also from architecture, museum studies, environmental studies, we had a medical school and a graduate student organization, just to name a few, and so we’ve noticed that as a result awareness of the sensory room and its benefits continue to grow throughout our Manoa campus, as well as spreading to other campuses, so the world, the world really got around quickly.

Lillian Nave  28:11

That’s great, and I can imagine that as more and more faculty know about it, then spreading the.. that’s how we get to a lot of our students, right? They, and they could say, ‘Hey, I know the midterms coming up. You might want to check this out if you’re.. if you’re stressed in the library, or if you’re thinking about this, you can find this. You know, you can go to the sensory room and de-stress just a little bit. I really also like how so much of this is changing the the concept, the negative concept about who needs this or who wants this. There’s a lot of, you know, prejudice thinking that we shouldn’t need this, right, or that college students are, are, are not suited, you know, for this, and it’s just not true. We have all different kinds of students in our university now. Maybe 50 years ago, we, we had a certain small subset of students in, in the university, but now we have a lot more, and there are just a lot of kind of prejudiced ideas about what belongs on a college campus, and so I just really appreciate when I saw this poster, when I heard about it, that you’re really working hard to change the perception of who is on a college campus and what needs to be on a college campus, so I wanted to throw that, like, already before I forget. Thank you all for doing this, but I also want to know, because you’ve done really great research, and so, Mansa, you have some information about how it was received and what your. Participants said about it, what? How did that go?

Holly Manaseri  30:04

The sensory room was very well received by the entire campus community. Now we’re running our research study in the second year with a pre and post survey and talk story focus group sessions to understand how individuals experience the sensory room, as well as how it supports their stress management and well-being, and so far we’ve collected insights from over 300 visitors, just at Manoa, including students, faculty, administrators, and staff, so quite a range, and the survey results have consistently showed a statistically significant increase in positive emotions that people experience during and after visiting the sensory room, for example, after visiting individuals have reported feeling calmer, more relaxed, appear. Many students, in particular, have reported reported heightened focus, while reports on stress, anxiety, overwhelm, tiredness, nervousness, even feeling frustrated and upset dropped significantly, and that’s really important to know, because it’s not only about increasing the positive emotions, right, and feeling well, but it’s also about decreasing those that can make us feel less productive, you know, more upset, anxious, and so on, and it really goes hand in hand. Since we collect the data on usage patterns as visitors come in, they, they kind of clog in, they provide the time in and time out. We can also see the patterns of how long are they actually using the room that is significant, right? And we found that most spent between 30 minutes to an hour in this space, meaning these people are not just peeking in and leaving, right, but they are fully engaging and taking the time. Another important theme that emerged is a pattern of returning visitors, especially among our students, which suggests that many have already incorporated sensory breaks into their weekly routines. We’re also interested to understand people’s motivations, so what draws you in? And we’ve seen that most described coming to the room for stress relief and sensor regulation, with students also finding it valuable for studying and peer collaboration. The room was then also described as a safe and playful space, something that is wonderful to see, because it’s not exactly what we were asking, but it keeps emerging in our open-ended questions, and we, of course, saw that during exam periods, student visits peak finally. While wellbeing is rarely discussed openly among faculty and instructors, we hear a lot from them that caring for student wellbeing cannot be separated from their own wellbeing. So, if they are feeling stressed, that’s going to trickle down and affect their classroom, and so the faculty themselves really appreciate having such a shared and accessible space on campus. One of them said that he saw the space as like a collective struggle where one can see how you know feeling stress or overwhelmed is a shared human experience, and we’re on this together, and but we can also support each other and and feel better, and so overall we found that the room has had a very positive impact on all visitors, really, no matter student, faculty who’ve been visiting.

Lillian Nave  34:30

That’s great. I really appreciate that, Bus Party, where you’re talking about, in fact, I was writing it down, it’s care and well-being and mental health. Yeah, and that’s an important part of how we learn, like we can’t, we can’t ignore that, we can’t ignore the emotional part or effective part of learning, that’s part of Universal Design for Learning, that’s a whole 1/3 of what UDL is, is that engagement part and that effective part of learning in. If, if we’re in a high anxiety state, we already talked about that. It’s really hard to learn, because we’re worried about so many other things, but you’re also like going so far along that continuum, where it is about that sense of care and concern, and, and well-being, and warmth, really, that the students that are coming to the University of Hawaii at Manoa are getting that feeling, that sense that the university cares for them. You know, there’s a popular book right now, The Caring University, that really talks about what are the things that we can do for our faculty, for our staff, that you know, for our whole university that brings that care and concern, and there are ways we can do it, and here’s a really tangible way that you’re showing care and concern and warmth and invitation to learning and wellbeing for both faculty and staff, and students, I guess all, not just both, but faculty, staff, and students, and I just think it’s such a great idea. So, so I’m really glad you’re sharing this. So, okay, now I’m gonna go back and ask my last question. Is alright? So now we’ve just discussed what a great idea this is. You’ve got data that says it’s a great idea. Do you care about your students? Yes. Then you should get one of these, right? So, so what’s your advice to others who might want to implement something similar on their university campuses? And I’ll start with, with Hazel.

