Oberlin faculty and staff came together this week for a professional development session titled “Using the Appreciative Education Framework: Amplifying Student Voices Around Disability and Access.” The event, hosted by the Center for Student Success in collaboration with the Office for Disability and Access and the Office for Institutional Equity, worked to build more inclusive and trust-based communication between students and campus professionals.

The Appreciative Education framework is a strengths-based model designed to foster positive relationships and support student success. The framework moves through six phases: Disarm, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Don’t Settle, each aimed at helping advisors and educators recognize students’ strengths and work collaboratively toward their goals.

Rebecca Morrow, assistant dean for Student Success, said the framework emphasizes understanding students as individuals rather than focusing on their challenges.

“We, as employees, are able to set up a safe and welcoming environment for people to bring their authentic selves and share their true stories,” Morrow said. “Then, together, we can figure out where we want to go with that.”

The Appreciative Education model originated from Appreciative Inquiry, a 1980s organizational theory grounded in positive psychology. Morrow explained that while the original framework was created for workplaces and organizations navigating changes, Dr. Jenny Bloom of Florida Atlantic University adapted it for higher education, adding elements centered on relational learning and student connection.

This year’s session expanded Oberlin’s ongoing use of the model by focusing specifically on accessibility and disability. The panel followed last year’s workshop, which addressed the needs of first-generation students.

“We’re really interested in hearing about student stories, their intersectional identities in their own words and understanding how we can best support them,” Morrow said.

ODA serves more than 700 students on campus. Assistant Dean for Intercultural Engagement and ODA Director T.C. Schneck said he welcomed the opportunity to elevate student perspectives, particularly from those with invisible disabilities.

“Any chance that we are providing for students with disabilities to have their voices heard is something that our office would love to lean into, particularly for a group that can be stigmatized or hesitant to speak out,” he said.

Schneck, who joined Oberlin this fall after working at DePaul University, said the department’s growth in recent years reflects the College’s commitment to access and inclusion. ODA has expanded from a two-person operation to an eight-person staff within the past five years.

“There are many institutions larger than Oberlin that … don’t have the capacity to do what we’re doing,” Schneck said.

Melissa Nova, first-generation and income-eligible coordinator for the Center for Student Success and a former student panelist for last year’s first-generation Appreciative Education event, attended this year’s disability and access session. She said the framework gives faculty and staff a structure that helps them understand students’ needs more fully, especially when those needs are not immediately visible.

“You can use this for any student who walks through the door, and it would be a good universal design,” Nova said.

She added that the framework’s emphasis on open-ended questions encourages students to articulate their needs in their own words, which is particularly valuable for students navigating accommodations or confusing institutional processes.

“You really are empowering the student to kind of learn how to self-advocate … in different ways,” Nova said.

Nova said the model encourages staff to approach conversations with more intentionality, reducing assumptions and opening space for students to disclose concerns around access at their own pace.

Both Morrow and Schneck emphasized that accessibility requires more than meeting legal compliance standards. It involves cultivating empathy, communication, and institutional awareness across campus offices. Schneck noted that ODA works not only with students seeking accommodations but also with faculty and staff on implementing them.

“Our office is here to serve students,” Schneck said. “We’re also here to serve the institution. So we have a dual role of being an advocate for the student but then also a resource for the folks who are working with students.”

Morrow said she hopes the framework will continue to guide conversations across Oberlin, not only between staff, faculty, and students but among peers and colleagues as well.

“You can use this framework in any conversation that you’re having with somebody,” she said. “It’s really being open to listening to other people’s stories … And I think that’s really at the heart of, I would hope, all of us, as humans.”