Manca Sustarsic  36:39

Sure, I guess I should acknowledge that I’m not actively contributing to the research being done about the room, but I like the fact that the sensor room at our institution was initiated as part of a research project, or maybe it is more a culmination of a research project, although the room itself was not the initial goal, and so this, this comes as a double win in our case, because one, the room offers a much needed sensory space, and two, there’s an ongoing research that the room allows to happen.

Lillian Nave  37:13

Yeah,

Manca Sustarsic  37:14

so this can be a strategy, I think, for folks who would like to open sensor rooms in their campuses, so the spaces, the sensor spaces, can be established through research funding, and they can be established to conduct research, so that might be a way to deal with some of the challenges, and I know it’s, it’s not easy to get, you know, all the funding and all the support sometimes for initiatives like this, especially like you said, if there is hesitation, yes, around the like the benefit and the value of initiative, but so, and we are a research university, we are an R university, so the room is doing the double work, and that’s really, I think, critical.

Hazel Gedikli  38:03

Yeah, and I’ll just jump in to say 100% this definitely can happen on campuses, and we’ve really made a commitment to kind of double down based on the success of what’s been going on through our partnership with Oath Deaths, we have worked very hard this spring semester to bring to fruition and install sensory kits at all of our 10 campus university sites, and it really, I would have to say, it’s about partnership, right? It’s about partnership and outreach. It’s absolutely critical to taking on an initiative like this. Students, faculty, and staff will want to feel comfortable and be able to easily access the sensory space. So, we’re really grateful for the partners that are like they’ve got the access, they’ve got the access to the room, the location of that population, and folks are usually like, well, you know, how expensive is this going to be, and you know concerns about the funding, but we also were very committed to trying to do this in the most accessible and affordable way, so that it could be replicated and sustained, and people are really surprised when we say it’s about $1,200 that’s really what the, you know, with the tote and the kit and the items, it’s about, it’s about $1,200 we’re looking at, so that moving forward, when folks are fully just kind of sustaining this on their own, or they have to have replacements. It really is something that can be doable, and we really make that really transparent, you know. We try to look for items that are really easily accessible, and we continue to be humbled and learn from those partnerships. We’ve had to innovate, be nimble, we’ve recreated. Some of those educational materials into, like, an e-resource hub, so beyond our, you know, opportunity for sustained funding, folks will always be able to have access to those resources, be able to print them out themselves, or innovate, or change them to really meet the unique needs of their own campus and their own populations that they’re serving, so we believe everybody can do this, and every setting is unique. They’ve all been so grateful for the resources, the educational materials. And then we always do a pilot with them, where we also share the data, we collect the data specific to each of those partnerships, as we did with OAuth desk, because that really makes the difference, as we’ve heard everyone say. So, you know, we’re just always looking for the folks willing to be change makers in this.

Lillian Nave  40:56

That’s great. Yeah. Mon said, you have more advice too.

Holly Manaseri  41:00

Well, my advice is very simple. Just do it from the research standpoint. We always say start with the pilot, start small, gather some data, and then demonstrate this impact, right? You will have already a set of findings that you can then share out with potential partners, and then continue building from there, but it’s a great start, and it can be very low cost. Bringing a new initiative, like a sensory run, really takes a collective effort, but when it comes to supporting the well-being of our campus community, we think that such a commitment should never be negotiable.

Lillian Nave  41:42

That’s great, and it really looks like there are lots of ways to do it. It can be very flexible. I know, Holly, you said it’s about $1,200 to get the stuff that you use to create this room, and then it can be put away in a tote, so we don’t have to, you know, rent a room. We don’t have to, you know, you find kind of a flexible, usable space on campus, and I suppose I know, Hazel, you mentioned that you really owe a debt of gratitude to some of your student workers. Right.

Manca Sustarsic  42:12

Absolutely, I think it was everyone’s dedication, initially, of course, as the Hollies and Monsters, like the team behind the sensory room initiative, but also everybody like contributed in their own way, and that’s I think what made it a success.

Lillian Nave  42:29

Yeah, so and it sounds like you had, you didn’t have it out every single day, like it could be because you had to use the room for other things, so it it can be something that is really flexible for each university, and how they are able to use it, and you know, maybe have a lot more around midterms and finals opportunities, but it doesn’t have to be out, or have to have a, like, you don’t have to get a donor to give us a room, you know, a particular room that has to stay in, right? We think it might have to be such a huge investment, but it looks like it can be a small grant that starts us, and then you’ll see lots of results snowball from it, so, or whatever they say in Hawaii, I guess there’s not really a snowball, a lava flow or something. So, thank you so much. This, I think, really gives us a good example explanation, and how to for how to put something like this together. And I love learning from my colleagues, love learning from these brilliant brains over here at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. So want to say, thank you, Holly, Manca, Hazel, for speaking with me today on the Think UDL podcast. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Think UDL podcast. New episodes are posted on social media on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Blue Sky. You can find transcripts and resources pertaining to each episode on our website, think u d l.org The music in each episode is created by the Oddyssey Quartet. Oddyssey is spelled with 2d’s by the way, comprised of Rex Shepherd, David Pate, Bill Folwell, and Jose Cochez. I’m your host, Lillian Nave, and I want to thank Appalachian State University for helping to support this podcast. And if you call it Appa-LAY-shun, I’ll throw an apple at-cha. Thank you for joining. I’m your host, Lillian Nave. Thanks for listening to the Think UDL podcast!